Customer Reviews

Teach Your Tot to Sign: The Parents' Guide to American Sign Language

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been signing since the age of 6, studied Deaf Education in College and was an interpreter for 3 years (until I became a Mom!). I now teach Sign with your Baby classes and this book is part of the curriculum in my class. I was so impressed with the amount of signs, the ease at understanding them, and the great illustrations, that I had to buy them for all the parents in my classes! This is a definate must have book for any parent that is wanting to learn American Sign Language, or just to brush up on skills.
Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous book!!!

Strengths of the book:
1. The signs are listed in alphabetical order;
2. Many vocabulary for toddlers (e.g., diaper, all gone, blanket, cereal);
3. provides concise information of American Sign Language (ASL), rationale for using sign language, FAQ, disphering the signs, and learning to sign;
4. Each sign is accompanied with an illustration;
5. This book could be used for babies as well, and probably could be used beyond toddler years (i.e., preschool and kindergarten).

Needs for improvements:
A. Illustrations:
All llustrations are done with fine lines. Each shows a woman with a pony tail with a big bow signing the word or phrase, with arrows representing hand(s)/finger(s) movements. The illustrations looks great if there are artwork, but for illustration for sign language, I would recommend changes as follows:
1. Get rid of the big bow of the woman because the fine lines of the bow sometimes make readers miss the movement arrows of the signs;
2. Use thicker and darker lines for the arrows that make the movements clear;

B. The organization of the book:
It's great that the signs are in alphabetical order and has an index. However, since the signs are already in alphabetical order, the index is redundant -- It is as if a dictionary with an index. It would be better if the index is organized by topics, e.g., actions, animals, body, clothings, colors, food, people and pronouns, time, transportation,...

I think this little book is great for parents to use with their pre-verbal infant/toddler. It is small and compact enough to be carried around in their diaper bag plus it has signs that are meant for the vocabulary needs of young children.

I am a licensed sign language interpreter and baby sign language instructor - and this is by far the best resource I have seen for parents and caregivers that use sign language with their children.

Finally a book that parents and caregivers can use with all the signs in one place! I especially love the memory aids to help remember the signs.

I've ordered a ton for all my clients!

Kristine Alarie
Expressive Hands, LLC

I love this dictionary!!! It has every word that I have wanted to look up for my signing baby boy. I bought the Sign With Your Baby book first and I needed more signs for my son. I found this book on Amazon.com and I love it. It has 500 signs(American Sign Language) in it just for babies and little kids. It has Mc Donalds, dinosaur, wagon and so many more signs. I can't say enough about this little book. I carry it around with me so when my son needs to know a sign like when he pointed to a bird in the Target parking lot, I pulled out the book and found the sign for bird. I was able to show him the sign right there when he needed it. I recommend this book to anyone that is signing with their child. It has reminders on almost every sign to help me remember how to sign the word. It is a great book to keep around even after the baby gets older and wants to learn sign language on their own. Elementary kids would love to have this book as a resource.

This book is so helpful I carry it in our "Diaper" bag. (We actually use elimination communication so our baby hasn't used diapers since 11 weeks, but we still call it our diaper bag. See Potty Whispering: The Gentle Art of Infant Potty Training) I frequently pull this book out when my son needs a word. He is 19 months and knows about 70 signs. He even signs in his sleep (I wonder what he was dreaming the night he was signing "paper.") This is the most comprehensive signing book I have found. Lots of good kid words--like yogurt and cracker--that I couldn't find anywhere else. My biggest complaint about this book (and why only 4 stars) is the food words. It mainly has sweet based foods (and even signs for McDonald's.) There are limited fruits, veggies, and other healthy foods. So I also carry Fruits & Vegetables (Beginning Sign Language Series)Also, despite the great number of words in here, it is not totally comprehensive. It doesn't have the word "key." Every toddler loves keys so I'm not sure why that's missing. I'd love it if there was a website where I could recommend words for future editions.

For those of you uncertain about using sign as much as we do, it has really made having a toddler much simpler. He can tell stories about the time the dog had the bird in its mouth and we got the bird from the dog and took the bird outside. When he dropped his toy into a hole in the floorboards, his signing conveyed to me what had happened (since I didn't witness it.) When he got cactus thorns in his hands and was, naturally, screaming as I took them out, he signed "water." I got him a drink of water and he calmed down. Without the ability to make that request, he would have kept screaming (I never would have thought to give him water.) Some people have questioned if sign language at our level will delay speech. I asked a developmental pediatrician about that. She considers children who sign bi-lingual. Bi-lingual children often do have slight delays in their speech. However, the brain development that occurs is so beneficial that it is better for the children. At 19 months our son has his 70 signed words and about 20 spoken words. He spends much of each day repeating a verbal word he is just now learning (dishes is one of his favorites.)

I've had this book for a little over a month. It's perfect for providing what you need to sign with your baby or toddler. The book shows you the ASL hand signs for the alphabet and numbers 1 - 10, then references these to use when making the signs. The signs are listed in alphabetical order and the diagrams are easy to understand. Just a great book if you want to learn signing quickly.

I also purchased the "Signing Smart with Babies and Toddlers: A Parents Strategy and Activity Guide" at the same time. If you need convincing on the merits of signing with your little one and how to do some activities and include the signing than get it. If you want more comments on that book you can look up my review of it. You don't need both books and I much prefer this book.

Our son outgrew the begining signs in Joseph Garcia's Sign With Your Baby and we needed the next step. We needed a simple ASL dictionary to help us continue to communicate with our son as he explores the world.

This book fits the bill perfectly. Every sign is relevant to a young child. The book isn't written for a college classroom so you don't have to for hunt for lemon in the middle of words like lesbian and Lenin. The pictures are simple and clearly illustrate the signs. The memory aids for the signs are extremely helpful. The book shows where differentation is needed (ie the homophone right) to ensure you are using the correct sign.

It does not cover how or when or even why to sign with your baby/toddler. There are only 7 pages covering suggested usage; most of that is a FAQ about ASL. The book has all the beginning signs (milk, more and food), just not how to introduce them. An established method for teaching your child to sign is needed before this book can become truly useful.

It isn't good first book, but is a great second book after Sign With Your Baby isn't sufficient for your child's curiosity.

This book is wonderful!!! The illustrations are very clear and the tips and memory aids make the signs easy to remember. What an outstanding resource for parents and educators!!!

Emma Biedenbender
Signs of Early Life

I looked at several other sign language books and this was the easiest to understand. Under each sign it had a easy to remember saying. I highly recommend for teaching your toddler and yourself to sign.