[brainbag]

I had heard about this before my son was born. We didn't try to teach him anything, anytime we remembered (which was sporadic) we just used the gestures when talking to him. I was amazed at how quickly he picked up on it, and he was able to communicate his needs to us months before he was able to verbalize.

It took very minimal effort on our part, and was very rewarding for him; certainly a lot better than him crying with the hope that we could guess what he wanted. Definitely recommended for any new parents.

The best moment was when he was sitting on the floor, and looked up at his mom and made the "together" sign, it was heart melting.

[jjeaff]

I love seeing how language develops in my kids and how they start to invent ways to communicate. Our first, she would say "hold you" when she wanted to be picked up, which she learned from us saying "do you want me to hold you?" My 2 year old now says "huggy" when he wants to be picked up.

[esafak]

In other words, you can invent your own sign language because your child won't need to use it with other people.

[AlecSchueler]

Why not use a common sign language and give then a head start if they ever do want to use it outside the family?

[skeaker]

They might not have the dexterity required for some of the more complex signs, I would guess. If you devise your own gestures they can be much simpler.

[doubleg72]

No, the basics like hungry and please/thank you are fairly simple. The daycare my son goes to teaches all the kids sign language starting at like 6 months.

[schwartzworld]

The signs chosen to teach to babies tend to be pretty simple. Things like "more" or "milk" are very easy.

[jimmygrapes]

plus you can use it as a battle language for your clan

[rcbdev]

Exactly! Using a pre-made sign language is missing the point entirely...

[soks86]

I'm not crying, you're crying!