Signing is a great way for children and you to get where you understand each-other quickly and quietly. Personally we used 3 major signs with our daughter. They were the only ones we really did, but they did REALLY make life a lot easier for me! 1. Hungry, 2. Thirsty, and 3. Potty.

1. Hungry: Rubbing tummy. (Literally that is it.) - Pictures Below

2. Potty: Stick the thumb up on one hand (we do our left), with the other hand pull on the thumb (so for us our right). Our right hand pulls our left thumb. For our daughter it is one hand just pulling on the other (don't try to be too technical here.) - Pictures Below

3. Thirsty: Point to your throat at your chin and move your finger down your throat. (Follow the path the liquid would follow.) - Pictures Below

Of course my daughter would not cooperate for me in the taking of my pictures so I found some online as well. There are a couple of great sites as well: Born to Sign, and Babies and Sign Language. These have quite a few more signs than we used! Another great place to look is Baby Einstein. They have some great videos with sign language!

The ones above are the only ones we used with our daughter, but they really did make life so much easier. My mother is in education and was not very supportive of sign language when we started. She has seen a major issue in the school system of children not being able to talk upon arrival. She did not want us to focus so much on the sign language that we did not address talking with our daughter.

She is right, in that you want to make sure that you don't get carried away with the sign language or you run into the problem we have now, which is: Our daughter does not want to talk. Our daughter is VERY expressive and everyone understands what she wants without words, but it is hard to get her to talk (she will and it is not that big of a deal really, if you are taking the time to do this then you will obviously take the time when they get older and are ready to talk as well).

I guess this is why we get our own chance to be parents, we liked knowing what she wanted during a time when she could not talk at all. But I would be remiss if I did not bring up that by using sign language you may have a harder time getting the child to verbalize when they are older.

Thanks for the question and I hope these help!