We borrowed this book from the library and my 5 year old is thrilled with how many of the signs she already knows, and is able to look up the new signs she wants to learn, even though she is still in a pre-reading stage. The pictures introduce the signs and make it exciting for her to use. Now my 5 year-old is teaching our 2 year-old new signs.I have several other sign language books including a college course workbook. Mickey Flodin does great with the illustrations and grouping signs in logical easy to use patterns.
We have been teaching our children sign language in bits and spurts since our oldest (now 5 years) was 6 months old. By her 1st birthday she had a vocabulary of about 10-15 signs, but was already speaking over 100 words in sentences. She never had any frustration with not being able to communicate with us.
Our 2 year old has taken longer to speak, but we haven't used as much sign language with her. I am convinced it has been more frustrating for her not being able to communicate with us, and has delayed her speach development.
This has definitely been a family project, and has given us new ways to be close and express ourselves when "words" just aren't enough.
