Be open to suggestion. Sometimes a baby will create a sign for herself. Feel free to continue using it, and applaud her creativity.

Be praising. Act excited when baby uses a sign correctly, and let your baby know how wonderful you think he is.

Be expressive. Use your face and body in addition to your hands. You can also say word as you sign it.

Be patient. Babies can take weeks or even months before they make their first sign.

Most importantly, don't think of signing as a skill that has to be mastered. Instead, think of it as what it is intended to be - a bridge of communication before your baby can talk!

Gill, also from UK, is getting ready to put her 2-year-old daughter Meadow in a day-care setting two days a week. As Meadow is an established signer and no longer a young baby, her concerns are less about care providers using signs with Meadow and more about Meadow communicating with other children. "We've decided that we won't show nursery anything more than HELP and a couple of other important signs," she said. "She's 2 years old now and will be in a group of 2- and 3-year-olds who she will interact with, but they won't be using signs."

Hints for consistency between home and day-care:

Let your sitter know from very beginning that you are signing with your baby.

Demonstrate signs your baby is likely to use. Bring along a sign language book or something similar that you can leave with sitter each day for reference (the SWYB quick reference guide is great for this).

Let your sitter know which signs you're working on and tell her how to use them so your baby can learn new signs at sitter's too. Keep lines of communication open between you and your child's care giver, and invite questions at every opportunity.

With these ideas in mind, baby sitters and care givers will be an added benefit in your child's sign language communication.