To make hand shapes you should use your dominant hand, some signs will require both hands.  There are three hand positions to make signs:

ONE HANDED SIGNS
Use your dominant hand.  Examples of signs that require one hand is BIRD, BOY, AIRPLANE

TWO HANDED SIGNS
Both hands make the same movement.  Examples of signs that require both hands are BALL, BOOK, FINISHED

OTHER HAND SUPPORTING
Your dominant hand makes the motion while your other hand stays still or acts to support the moving hand.  Example is BANANA

Many parents/caregivers using sign babies ASL flash cards find it an enjoyable and easy way to learn how to communicate before speech.

You can find these signs in our baby sign language dictionary complete with flashcards showing the exact hand movements.

Also it is important to share your knowledge with other family members and this makes it very easy for everyone to encourage the use of sign language for early communication.

Made up signs by your baby are perfectly fine to use but try to limit this as much as possible.  It can be a challenge for other members of the family if they try to change a made up sign to the correct ASL sign because they were unfamiliar with the home-made sign and in turn can lead to more misunderstanding and frustration.  Like I mentioned earlier I recommend encouraging ASL Signs as much as possible.

Teaching your baby using our printable sign babies ASL flash cards and dictionary of 36 baby sign language signs ensures that everyone is correctly using and understand your baby's when his/her signs are used to express wants and needs; and makes it makes it much easier to learn.  To learn more about our sign babies flash cards and dictionary click here.