Answer: Signing is a great way to jump start communication. Many times the first “sign” of meaningful communication is a gesture such as waving “bye bye” or lifting arms up to say “pick me up”. As parents we respond to these meaningful gestures because they make sense. Adding other gestures to the wants and needs of the baby can enhance that early communication. In addition, signing has been shown to have the potential to accelerate verbal language development (Goodwyn et al, 2000) and increase IQ (Acredolo and Goodwyn, 2000). Other benefits have been:
•Enrich
your parent - infant bond.
•Increase interest in books.
•Change the way you interact with your child
•Stimulate intellectual development.
•Reduce frustration.
•Build self-esteem.
2. When
should I start signing with my baby?
Answer (obtained from Tinyfingers.com): Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn,
researchers in the field, suggest you can start modeling signs from birth.
After 6 months, however, babies are more likely to possess the ability to
remember signs and the motor skills to produce them. You can consider the
indicators of readiness below to determine whether your baby is showing interest
in communicating. An answer of "Yes" to any one of them means that this
is a good time to sign with your pre-lingual baby or toddler.
•Is your baby at least 6 months old?
•Is your baby bringing toys or objects to you and looking for a
response?
•Is your baby beginning to wave bye-bye or clap hands?
•Is your baby beginning to shake his head "yes" or "no"?
•Is your baby beginning to take an interest in picture books or in
finger plays (i.e., itsy bitsy spider or "so big")?
•Is your baby frustrated when you don't understand what he needs?
•Are there still important things your baby doesn't have words for? It
probably isn't too late (see Question 5).
3. How
long will it be before my baby signs to me?
Answer (obtained from Tinyfingers.com): It depends, but if you begin signing
when your child is 6-7 months old it is quite possible that by the time your
child reaches 8-9 months he/she may be signing back to you. Many children do not
start signing back until they are closer to 11 or 12 months old. Typically,
they will start with the signs and gestures that involve facial expression
(blowing, panting), then whole arm signs & gestures (i.e., bye bye, clapping),
then hand signs (i.e., hat, milk) and finally signs involving various hand
shapes and more dexterity (i.e., cat, pointing) Once they have seem these signs
modeled enough to internalize the meanings of them and have developed the
cognitive and motor skills necessary to sign, they will communicate to you.
This process is similar to how a child learns speech.
4. Does
using sign language with babies interrupt or delay their speech development?
Answer (obtained from Tinyfingers.com): Actually, research states the opposite
is true. Using American Sign Language with your child can accelerate their
speech development. Since they are already using language in their heads and
putting signed words together to communicate things, once their articulators are
able to form the sounds, they quickly add speech to their signs. Gradually,
they drop the signs and only use the spoken word. There has been no indication
of a resulting speech delay.
5. When is it too late? My baby already says some words.
Answer (obtained from Tinyfingers.com): Babies are usually close to three years old before they get wonderfully full vocabularies. Up until then, you can teach them signs to be able to communicate about the things they cannot pronounce yet. It may take awhile for them to say crocodile or hippopotamus but your child may like to be able to sign to you while you are reading a book to him/her and let you know that she knows what the picture is! So, even though your child may be pronouncing some words, it is not too late to begin signing with your child. They will likely pick up the signs for the words they cannot say. In fact, the older the child, the faster they will learn to sign back to you!