Baby, sign to me! Benefits of teaching sign language to hearing infants.

Infant sign language is catching on in many countries. Hearing babies are communicating via sign language long before they are able to talk verbally. The benefits are significant and abundant.

Joseph Garcia, an American Sign Language (ASL) and early childhood development researcher, saw that hearing babies of deaf parents could communicate their needs and desires at a much earlier age than children of hearing parents. Garcia found that infants using sign language could communicate at 8 months. Comprehensive speech development usually occurs at 16 to 18 months.

A study by the National Institutes of Health, July, 2000, found that 2nd graders who had signed as babies had higher I.Q.s--12 points higher. Other studies found that signing babies had larger vocabularies, understood more words, scored higher on intelligence tests, and enjoyed more sophisticated play than non signing peers.

Infants are able to communicate long before they can manipulate their tongues, lips and vocal cords. Just as easily as baby learns to wave "bye-bye," she can learn to sign physical and emotional needs and curiosities.

Babies can see how signs are made. "You can also see somebody using a hand which you can't do with a tongue," says Dr Elizabeth Bates, director of the Center for Research in Language at UC San Diego. "Recent work in neuroscience has shown that the areas in the brain that control the mouth and speech and the areas that control the hands and gestures overlap a great deal and develop together." (1)

The baby learns the sign for dog means different kinds of dogs as well as pictures of dogs, dog dolls, and toy dogs. "More" can apply to food or drink or hugs. Thus the signing baby develops conceptual understanding.

There are more important benefits than I.Q. scores. The signing baby feels heard. She is heard. Sometimes he needs water, sometimes a hug. Being able to communicate reduces stress for both caregiver and child. Many preschools are teaching sign for this reason.

It is important to sign consistently. It takes about two months before it clicks, but it does click. Sometimes it takes a lot less time. You can start signing to your baby from day one, or any time thereafter. It's helpful to know if he's crying because of a wet diaper or because he's scared. Beyond signing needs, the baby is now able to provide a window into his world. Share his excitement about a butterfly or a flower. When baby points to the flower you can talk about the flower and encourage the baby to smell it, touch it, perhaps wave it like a wand. She is now getting more information about something of interest to her, and increasing her vocabulary and concepts.

There are variations in the way signing is taught to babies. I prefer to use ASL signs when possible. Sometimes substitute signs are useful such as when the ASL sign is difficult for little ones. An alternative sign for airplane is arms out. The ASL sign for airplane can be difficult for babies.

Make it fun. When teaching baby, make it fun, do it with a smile, make a game of it, and keep up the talk while you sign. If baby substitutes his own sign for something, that's great. Heap praise on the baby for COMMUNICATING. There are no wrong signs in baby sign. The goal is communication.

The rewards are great. There are less tantrums because he is heard. Frustration is reduced. Self-esteem and self-confidence are enhanced. These babies speak earlier, with increased vocabularies, and more sophisticated sentences. The best reward of all is the deeper parent-child bond.

Bibliography

Acredolo, Linda, Ph.D., and Goodwyn Susan, Ph.D., Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, McGraw-Hill, N.Y., 2002

Berck, Judith, Before Baby Talk, Signs and Signals, New York Times, January 6, 2004

Chun, Noele, "Baby Signs, Baby Gets", Honolulu Advertiser, July 16, 2004

Garcia, Josephh, Sign with Your Baby: How to Communicate with Infants Before They Can Talk, Northlight Communications, Seattle, 2003

(1) "Before Baby Talk, Signs and Signals" New York Times, January 6, 2004

Rena Morningstar Blumberg is an ALACE trained labor assistant and childbirth educator in Kihei, Hawaii. She can be reached at [e-mail]