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Elizabeth Sprague honored my guest blogger request with this article on a subject that is dear to my heart: Baby Sign Language. She is a wife and Mommy to three little boys who inspired her to teach people what she knows. After using Baby Sign Language with all three, she can’t imagine not being able to communicate with them before they could talk. I know you will enjoy Elizabeth’s site www.babysignsprogram.com/withelizabeth. Plus, if you are fortunate to live near Portland, OR, she is available as an Independent Certified Instructor for the Baby Signs Program!
”Many parents wonder why they should teach their baby Sign Language if their hearing is just fine. Isn’t that introducing something unnatural and unnecessary? The answer is no. It is perfectly natural, more than most people realize and the benefits are amazing.
Babies are communicating to the best of their ability as soon as they are born. They develop at an incredible rate during the first three years just trying to get down the basics. A newborn infant cries when it needs something because it has no other choice. He cannot point to what he wants, say what he wants or move to what he wants.
Soon he will develop cries that are slightly different from one another, taking communication one step further. Parents learn to tell the “hungry” cry from the “tired” cry or the “hold me” cry.
Then he will start to coo and babble, trying to tell you about his world.
And then he will start pointing at objects and using the tone of his voice to get a point across. This phase lasts from around 4-6 months up until around two years. That is a long span of time to have limited communication when it is entirely possible to have wonderful conversations with your child that you can actually understand!
Baby Sign Language is much more natural than most parents realize. We all teach our babies to wave “Bye-bye”, shake their head “Yes” or “No.” We show them how to blow on their food when it’s “Hot” or gently pet our arm if we want them to be “Gentle.” These are all gestures used in Baby Sign Language. Expanding their vocabulary gives you and your child some great advantages.
By teaching them signs for things like “Eat”, “Drink”, “More” and “All Done” you eliminate many tantrums that come from a child being hungry and not having the tools to communicate what need. Think about this: Your child wants some milk. A baby that doesn’t know signs will start by grunting and pointing in the direction of where she thinks it might be. Of course if you’re in the middle of the grocery store or the back yard you might think she’s pointing at something completely different. Then she will start getting more and more upset until she reaches a full blown tantrum… and we all know how much fun that can be in the middle of the grocery store. A baby that has been taught to sign will simply get your attention and make the sign for “Milk” which is basically waving “Bye-bye” sideways (like you are milking a cow.) The giggle they let out when you say back to them “You want your milk?” is adorable. They are ecstatic that they have been understood.
In my experience being able to tend to your babies needs without the frustration is reason enough to teach them Baby Sign Language, but there are many more incredible benefits.
Teaching Baby Sign Language promotes healthy social and emotional development. Being able to communicate gives your child the opportunity to explore more and share more allowing them to develop to their full potential. Baby Signs helps boost babies’ language and thinking skills.
Teaching Baby Sign Language helps babies learn to talk sooner. One of the most common concerns I hear as an instructor is “Will my baby learn to rely on signs and decide not to speak?” Scientific studies prove exactly the opposite. When a baby learns to crawl they realize that they can get from here to there and work on improving that skill into something that works even better. The same goes for signing. A baby realizes they can communicate and grasps the concept of communication at a much younger age. When you understand what your baby is saying you repeat it back allowing them to hear the words more often, helping them to learn to speak the word sooner.
Teaching Baby Sign Language creates a stronger bond. Your baby can tell you what they see or hear, what interests they have. This gives you a priceless window into the life of your child. You and your child can share their world together. Their needs are met faster and more accurately.
Using Baby Sign Language in a daycare setting is a great way to create a universal language between babies and caregivers. It can help comfort a child who is upset about Mommy leaving, helping to explain that Mommy will be back soon.
The benefits of Baby Sign Language don’t end when your child starts talking. Most children start dropping their signs as they start speaking more words, eventually leaving all their signs behind. But the benefits of what they’ve learned have just begun.
The more gestures a baby uses at 14 months the larger their vocabulary is at 4.5 years. A larger vocabulary is directly linked to a higher level of success later in life.
Babies who were taught to sign scored an average of 12 points higher on an IQ test at age eight than those who were not taught to sign!
Teaching Baby Sign Language can make potty training before the age of two possible and even easier than waiting until after age two!
We all want what’s best for our children. We want to give them the best chance to lead a happy and successful life. Teaching them Baby Sign Language is one of the best things you can do for your child. ”
Mommy-Muse note: Contrary to what some people predicted, the daughter I used baby sign language with the most had remarkably well developed verbal language skills, much earlier than usual!
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The most important thing is for the child to acquire the concept of communication through whatever means he or she is able. Signing does give the infant tools to communicate specific wants and thus limits the frustration of both infant and parent. Teaching your infant just a few signs will reduce the stress, and enrich the quality, of your parent-child interactions.
We offer baby sign language classes at A Nurturing Moment and have had a great response! Moms LOVE them! This is really an idea whose time has come!
I love baby signing. It is such a great way to introduce learning to your baby. Along with reading, you can never start reading to early. Sight and sound from the parents and from outside sounds. Wizz-E.com has some great ebooks with sight and sounds for young readers to experience as a family!
We took a baby sign language class when my son was about 10 months old. I can attest to the fact that he was much less frustrated when he was able to sign things to us. He didn’t have to lament that he couldn’t use his words, he could show us and we could show him what we wanted him to know. It was a real life saver. We made this huge chart with a printout poster of all of the different signs and everyone in the family, including my daughter and visiting family would use these signs with him. It was actually quite fun and I credit them to his perfect verbal skills today!
My daughter is finally having a baby she has lost 4 babies and this time she is over 5 months she is due May 10th she went deaf at 14 1/2 months she spiked a fever from 99 deg to 105 deg within 15 minutes but my parents think she was born deaf when she was born so there are people that feel differently about when she lost her hearing . I’m wondering how the baby will learn to speak because Amber does speak some where we can’t understand her so how is this going to affect her little boy speech and what can we do to try to help him if U don’t mind would U please keep in contact with me on this matter I don’t have money to pay u I’m sorry this is the first thing I have seen on this subject. Amber hates sign Language but should the baby be taught to sign even if he can hear?
Hi Tammy,
Thanks for writing. Yes, Amber’s baby can absolutely learn to speak well because her baby will be hearing many people around him/her who do not have speech impairments. Also, yes, it is definitely helpful for babies who can hear to learn sign language. It greatly decreases frustration by allowing them to communicate their needs and desires far earlier than they can if they have to wait until they can talk.