Sign Language

the Babble Staff

Sign-language is not just for the deaf and that Meet the Fockers kid anymore. Some parents are now teaching their hearing infants to sign before they can talk in an effort to better communicate with their pre-verbal babies. One oft cited benefit is that signing may ease toddler frustration. Skeptics wonder if it is worth the effort and some even worry it might retard speech-development. However even parents devoted to the concept of infant sign language say it is best used in combination with speech. After all, just because you managed to teach your tyke to sign doesn't mean there's a moratorium on talking. In some camps the trend merely warrants a shrug, they see no harm in teaching a baby to sign but question the usefulness. The scope of baby experience is fairly limited and it is unlikely, after all, that baby will sign much else than "hungry" or "afraid" which are emotions most children manage to get across with informal signs that needn't be taught. The jury is still out on whether teaching baby to sign will pave the way to Harvard or special ed. Time will tell, but in the mean while many parents and babies appear to be having fun with it.

"Once confined to communicating with the deaf, sign language is undergoing a rebirth as a way for new parents to understand the needs of their offspring long before they can talk. [...] Dismissed by some critics as a fad or part of the over-achieving parent syndrome, baby signing is spreading in many parts of the United States but seems biggest in California where it began about seven years ago." ...read the full article

"Shortly after birth, infants are equipped with the ability to comprehend language.? However, they usually are not able to produce speech until after 12 to 24 months of age. [...] By teaching your child gestures or signs as well as spoken words, they are more quickly able to understand and communicate with the world around them." ...read the full article

"As a speech and language therapist [...] I was fascinated when one of the parents attending a parent programme I was running handed me 'Joseph Garcia's SIGN with your BABY Complete Kit' that she had been sent by her brother in America. The pack advocated the introduction of American Sign Language to normally developing, hearing babies as young as 8 months." ...read the full article

"I have many patients that have taught their young ones sign language, and every one of them has been very intelligent. Genetics probably has something to do with it, since most of these parents are pretty smart themselves. With signs, these kids are able to communicate earlier. You can have a six-month-old that knows 5 or 6 signs (more, food, up, owie) long before he can use any of these words." ...read the full article

"Scientists are always trying to develop special languages to talk with dolphins and gorillas... Now some people are trying to do the same with babies, designing a sign-language technique specifically for communicating with infants. The rationale behind this? That if the baby is grumpy, it's only because they're not adequately understood. This strikes me as comical. There must be some evolutionary reason why babies don't speak; maybe it's so they'll get frustrated with their limited communication skills and learn how to talk. In any case, even when babies do learn this new sign language, they appear to say roughly one thing: 'Feed me!' Gee, who'd have guessed?"