Baby Signing:
Teach Your Baby To Sign
By Jacqueline Goddard
11/28/2008
I am getting ready to finish my first American Sign Language
class and I have decided that there is no other choice than to teach
my children ASL. There are so many benefits to doing this; it is
truly amazing. Sign language gives a parent and child the
opportunity to communicate long before the child’s verbal skills are
developed (Lagerstrom, 2007). ASL makes it possible for baby to
communicate its wants and needs at a much earlier age. That alone
saves so much parent/child stress and should be a huge reason to
want to teach your child ASL, but there’s more! Additional baby
signing benefits according to babies-and-sign language (2008) are
that ASL can help reduce the unexplainable outbursts children tend
to have, improve literary skills, teach a 2nd language, and can
decrease frustration that comes with being unable to express
oneself.
So when is the perfect time I should get my baby started I wondered?
I found that there are a few factors to take into consideration at
this point. All babies are different as well as the time when they
are able to pick up on signs, but babies-and-sign language (2008)
say that parents can begin teaching their children sign language as
soon as baby is able to keep consistent eye contact with you, and
that in order to teach your child sign language it must be capable
of using cognitive skills that allow it to connect signs with a
certain object, or concept. However, if you feel your baby is taking
a bit longer to catch on, just remember teaching ASL to baby takes
patience and that it is never too late to start your child on a
second language.
My next question was what signs should I start with? I came to the
conclusion that this answer is at the parent’s discretion. We Sign
(2005) recommends starting with signs such as “more, eat, and done
(p.1).” Bill Vicar’s creator of http://www.lifeprint.com/ has
started his first 100 sign lesson with signs associated with family
such as: mom, dad, boy, girl, brother, sister, etc. Next he lists
all the words associated with places, time, temperature, food,
clothes, health, and so on.
Next, was to figure out whether teaching my child American Sign
Language at an early age would help or hinder my child’s verbal
communication. Babies-and-Sign language (2008) found many studies
that concluded that babies who were taught sign language tended to
have more advanced verbal skills than babies who were non signing
and that sign language can even help children to communicate who
have been born with developmental problems that have led to a slower
learning pace than the norm. In the rare occasion a child is born
with disabilities that completely hinder the child from learning any
type of verbal communication it has been found that some are still
able to develop the ability to express themselves in sign language.
References:
"Benefits of Baby Sign Language." Babies and Sign Language. 2006. 11
Nov. 2008 .
"Helpful Hints." We Sign. 2005. Production Associates. 20 Nov. 2008
.
Lagerstrom, Kenneth A. "Sign Language for Babies." HumanHand.com. 25
Mar. 2005. Red Phoenix Productions. 23 Nov. 2008 .
What is "Baby Signs?"
by Kris Rawlinson,
12/12/06
Baby Signs is a program offered to teach hearing babies how to use
signs before they can use spoken words. It was created through two
decades of research by Linda Acredolo, a doctor in Psychology, and
Susan Goodwyn, a doctor in both Psychology and Child Development).
This long-term study, funded by the National Institute of Health,
demonstrated language, affective, and cognitive benefits of baby
signing. Baby Signs is one of many different companies offering to
teach parents how to sign with their babies, however it differs in
that it does not use strictly ASL.
What is Baby Signs Comprised of?
Baby Signs began in 1982, when Drs. Goodwyn and Acredolo
“discovered” that pre-verbal babies were already using gestures to
communicate. Their program capitalized on those common
infant-created communicative gestures and added a complete
repertoire of signs made up by parents of babies. The Baby Signs
repertoire also included the most simple, baby-friendly American
Sign Language (ASL) signs. The signs were chosen based on ease of
use for babies and on linguistic functionality. Some people
criticize this approach because it is not true ASL. However, I agree
with the doctors’ quip that since Baby Signs is to be used in a
small period of time until the babies start to verbalize, it is
better to be simplified. Its intention is to have the highest
communicative benefit. With babies’ limited motor skills, they can
learn more words if they use simplified, baby-user-friendly
gestures.
Research-Backed Rewards of the program
Research using FMRIs shows that signing uses the same part of the
brain as does talking. Thus, it would make sense that signing would
‘jumpstart’ stimulation of the language zone. In “Impact of Symbolic
Gesturing on Early Language Development,” the doctors evaluated “the
effect on verbal language development of purposefully encouraging
hearing infants to use simple gestures as symbols for objects,
requests, and conditions.”
The Study
The study included 140 babies, who were 11 months old when they
began participating. They were assigned to a Baby Signs group or a
non-Bay Signs group. The groups were equivalent at the beginning of
the study in terms of the following characteristics: sex and birth
order of the children, their tendency to vocalize or verbalize
words, and the parents’ education and income levels. Thus, other
factors that could contribute to cognitive and language development
were ruled out. The babies were assessed a handful of times at
varying ages from 11 months to 36 months, and again at age 8. This
allowed them to compare the 2 groups at different points of
important language milestones (such as first word around 12 months,
combining words at 16 months etc).
The benefits of signing were clear. At 24 months, the signing babies
had a 3 month verbal language advantage on the non-signing babies.
At 36 months, they had an 11 month advantage. At 8 years, the
signing babies scored an average of 12 points higher in IQ. Thus,
signing with your baby helps them develop both language and
cognitive skills!
Speech Language Pathologist Perspective
As a student of speech and language pathology, the results make
sense. In our program, we are schooled in the acquisition of
language. According to Jean Piaget, by 8-12 months of age, infants
are able to grasp “object permanence,” where they develop the
ability to “mentally represent objects when objects can no longer be
seen.” (McLaughlin). Symbolic representation is a prerequisite to
language because before they develop this awareness, they cannot
understand that words are symbolic. So, infants develop this
awareness around 8-12 months, and cognitively, have the ability for
language. However, their capacity is limited since their speech
mechanism and motor skills are still developing. Thus, introducing
signs to infants at this stage allows them to meaningfully express
themselves months and months before they can talk.
This is powerful! Through use, these infants learn what a valuable
social tool language, which stimulates its growth even more.
Furthermore, they learn to establish and maintain joint attention, a
prerequisite for conversation and learning. Finally, signing
generates more parental verbal contingencies (comments contingent on
infant’s object of interest). Since parents are commenting on the
infant’s topic of interest, the infant is more likely to absorb the
information. Additionally, these infants are bombarded with more
language, which, per John Locke, is a prerequisite to generating
language. He says that babies need to accumulate to a certain number
of words before they can start generating language output. So, since
signing babies have more language bombardment it would follow that
their language development would be more advanced.
References
Goodwyn, S, Acredolo, L, & Brown C.A. (2000). Impact of Symbolic
Gesturing on Early Language Development. In Journal of Nonverbal
Behavior, Vol 24 (pp. 81-103). California State University,
Stanislaus, San Diego State University, and University of
California, Davis. (http://www.babysigns.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/institute.language_development_study/language_development_study.cfm)
Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (July 2000). The long-term impact
of symbolic gesturing during infancy on IQ at age 8. Paper presented
at the meetings of the International Society for Infant Studies,
Brighton, UK. (http://www.babysigns.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/institute.language_iq_study/iq_study.cfm)
McLaughlin, Scott. Introduction to Language Development, Singular
Publishing Group: London, 1998.
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