Baby Sign Language: The Secret Language of Success by Vanessa Mink

For Advanced Composition ETSU Summer 2011

Have you ever struggled to communicate with your baby? Has your toddler’s tantrum ever spun out of control because he could not express his needs? If you are interested in communicating with your non-verbal child, you might consider baby sign language.

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I am sitting in the floor listening to Jack Johnson’s Curious George CD with my 11-month-old amid a primary-colored collection of wooden blocks and thick cardboard books that have one-word pages. We are playing happily, but then my son, Bodhi starts to fuss. I hand him another block, but he throws it down without a glance and continues fussing. I notice he folds his thumb behind his fingers in front of his chest and he is hitting them together. He is signing “more”.

“More what,” I sign and say back to him.
He moves his right hand back and forth across his extended left arm.
“More song.” He wants me to return the CD to his favorite song, “3 R’s.” I switch the CD back to the song, tantrum avoided.

When I was pregnant with my first son, I stumbled across a research study by Dr. Acredolo and Goodwyn about baby sign language that discussed the verbal and intellectual benefits a child could receive from communicating through sign language as an infant. As a mother, I felt compelled to offer my child every opportunity I could, so I decided I would introduce my child to baby sign language as soon as possible. Although at first the task seemed daunting, I quickly discovered how easy it was to learn and make signs. I saw my oldest son, Bodhi, use sign language for the first time after five months of repeating signs. The effort had been worth it; I could communicate with my child long before he could speak.

Why You Should Use Baby Sign Language

Baby Sign Language, which received an endorsement from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2001, is a method of communication that uses American Sign Language (ASL) hand shapes and motions to convey words and meanings. Teaching your child Baby Sign Language creates a way of communication using motor skills that have developed naturally. Even babies born with physically normal hearing and speech cannot use their mouths to construct speech until long after they have the ability to understand language. From birth, babies primarily use their ability to cry to gain the attention of their caretaker and express their feelings about their situation; teaching your baby to sign will benefit your baby by easing its level of frustration as an infant and by creating a wonderful foundation for lifelong communication.

What are the benefits of baby sign language?

Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn conducted a study that spanned almost two decades. The doctors examined the lives of children introduced to sign language at 11 months and followed their progress through childhood. Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn used standard language measures and standard intelligence tests and compared the results with a control group non-signing

babies. The doctors discovered these benefits:

Verbal Benefits:

1. Older verbal children who used sign language as babies have better reading and verbal skills than children who did not use baby sign language.

2. Baby Sign Language increases the rate at which babies learn verbal skills.

3. Baby Sign Language helps develop a larger verbal (and signed vocabulary) sooner than babies who do not sign as infants

4. Babies who use Baby Sign Language tend to be up to 2 years advanced verbally, and this benefit lasts through childhood.

Intellectual Benefits:

1. Because Baby Sign Language is conceptual, babies reach cognitive milestones sooner.

2. Babies who use Baby Sign Language develop recall skills that are not as actively developed in children who do not learn to sign.

3. Because American Sign Language (ASL) has its own syntax and grammar, teaching your child Baby Sign Language is similar to teaching your child a second language.

4. Babies introduced to Baby Sign Language at eleven months scored an average of 12 points higher on the WISC-III IQ test than their non-signing peers.

The benefits of teaching your baby sign language are not just the immediate dissolution of frustration and temper tantrums; signing provides a communicational foundation that will help your child fundamentally all throughout his life.

How to Use Baby Sign Language

When should you start to sign?

Your baby will be interested in communicating his needs with you from the moment of his birth. Just as you will begin speaking to your child at this point, you can also begin signing with your child at this time, although it will be a much longer period before your child can see you or make the signs. I began signing with my children at 6 months This is when your child will have the physical abilities needed for signing. All children develop motor skills at different rates, but the table below illustrates the ages at which I saw my own children develop specific skills.

Age	Ability
3 months	The ability to grasp an object with hands
4 months	The ability to bring an object to mouth with hand
6 months	The ability to pass an object from hand to hand
9 months	The ability to pick up an object using index finger and thumb.
12 months	The ability to scribble a drawing and stack one block on top of another.

As you begin to see these skills develop in your child and you can make and maintain eye contact with your baby, you are ready to start.

How should you start to sign?

You can begin signing with your baby by choosing a few signs and using the sign every time you mention the concept. You do not have to be a fluent signer to teach your child Baby Sign Language, signs are easy to learn and there is a variety of resources available to help parent begin to sign. Although Baby Sign Language signs are traditionally ASL signs, you may need to make some modifications if the child does not have the motor skills necessary to make the true ASL sign. There are no “beginner signs” or right words to start with, but common first signs for babies are more, milk, mom, and dad. Make sure to use the sign each time you use the word, and when possible, point to the object the item describes or hold the object in your hand. This will help your child bridge the gap between the sign, the concept, and the word. With repetition and consistency, you will soon see your child make a sign.

When will your baby start to sign?

If you begin using sign language with your child around 6 months, you child should use their first sign between 8 and 12 months. Signing, just like language, is a complex concept that needs lots of repetition. Do not lose hope if you do not see any progress quickly. Once your child has made one sign, he will quickly make more. Your baby may attempt to sign before he actually masters making the sign, so be alert. Make sure to praise any attempt that your child makes at signing, as the positive praise from you will help encourage your child’s signing.

Skeptics

“Is your baby deaf?”
“Why would you want your baby to sign when he can hear fine?”
“Will he ever learn to talk if you keep doing that?
“Don’t people stare at you when you are signing with him?”
“Well, I raised 3 kids and never taught them to do anything but speak, and they turned out just fine.”
“Baby signing is just another fad and no one will be doing it in a couple of years.”

Just as with every other avenue of parenting, there are skeptics of Baby Sign Language. Most of their skepticism, however, comes from lack of information. Children who learn to sign develop normal speech patterns and as discussed above, have many verbal and intellectual advantages over their non-signing peers. Signing is natural for babies, think of the way they wave good-bye or blow a kiss before they can say good-bye or I love you. Baby signing is not a passing fad; its popularity is rising because the advantages are clear and measureable. Stay the course, and you and your child will benefit for years to come.

My now four-year-old, Bodhi, and his 18-month-old brother Keats are playing with a wooden train set in their bedroom. Their silence is a good indicator that I need to check on them. I look into the door of their room.

“Share, please, brother,” I see Bodhi sign.

“Train,” Keats signs and gives Bodhi the prized blue train.

“Thank you,” Bodhi signs.

“Your welcome,” Keats signs back.

The silence was not an indication of the trouble that I suspected, but the common second language that they share. Baby Sign Language has given them a secret language to speak with for the rest of their lives.

(Chart credit – www.babysignlanguage.com/chart/ )

Vanessa Mink is studying English and Secondary Education at East Tennessee State University. She is the signing mother of two signing sons, ages 4 and 21-months. After four years of signing, she is beginning to see the cognitive and verbal advantages of signing with her sons.