Baby Talk for Non-Talkers

One cool thing we've come across as we are researching parenting stuff is the concept of baby sign language. Baby sign is exactly what it sounds like - parents use hand gestures and motions inspired by American Sign Language to communicate with their small children. Apparently, kids as young as nine or ten months old can start using signs to tell you what they need/want. The baby sign movement is catching on as more and more hospitals and day care center are offering classes for parents and children. The signs generally start out pretty basic ("eat," "drink," "more," "hurt"), and can get more complex and abstract. Some babies can learn up to fifty or sixty signs.

The great thing about this is that it can help reduce frustration for both parents and baby. A small child may known what he wants, but is unable to tell mom and dad because he does not possess the muscle control and vocabulary to say the actual words. With a simple sign, he can let mom and dad know that he requires his "teddy bear." The enhanced communication can help reduce the number of crying fits and also keep mom and dad from pulling out their hair wondering what their very precious yet very loud child could possibly want.

At first, we worried that teaching sign language to a baby would delay her ability to speak. After all, if you could just sign to get what you wanted, why would you bother to go onto words? Actually, the opposite may be true. Signing to your baby can help boost her communicate skills by teaching her the connection between words and objects/concepts. Some studies show babies who have been exposed to sign language actually grow up to have superior verbal abilities to non-signing babies! To support this, a parent should always remember to say the words while signing to reinforce the connection between the spoken word and the sign for it (i.e. make the sign for "more" and "juice" while saying "would you like some more juice?"). In addition, baby is spending quality time communicating with mom and dad at an earlier age which helps to grow the bond between them.

Signing is similar to crawling. While baby has not yet developed the muscle control and balance required to walk, he can move around the house (and get into mischief) through crawling. Once he masters these skills, he leaves crawling behind and is ready to start cruising around on two legs like the rest of us. A baby who signs is simply communicating before he has the physical ability to speak. Once he learns how to say these words, he won't bother with making the signs for them anymore. If you've got the know-how it's much easier just to say what you want.

Based on all this, Shawn and I think that we will probably try some form of baby sign in our house. It's important to be committed in order to make baby signing work, but we believe it will pay off in the end.

We'll let you know how it goes!

-- Lisa

PS - Some good info on baby sign: an overview from Wikipedia, an article from Parents magazine, a great book I found, a video of a real, super cute baby signing, and some video examples of signs baby can learn.