Teaching Babies Sign Language

I have been reading a fair amount on the benefits of teaching babies simple sign language.  Everything I have read on the subject seems to indicate that it can save baby a fair amount of frustration prior to them having a good vocabulary.  It helps them communicate their needs earlier.  I am wondering if anyone else has attempted this?  If so what age, and did you find it helped them?  I am thinking of signing us up for a course and would love some feedback ahead of time.  Thoughts or experiences anyone?

[wanting4#1]

As a student in the Interpreting/Transliterating field and an avid proponent of teaching babies sign language, I couldn't DISAGREE more with the statements regarding delay of speech in children taught sign language...here's a few stats about babies/children taught sign language...

"Here's what researchers Linda Acredcolo, PhD and Susan Goodwyn, PhD, the authors of Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk (Contemporary Books, 2002), have found in their 20 years of research on the effects of Baby Signs on babies' development. Sign Language . . .

1. help babies talk sooner . . . and boost spoken vocabulary
2. empower babies to direct adults' attention to what they want to talk about
3. reduce frustration
4. provide a strong foundation for early literacy
5. stimulate intellectual development "

I have taught every child that I have been involved with signing and it's always been a benefit!  I really hope that you encourage this beautiful language to your little one, too!

P.S. As ASL is a true language, if you teach your little one this vs. made-up signs, you are also creating a bi-lingual child ;)

[peekawho]

I know Andi did this with at least a couple of her kids.    You could send her a PM...I think she gets notified of those.  If not, I'll ask her to contact you.

I don't have any experience with it personally, though.  Post back if you find out anything.  

[frank_noahsmommy]

I did it with my 2nd DS who is now 3. I did not know a lot of sign language, but I worked in a daycare with infants and toddlers and we taught them basic signs and it helped tremendously. They would sign when they were hungry, sleepy, wanted milk and a couple of other basic signs. I started with my son at about 6 months, with me doing the signs while I was talking and by  10 months he was doing them also. When I become pregnant again I will be signing myself up for a course. Let me know how it goes...Michelle

[LosingMyMindInGA]

We started this with (now) DS6 and DD7 when they were little.  Both of them spoke later than most kids (closer to age 3) and I found it DID help to relieve a LOT of the frusteration they had from not being able to communicate.  Out of habit I found myself doing this with DS2.  He now will sign what he wants until he learns to say the words or will say AND sign what he wants.  He has even picked up on combinations of signs like "more please"  he'll say and sign the word "more" but then just signs for please.  Most of the signs are extremely simple and easily done with the motor skills small children have.  We stuck with basics like thank you, please, more, juice, milk, your welcome, potty, etc

[LosingMyMindInGA]

Oh and I started it when I noticed my kids were able to immitate movements I made.  Usually around 9 months.

[Ashelen]

We taught Kahlan a few of the signs and it helped a lot, but her language skills quickly surpassed her signing knowledge and while she still uses them sometimes she's pretty much outgrown everything except "thank you" "please" and "more".....but from ages about 9-15 months it was very very helpful.

[Helen72]

We did not teach dd to sign since she started developing language skills pretty early.  I do hear that for kids who do not start talking till 2 or later it helps.  Of course at this point you do not know whether your little guy will be an early or a late talker.  

I do have a friend whose kid was signing so well she had no need to learn how to speak.  She thought signing delayed her speech.

[adgal]

Thanks for all the input.  Helen...delayed speech is actually one of my big concerns.  He of course only babbles right now, but he does seem to understand when he says mama or dada or baba (bottle).  Of course, that could just be the proud mom in me..lol.  I think I might do a little more research on the issue first.  I think its a wonderful idea, but don't want to slow anything else up.  Peek, I will give Andi a call when I get home from Ontario next week.  Thanks everyone!!!!

[RockRose]

adgal,  I completely agree with Helen.

From what i know,  teaching signing will greatly delay your child's verbal language acquisition.  Sign is great for kids who are unable  to speak verbally,  but spoken language is how the community communicates.  With sign,  he will only be able to speak to his parents or very intimate friends who understand his signs.  He needs to be able to communicate with a wide range of children and adults in his life.  

Since he seems well on the way to acquiring verbal speech,  I'd let him.  Teaching sign so they can communicate with parents a couple months early almost seems like putting leg braces on a child so they can walk early.  It's not helpful in the long run.

Best wishes.  This is such a great age,  when they start talking.

[adgal]

Very good analogy and I will admit I hadn't quite thought of it that way.  Hmmm, lots to think about now.  As always I want to act in his best interest.  I definately need to do a little more research.  Thanks so much for the input everyone, I truly appreciate it as always.

[Ladybugbc]

Amanda, My friend in Victoria taught her daughter sign lanuage. She and her partner learned sign language together when she was expecting. The little girl just turned 1yr and still only babbles quite a bit except for words like "Mama" "Dada.. It may just be a coincidence..but I guess it's best to do more research on it.

[wanting4#1]

As a student in the Interpreting/Transliterating field and an avid proponent of teaching babies sign language, I couldn't DISAGREE more with the statements regarding delay of speech in children taught sign language...here's a few stats about babies/children taught sign language...

"Here's what researchers Linda Acredcolo, PhD and Susan Goodwyn, PhD, the authors of Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk (Contemporary Books, 2002), have found in their 20 years of research on the effects of Baby Signs on babies' development. Sign Language . . .

1. help babies talk sooner . . . and boost spoken vocabulary
2. empower babies to direct adults' attention to what they want to talk about
3. reduce frustration
4. provide a strong foundation for early literacy
5. stimulate intellectual development "

I have taught every child that I have been involved with signing and it's always been a benefit!  I really hope that you encourage this beautiful language to your little one, too!

P.S. As ASL is a true language, if you teach your little one this vs. made-up signs, you are also creating a bi-lingual child ;)

[mum2beagain]

Well my first was speech delayed, he didn't understand sign language either even though we tried it. My second learn't a few signs, it was very helpful when he went into daycare and he generally used his signs along with trying to say the words he mean't. As mom's we generally know what our babies want and can understand them fairly well, a daycare provider doesn't have that same relationship with our child, particularly not a first. It didn't delay my second son's speech and proved to be quite helpful for him.

[adgal]

Thank you everyone for the input.  Wanting, hearing from a professional on this really helps a great deal.  Thank you.  It is ASL that I am looking into, as I do not see the point in teaching him something no one else is using.  I have taken out several books on the subject and am giong to attend the introductory session prior to actually signing up.  Most of what I have read is positive...it says that a huge part of the so called "terrible twos" is an inability for your child to properly communicate with you.  Signing is easier for them to master then speech initally, however it does stress the importance of using both sign and language.  I already read to him daily and talk to him constantly.  

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate hearing from both sides of the issue as all input is important. I will update on what I decide and how it goes.  I spent a great deal of time last night reading on the subject, and right now I am leaning heavily towards it.  

[LosingMyMindInGA]

I know several posters commented that signing will delay the speech but I in my experience I have to disagree.  DD7 was not talking much at all at 18 months.  She had a very few words.  We went through early intervention for speech, they did hearing and speech evals, checked her gross and fine motor skills, did neuroligical tests etc.  She had NO reason for having a speech problem and it was determined that she was just one of those kids who talks later than others.  They advised me to start teaching her simple signs in order to help her communicate.  It worked really well and as she was able to say words she would start by saying AND signing the word and then as she realized that saying the word was all she needed, she dropped the sign.  When DS5 was over a year old and I noticed that his speech was following the same path as his sister I began signs with him, it worked out the same way.  

With DS2 I started using signs as I said thing when he was about 9 months old or so.  He picked up on words first and then the words he wasn't able to say he picked up on the signs.  Now at 2 he has a much better vocabulary than both DS5 and DD7 did at his age.  He uses a few signs for words he hasn't mastered yet, some he uses in combination ..a word and a sign ...like for "more please" he SAYS "more" and signs "please" .  He's picking up more and more new words every week and only uses a a couple of signs. I did not wait to see if his speech would be delayed before introducing signs to him and it's worked exceptionally well.  He never went through the phases of frusteration that my other two did when they were not able to communicate.  

[Ashelen]

I disagree that it delays speech too...granted, we only gave Kahlan a handful of signed words to learn so she wasn't replacing her ENTIRE vocabulary with signs, but now at 23 months she uses 4-5- and sometimes 6-word sentences...which is quite advanced for her age. she has very strong contextual understanding, and can speak in full "desire" sentences "mommy I want *insert object here* please" and if you say "you're welcome" she understands the concept of self because she will say "i welcome" without any prompting, indicating that she understands the conversion of the pronoun...of course that took a lot of working with her "you are kahlan, I am mommy. you say 'I am Kahlan, you are mommy' " and she would repeat...I took a lot of language development classes in college (never knowing I was going to have kids, ironically) and so that may have contributed to her advance speech but at the same time it certainly wasn't delayed!

at 23 months! so...yeah, I don't think it delays speech :).

[Helen72]

wanting4#1,
the effects of sign language on language development can't be determined without a randomized assignment of kids into sign language and no sign language groups.  Just observing babies who learned sign language "talk sooner" etc. may be just the effect of more involved parents.  Parents who learn and teach their kids sign language are typically more involved and concerned parents about their child's development.  They may also be more educated parents to begin with.  This is just a statistician in me speaking  :)

As for raising a bi-lingual child, this can only happen if a child uses sign language on regular basis even after they start talking.  For majority of parents who teach their kids to sign in early childhood that is not the case.  Therefore, benefits are very short-term since most kids simply forget all signs after they start to communicate verbally.  I do teach dd a second language and it does help.  Many words she can't say in English she is able to say in Russian (my first language).  She is 19 months and is able to communicate everything she wants in one language or the other.  I am working hard on maintaining her second language since her only exposure to that language is from me.  So if you do want your child to be truly bi-lingual, you should maintain using signs almost exclusively at home.

[cocacolapanda]

My sister in law's sister in law just had a def baby so she started teaching her littler girl sign language so when she gets older she can communicate with her cousin easily.  In the process my son has started to learn a little bit of sign language and I can honestly say it has helped him communicate SOME.  We tried a little bit to teach him some but he just hasn't been interested, although when he see's his year old cousin using some of words he picks them up better.

I would like to say though that it has not stopped our son from working on new words.  When he's awake and in the mood he'll talk fairly well.  When he's tired and cranky he'll switch to using sign language more when we ask him to use his words.

[tiredbuthappy]

Here's my advice- Don't take a class, but definitely get a little board book or simple video that will help you learn a few, very basic signs. I even found the signs i needed online.

Both of my girls used signs before they had words. Both developed speech earlier than others. My first had over 150 spoken words by 18 months (i stopped trying to count at that point). My second just turned 12 months and has 15 spoken words already. She is learning new words daily despite me using signs, and she is learning to say the words vocally that we sign.

We do not use signs exclusively, but do use a few select ones as we speak and it has helped tremendously. "More" "All done" "eat" "water" and "milk" were more than enough to help us. That is empowering your child to communicate his basic needs. And it saves me frustration too. My 12 month old can tell me is she is done eating or if she wants more. So, instead of flying food, we have a smiling girl who excitedly and proudly tells me what she wants. She mastered "more" around 7 months old. "All done" came between 10 and 11 months. I just started to see her use "eat" this past week. Interestingly, she is learning that sign AFTER she learned how to tell me verbally that she wants to eat.

You don't have to know enough signs to speak in sentences. Just know the important words.

I suspect that those cases of children who rely on signs instead of using spoken words are children that would have had language delays anyways. I am both an early childhood educator and have a background in linguistics and language acquisition, all on graduate levels, and have over a decade of experience in working with young children. I have yet to come across a typically developing child whose language acquisition was hindered by the use of sign language.