Can Baby Signing Really Help My Child's Development?

Parents all over the world seek to find ways of encouraging and enhancing the development of their child as a method of preparing for later life and enabling them with the skills and knowledge needed to become successful as they mature.

Providing them with the tools needed to promote and advance communication skills is thought to be an excellent way of helping your child and baby signing, otherwise called baby sign language, may offer this opportunity.

What Is Baby Signing?
Baby signing was first recognised and developed in the early years of the 21st century so it is still primarily in its infancy but may have been used in households for much longer.

Baby signing or baby sign language, is a way of teaching young children and babies to communicate using gestures and signs. By encouraging this it is thought that cerebral development is enhanced and also that the child is a lot less frustrated as they are able to communicate to those around them of their needs and requests.

It may be something extremely simple such as a gesture that shows their carer that they would like a drink or that they are hungry. Such a gesture may be one individual movement or motion but is an easy enough action that can be learned by the child.

Initially it is recommended that only your child's basic needs are learned such as nappy change, hunger or thirst but over time both you and your child can learn the signs that depict certain toys or activities that can be enjoyed without disruption or coaxing.

Your child will be able to communicate to you what they would, like to do, how they feel and when they want to change the activity, which really is quite an accomplishment if your child is still a baby.

It is encouraged that parents and carers action only the most important word in a sentence and show a sign that corresponds with this word. When signs are used, sounds may also be incorporated that correspond with the action.

What Do The Experts Think?
Speech and language therapists generally whole heartedly agree that baby signing is good for a child's development, not only for their cerebral and sensory development but as a way of enhancing the relationship between the child and parent or carer and supporting a harmonious environment in which the child can thrive and the parent or carer enjoy their role.

In fact, signing and making associated sounds are being widely used by many nurseries, schools and professions around the country and is thought to encourage interpersonal relationship building and allow your child's confidence to grow.

Who Teaches Baby Signing?
Once bay signing has been learned and the principles and theories have been gained anyone can teach baby signing. In fact many of the current teachers of this skill are parents them selves who have embraced the initiative And are keen to encourage and recommend the benefits to other parents.

Can Anybody Learn Baby Signing?
Absolutely anyone can learn how to baby sign and methods can be learned at home from books, DVDs or on the internet or it is possible that each family can develop their own form if they require.

Baby signing is a method of developing and embracing communication techniques in young children. It is a form of pre-verbal interaction and communication that is thought to decrease frustration in both the child and carer and encourages personal, social and cerebral development in the child.

Taken from: http://www.signedlanguage.co.uk

Is this a fad? Why not just encourage toddlers to talk earlier and will signing delay speech?

ABC News: It's No Charade: Baby Gestures Could Help Speaking

The More Babies Gesture, the Bigger Their Vocabularies
Feb. 18, 2009

Does your baby shake her head when you try to feed her vegetables? Though that may be frustrating from a nutritional perspective, it can mean good things for her educational future.



A new study from the University of Chicago suggests that the more gestures babies make at 14 months, the bigger their vocabularies will be. The size of a child's vocabulary is a key predictor of how well he or she will do in school.

"Good Morning America" parenting contributor Ann Pleshette Murphy explains what the study means and how parents can encourage a child's gestures.

So how do a baby's gestures translate into school smarts?

Simple gestures are the fundamentals of communication -- shaking your head, pointing at something you want or a baby raising his or her arms to be picked up. The University of Chicago study found that the more gestures a baby used at 14 months, the more words he had in his vocabulary at 3½ years old.

Can you teach a baby gestures?

To a certain extent, yes. You don't have to drill your child; what's more important is how you respond to the gestures. You need to gesture and talk a lot as well. That can mean doing something as simple as waving bye-bye.

It's modelling, and the more you do, the more you encourage them. You can say, "Show me what you want." And this is important when they are pre-verbal. When they raise their arms to be picked up and you say, "Oh you want to be picked up?" that teaches them they can ask with their mouths

And this helps with tantrums as well?

Helping a child to say with their hands what they can't yet say with their mouths will not only build vocabulary, but reduce tantrums and increase the parental bond.

When they are 14 months, babies get really frustrated at not being able to communicate. Teaching them these gestures helps reduce their frustration and the number of tantrums they throw.

What's at the heart of this is a nurturing interaction. You're telling the baby, "What you're saying does matter to me, I am paying attention to you." And that stimulates brain activity.

What if you're not seeing a lot of gestures from your child?

Gesturing can start around 10 months. If your child isn't gesturing by 14 months, that could indicate a problem, and parents should have their child's hearing checked.

Is there a difference between girls and boys?

Girls tend to be more verbal than boys and start to talk a month or two earlier. There's even evidence that female fetuses move their mouths more than males.

When should children usually start using words and sentences?

Two-year-olds can generally say two-word sentences, 3-year-olds can say three-word sentences, but after that, language explodes. Fifty words seems to be the magic number. Once a kid knows that many words, their ability to learn new ones increases massively. Most children say more than 150 words by the time they are 20 months old, and 300 or so by their second birthday.