Why Teaching Babies Sign Language Makes Life Easier for Parents

I know that some people, upon hearing about teaching babies sign language, roll their eyes and conjure an image of a child development zealot frenetically showing their child flash cards of black and white images and making signings for every word imaginable while Mozart plays in the background (think Kari from The Incredibles). <—I’m think of a particular family member of mine here. 🙂

If you are a parent who has ever taught a baby to sign, or if you’ve ever seen a baby interact through signs, you know that teaching babies sign language is not simply the work of overzealous parents who think they can see every new synapse that forms in their child’s brain.  There are actual, observed benefits of teaching hearing babies to sign.

Here are some of the benefits of teaching babies sign language:

(As documented by Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn)

• reduces frustration
• allows infants and toddlers to express both emotions (e.g., happy, sad, afraid,mad) and feelings (e.g., sleepy, cold, hurt), both to label their own states, and to comment on the states of other children, showing early evidence of empathy.
• increases “active” learning.
• encourages babies as early as 9 months to engage in multi-utterance conversations
• Improves language and vocabulary to boost verbal development

Infants have the understanding of language and motor skills necessary to communicate through sign language much earlier than they have the capacity to vocalize words. In fact, many hearing babies who are introduced to sign language begin signing at 6 and 10 months.  If a child can express what they want or need through sign language there will be far fewer tears and less frustration for parent and child.

I’ve taught my own babies sign language, and was continually awed by how much they understood, felt, and communicated through signs. One day my husband and I were sitting in church with our 17 month old son. He was just learning to talk and had about 10 or so words he could say–mama, dada, ball, bottle, dog, etc. From the back of the chapel he heard an infant crying. My son turned to my husband and I and signed, “Baby” “Cry” “Sad”. In that instant we had our earliest peek into my son’s empathy toward other children. After the church meeting was over he ran up to the baby and tried to cheer the baby up while signing “happy”.

Some parents worry that teaching their children to sign will delay their verbal development.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Recent research shows that introduction to sign in infancy may actually improve language and vocabulary. Babies are gaining significant language and vocabulary knowledge as they learn to sign that will give them a boost when they begin speaking.

My second son was a prolific signer. He knew over a hundred signs when he began talking. By age 18 months he was speaking in 3 word sentences.

Many parents and practitioners have also found signing to be effective for children with autism, down syndrome, speech delays, and non-verbal learning disorder.

Here are some great links for more information:
Signing with your baby or toddler babycenter.com
Michigan State University American Sign Language Browser
You can also search baby signing or baby sign language on YouTube. Type in “baby signing time” for lots of cute signing videos for toddlers.

The Signing Time and Baby Signing Time videos by Two Little Hands are my favorite way for teaching babies sign language. Short and filled with music and cute animation, the Baby Signing Time videos are perfect to watch and practice with your baby or toddler. You can read my review of Baby Signing Time here.