Most people are amazed that babies as young as 30 weeks old can learn to use sign language, thinking “How can that child, when she can’t even talk?” But babies have always signed, albeit on an informal basis. Babies develop the muscles in their hands before they develop the fine muscles of the mouth needed for speeach. Thus, babies are equipped to communicate with you with their arms and hands before they can talk. Most children invent their own signs in order to convey their thoughts. For example, babies often hold their arms out when they want to be picked up and held. This, of course, is a form of communication.

Signing with your child is good for you and your baby. In this column, we examine the effects of singing with your baby and some evidence of the benefits of baby sign language. You can be assured, signing with your baby is a great thing.

The truth. The fact that a child cannot yet speak does not mean she cannot understand. In fact, children understand a great deal before they can talk. So be careful what you say in front of your toddler! Remember, the reason babies don’t talk isn’t necessarily because they don’t understand. It may just be beacuse they cannot control the movements of their mouth that are necessary to produce good speech. Those movements are undeveloped until babies are almost two years old. But at a much earlier age, babies can control the hand movement necessary to produce signs. So don’t underestimate your little toddler. She will surpriseis whether or not baby should use sign langauge. The single biggest myth about teaching a baby sign language is that it can delay the baby’s speech. Nothing could be more untrue that signing is in any way= associated with delayed speaking. Research shows that signing children develop spoken words much more quickly than non-signing children. Signing is both physically and cognitively stimulating for children. It stimulates your child’s visual, auditory and knisthetic senses. In fact, studies on the effects of baby sign language shows that signing may be beneficial to those children with speech development problems. And signing children typically become smarter adults, more intelligent than non-signging children|babies So, have no doubt, teaching your child to sign is good for her overall development.

Notwithstanding her overall development, there is a better reason to teach your baby to sign. Sign language allows parents to communicate with their pre-verbal children! The frustration of not knowing what a baby wants or needs is a primary source of the stress in parents’ lives. Those parentswho teach their babies sign language avoid much of this frustration. Plus, a child’s ability to communicate with others at an early age enhances her overall development. Interaction on a social level is crucial to a child’s development progression. By teaching a child sign language, she communicates earlier and more frequently. This provides more outlets for her to express her emotions and communicate with other young people and adults. Ultimately, she will be more advanced, socially and cognitively, than children of the same age who did not grow up signing. So go ahead, have fun with baby sign language.