Sign Language for Babies
Infants Can Use Hand Signs Before They Can Speak
Parents and caregivers can begin using sign language with an infant as early as desired. Joseph Garcia, author of Sign with Your Baby [Sign2Me, Northlight Communications, Inc., 2003], advises beginning with a baby at around six or seven months of age, and expecting the baby to begin signing on its own at around eight months of age.
Parents can incorporate signs into their daily lives and share those signs with the baby's caregivers, siblings, and other family members. In this way, signing can become a fun family tradition and a way to enhance relationships.
Signing Benefits Speech Development
Early communication through sign language creates a foundation for the development of spoken language. According to studies conducted at the University of California-Davis by Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, authors of Baby Signs [McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002], infants who use symbolic gestures learn to speak more readily, understand more words, have larger vocabularies, score higher on intelligence tests, and engage in more sophisticated play than babies who do not use signs.
How to Introduce Signs
- Anticipate the baby's need, want, or curiosity.
- Identify a relevant situation.
- Sign within the baby's gaze.
To help a baby learn signs, parents can introduce a few signs at a time and gradually add more. Although parents may wait months to see the baby make his or her first sign, the baby will be looking to the parents for a model of communicating. Signs can be used to name things, address people or pets, find things, or show possession. Common first signs for babies include "eat", "milk", and "more."
The Life Print website provides links to Baby's First 100 Signs using American Sign Language (ASL). Joseph Garcia recommends using an established sign language, such as ASL, rather than a family-created collection of signs to introduce an authentic second language to a baby.
Signs incorporate easily into games. The signs for "hide," "where," and "search," for example, combine into a game of hide-and-seek. "Pain," "where," and "search" come in handy for locating the source of a baby's injury. "Touch" and "no" or "food" and "hot" warn the baby of danger.
Practitioners of infant potty training, also known as elimination communication, take advantage of the preverbal baby's ability to use sign language. For more information on infant potty training, visit Diaper Free Baby.
In order to establish shared meaning with a baby, parents and caregivers use signs in relevant situations and according to what holds the baby's focus. According to Joseph Garcia, caregivers can recognize three basic gazes during which a baby will be receptive to learning a sign.
Expressive gazes occur when the baby wants to express a need or emotion or to ask a question. Corresponding signs might include "eat," "milk," "more," "diaper," or "potty." Chance mutual gazes occur when the baby and the caregiver look at one another by chance and the caregiver holds the baby's attention. Pointed gazes occur when the baby looks at a person or object. Corresponding signs might include "book," "toy," or other object, animal, or person that catches the baby's attention.
Signs can be introduced before, during, or after an action, depending upon the relevance of the situation or the baby's gaze. It may feel appropriate to sign at a combination of times, whichever will make the association clearer.
Caregivers may choose to speak while signing. Saying the word and sign together may help the baby transition easily from sign to speech. However, the baby's attention to the sign, especially upon introduction, may be greater if done in silence. The caregiver's facial expression will aid in capturing the baby's attention. Babies look to eyes and faces during communication, so the caregiver can make the sign near his or her face with an engaging facial expression.
The baby may appreciate help in shaping his or her own hands into the sign. The baby's first signs may appear as simplified versions of the caregiver's signs. Joseph Garcia recommends that caregivers continue to sign in the correct way, although he warns against showing frustration or disappointment and against making signing into a lesson or performance.
Babies can discover signs by watching parents, caregivers, and siblings use sign language during the course of daily life. In addition to becoming a fun family tradition, signing encourages early intellectual development, reduces frustration by increasing a baby's ability to communicate, creates a foundation for spoken communication, and enhances early bonding and strengthens relationships.
Simplified Potty Sign
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