If you have an infant or young toddler chances are you have heard of baby sign language. A popular trend in parenting has been to use “baby signs” with infants 6-12 months old before they are able to verbally communicate. This has been shown to offer a variety of benefits for parents and babies. Some families may worry this will delay verbal communication; but research has shown that the opposite is true. Researchers have found that introducing infants to sign language fuels their motivation for verbal communication!
Here are Just 3 reasons to introduce your child to baby sign language:
Support Language Development: By introducing simple signs or “baby” sign language to your babies, you give them the ability to tell you what they want/need. By introducing the cause/effect relationship of communication early (ex: I sign “more” I get more cheerios), it encourages them to interact with their environment/caregivers to get their needs met. Parents often fear using baby signs will lead to them only signing or delaying their speech. Research has shown this is not true! Baby sign is a great tool to teach vocabulary,and provide a way to communicate while verbal speech develops. Children who use baby signs often drop the signs as their spoken language vocabulary develops. Often,young babies (8-12 months old) know what they want but due to the coordination it takes to verbally communicate are unable to express it yet. Baby sign language gives them a tool to communicate by using gross motor skills that are developing. These gross motor skills are easier to coordinate during this stage of development than the oral motor coordination needed for verbal speech. Baby sign language is another way to engage with your child and support them as their verbal speech develops!
Decrease Overall Frustrations: Research has shown parents who introduce baby sign language to their children often report a decrease in tantrums and overall frustration for parent and baby. By giving the child the tools to communicate they are able to tell the parent when they want more or are all done with food/activities/etc. This decreases frustration for parents who are playing the guessing game trying to determine why the infant/toddler is crying or throwing their plate off their high chair. This also has been thought to help parents and babies bond as the child learns they can rely on parents to respond to their communication attempts and get their needs met by other means than crying, screaming, kicking or hitting.
Easy to Use: Baby Signs are easy to use and can be readily added into your daily routine with your child. You don’t have to set aside dedicated time to explicitly teach the signs, but can instead model them throughout your day, such as at meal times, and encourage your child to imitate and then use them. Baby signs are considered a simplified version of American Sign Language (ASL) so you do not have to be fluent in ASL to introduce basic signs to your child. Baby signs can be learned easily through a variety of sources.There are free websites, books, and even some apps that can teach the basics! You can incorporate as much as you want or as few signs as you want, but still are giving your child a tool to engage and interact with you