Baby Sign Language, Does It Work? Little Joy's Journey

Let me begin by answering the question posed in this blog title: a resounding YES, YES, YES!!! I must warn you, this post is long however it is broken up into parts so that you can read it in pieces.

Before Little Joy was even born, I knew we wanted to try baby signing with her. I was a deaf education major my first year in college and although I decided to change my major, I still had a passion and appreciation for sign language. I had little knowledge on how to approach teaching sign language to a baby or even what signs to do, but I was determined to do it!!

Many people we told about trying baby sign language made me feel very discouraged about our venture, I almost abandoned it. I even read a few articles that discouraged it. Luckily, my fellow Little Tummy Yummies author was also an advocate, so I did not feel alone and forged ahead! Here were some of the things I heard:

• There are no benefits (or they did not take the time to research possible benefits)
• They simply did not understand the point
• Why not wait until they are verbal?
• It will discourage your baby's verbal development
• You cannot teach a baby to sign
• I have had one person tell me I was silly to try it!?!?!?

I am writing this blog today to share our wonderful experience with sign language; it has been nothing but a true blessing. Using my personal experience with my family of three--soon the be four (I am not doing a scientific study here), below is what I will discuss in this article. I gleaned some of this information from "Teach Your Baby to Sign" by Monica Beyer.

1. Discuss myths about baby sign language
2. Benefits to teaching baby sign languages
3. My personal approach to teach baby sign language

Baby Sign Language:

Myths-BUSTED

I would like to reiterate, this is not scientific, this is just my family's personal experience with baby signing as we taught Little Joy. Some of the myths we busted in our adventure of baby sign language so far are listed below.

• Signing delays speech: FALSE! From the outside looking in, I can see how one may believe this as true. Someone thinks "sign language" = "no speaking"; this is absolutely not the case. Part of teaching sign language is encouraging the spoken word along with the sign. For example, as we taught Little Joy the sign "milk", we always, without exception, said "MILK" as we did the sign. She is hearing AND seeing the word. If signing were taught in luie of speaking, it may delay speech but speech was part of our approach to baby signing. And guess what? Little Joy is one of the most articulate 13 month olds. I know I am partial but you know it is true when child care workers, doctors and parents of older children tell you that. By Little Joy's first birthday she could say: button, out, purple, up, down, dog, duck, Addy, Dada, Me (that is what she calls Mommy), baby, bottle, cheese, bean, pea...and many more.
• Baby's cannot sign/baby's cannot sign before they are verbal: FALSE! I can only say that this is simply not true, Little Joy was signing as young as 7 months, so that busts this myth. Besides, all babies communicate with their hands---reaching for an object they want, pushing something away they do not want, etc. Sign language just gives purpose to the hand motions and is communicated in a way WE understand.
• There are no benefits: FALSE! I have an entire section devoted to the benefits we have experienced, but a huge one is your baby is able to communicate wants/needs without the need to whine/cry. For example, Little Joy points at an object and signs "please" when she wants it vs pointing and crying to get my attention.

Baby Sign Language:

Benefits

There are many, many benefits to teaching baby sign language, but these are just a few we experienced on our journey.

• Promotes early communication: Most children do not begin to say their first words other than the "mamama" and "dadada" babble until at least 12-14 months. Babies who learn sign language are able to communicate on a very basic level early. For us, Little Joy began consistently signing her first sign, finished, at 8 months. She signed "milk" and "finished" without great consistency at about 7 months. After she mastered her first one with consistency, her signing took off and by 12 months old she could pick up a new sign in just a few days. Had we not done sign language, at 12 (almost 13 months) I still do not think she would have an effective way to say she was finished with something. By one year she could sign: milk, more, please, snake, eat, thank you, play, finished, bye, bath, potty, change your diaper, sleep and maybe a few more I cannot remember. With that many signs she can tell us what she needs without the need for fussing which brings us to the next point.
• Communication vs. whining/crying: Clearly if a child can communicate their needs there is less frustration which means less fussing (which means a happy mommy). I will give you one practical example of this: when your little one wants a toy that is out of reach how do they communicate that need to you? Well my answer before Little Joy learned the "please" sign was, she grunted and fussed or even cried to let me know. Now? She points at the object and signs "please" until I get her the desired toy (this does NOT mean she gets anything she wants either). She has even come to find me and pointed to the room signing please, I follow and she goes to the object and signs "please" again :) Remember, fussing and crying is a normal part of any baby, pre-toddler and toddler's day so please understand we still have crying and fussing and tantrums. What I noticed was as she signed more efficiently (or even spoke) the fussing dramatically decreased. Now most of our fussing is tired or teething or diaper changing related, she hates diaper changes.
• Enhances all non-verbal communication: Only recently did I notice that Little Joy has begun to attempt to express her self in other non verbal and non sign language ways. I notice that when she is trying to communicate she uses her hands to point and reach and even makes up her own signs before restoring to crying. Random observation.
• Fun and easy: A huge benefit is teaching sign language to your baby is it's fun, easy and exciting (especially when they sign back!!). Signs are simple for us to learn and thus easy to teach and use throughout our day. In a section below I will discuss my approach, but in a nutshell it is as simple as starting with five signs and signing them at every opportunity and soon enough----your little one will respond, it is that easy!!!!
• Fills the gap: Sign Language fills the gap between a child has the cognitive ability to communicate (the process of thought) but not the physical ability (muscles required to form words).
• CAN promote early speech: Again I cannot back this up with a 500 person double blind study, but I can tell you that Little Joy's speech seems to be slightly more developed than her peers. I am NOT trying to say she is smarter or better or ANYTHING else. I am going by observations and what her doctor and other moms say. I believe Little Joy has spoken earlier because when we sign, it forces us to use the same word every time we sign it. She was able to say dog and hat clear as day at about 9-10 months but I believe it is because every time we signed it we said "dog" not "puppy", "dog", "doggie", etc. interchangeably. This was not on purpose, it was an accident. It is as if you cannot say an interchangeable word with a consistent sign. I hope that makes sense. I have lost count of the number of words Little Joy can say; some are not perfect I will be the first to admit. She can say upwards of a dozen to 15 or more words at barely 13 months. Let me reiterate, I think the early speech is related to the parents using consistent words and finding reasons to USE those words vs some giftedness she has. Consistency and Intent is all I believe it is.

Baby Sign Language:

Personal Teaching Approach

Here is a run down on how I implemented our baby sign language:

1. Selected 5 signs to use. I chose 5 signs that would excite her or would be relevant everyday to her. We started with milk, finished, dog, bath and change your diaper. Milk because she nursed 4 times a day then so we had lots of opportunities to reinforce it. Finished because it was easy to indicate finished by ending an activity or eating or anything. Dog because our precious little toy poodle is her favorite playmate and it excites her to see her anytime! Bath because it was a constant in her routine and fun (I admit we slacked on this one as we are just now really teaching it to her). Change your diaper because well we all know that occurs often!
2. Used the five signs consistently and tried to find a reason to sign them. Every time we had an opportunity to sign the word we did it. That meant every time she drank milk or got a diaper change we did our best to always sign it. We would also find an excuse to sign as well; dog was a great one to randomly reinforce.
3. Started (consistently) at 5 months. You can begin at anytime your baby is considered pre-verbal. We chose to begin at about 5 months because we were beginning solids so opportunities for signs like finished and more abounded. More and eat were not in our original list, but it soon was added! At 5 months, we used signs every chance we had.
4. How do you teach the sign? In my approach there were two ways to sign (remember there was ALWAYS a verbal cue to accompany every sign) 1) by demonstrating it; that is just doing the sign as I say the word. Keep in mind the sign has to be relevant, I should not sign dog for no reason; there should be a dog (picture or real) around so they understand what the sign MEANS. 2) By doing the sign for them. For more complicated signs or just to reinforce, I would take Little Joy's hands and do the sign for her as I said the word. This was particularly helpful with the "abstract" signs such as thank you, please and finished. In the end it is, repetition, repetition, repetition.
5. Results: This will vary so widely, so I wont even comment other than.....it will come. Keep in mind, the earlier you start the longer it might be until you see results. If you start at 11 months vs 5 months, you are likely to see results much faster.
6. Sign Explosion: Once Little Joy mastered a couple of signs she realized she was able communicate and that is when her ability and desire to sign took off. I would say the explosion happened around 10-11 months for her. At about 12 months, it only takes signing something a few times before she starts to pick up on it.
7. Start with concrete then move to the abstract: After the initial five signs are consistent, add several more concrete signs before moving on to abstract. Abstract signs would be please, thank you, yes, etc. Abstract is a bit harder to not only teach but for them to really understand the meaning. Abstract are things they do not experience directly.
8. Keep on Keeping on: Just keep on signing every chance you have and add to the sign vocabulary at the pace your child seems comfortable with.

Fun Story: We were having dinner the other night and my husband was telling me something very important. Little Joy was getting antsy from being in her high chair for an hour at this point and I knew if she drank some milk it would take her mind off getting down, at least until my husband had finished sharing with me. In all signs I said "drink your milk please". She instantly smiled and drank. It was awesome. I do not recommend always replacing your words with signs, but it was appropriate it here :)

Well, that is my journey in signing. I have enjoyed every single moment and cannot wait to sign with our baby #2 due on October!!! Please, please ask questions, make comments...anything. I want to know about your experiences too!