In the late 90's, signing with your hearing baby was not very popular and was actually subject to some criticism. A common belief at the time was that signing with your baby would delay his or her speech. While I'm sure you are all aware that is a myth, and everyone realizes that signing is beneficial, let me re-iterate just how beneficial it is.
Obviously, signing will reduce frustration (for both the parent and the child), and it will increase your parent/child bond. By teaching your baby to sign, you not only are empowering your child, you are giving him a jump start on his language development. Yes, baby sign language actually enhances your child's language development!
Doctors Laura Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, authors of Baby Signs (not a book I recommend using for learning baby signs as they are non-ASL - more on that later) conducted studies proving babies who signed to be more advanced than their non-signing peers, even many years later.
They found that babies who signed knew about 50 more real words at the age of two than the non-signing babies. Also, they discovered that a three year old who had signed as a baby had the vocabulary and understanding of words of what we'd expect in a four year old. Incredible!
Here is an excerpt from their book that explains why signing accelerates a baby's language development:
"Babies come into this world with a mind-boggling 100 to 200 billion brain cells (or neurons). What they don't come into the world with are the trillions and trillions of connections between and among these neurons. These connections, as much as the neurons themselves, are what enable each of us to organize our thoughts, see relationships among things, remember past events, and master language. How do these connections come about? Both their creation and their continued existence depend a great deal on a child's experiences in the world. The more often a child encounters thought-provoking objects, events, and problems, the more connections get made and strengthened.
This general principle is clearly relevant to the relation between Baby Signs and learning to talk. Every time a baby figures out that a sign is appropriate to to meet a particular goal and successfully uses it to do so, the brain circuitry devoted to thought and language becomes a little more sophisticated."
While this research was done on babies using Baby Signs, a program that does not use American Sign Language signs, I feel like the results are still noteworthy in that the concept is the same - your baby is learning to communicate much earlier than he would if he weren't signing.
The benefits of signing with your baby continue. At 8 years old, studies found signers to have an IQ averaging 12 points higher than the non-signers. Why? Acredolo and Goodwyn speculated that perhaps it was because children who signed were empowered and determined to be heard. These children developed a life long love of books, realizing that every thing can be labeled.
Wow! Who considered the benefits of signing beyond the infancy and toddler stage? I certainly didn't!
It is my personal opinion that signing would also be a great bridge between two different languages, just as it is a bridge between non-verbal and verbal communication. A sign, being kinesthetic and, in my mind, more concrete than a spoken word, would be an anchor between two different languages and a great way to show that an object has more than one name. Also, by signing and speaking a word you are giving your child several different ways to communicate, letting him choose the method he prefers. I'd be very curious to know if multi-lingual families found signing to be beneficial for their young children.
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