One parent asks:
Q: Baby sign language has become extremely popular recently. I’ve heard only wonderful things about it, including that it eases frustration and promotes verbal language. However, my niece has been taught baby sign language and is now 18 months old and has yet to speak a word. She seems content to just demand food and drink with her hands. Does baby sign language actually delay verbal language in many cases?
The answer given by msnbc author Victoria Clayton replies:
A:The short answer is no, according to Dr. Lynn Mowbray Wegner, a pediatrician in Chapel Hill, N.C., and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. In fact, signing is a very good … err … sign. It means your niece is communicating effectively, which is a major step at this point in her life.
The exact form of this communication varies. Some parents rely on gestures based on American Sign Language. Others create their own signs for everyday objects and emotions.
“Communication is communication. Signing, gesturing, using communication boards and other assestive methods are all acceptable in the very young child who is trying to get his message across and understand what others say to him,” says Wegner.
Part of the problem may be that you think your niece should be speaking by now. That’s not really true. While it’s fairly common to read or hear that toddlers “should be” saying a certain number of words by a certain age, psychologist Vikram Jaswal, director of the Child Learning and Language Laboratory at the University of Virginia, encourages parents and caretakers not to buy into this. “In my experience I’ve seen a huge individual variation in the rate of vocabulary and language development in general,” says Jaswal.
Although many kids will say their first words around their first birthdays just as many speak later. Some babble endlessly and some seem to skip it altogether and start spouting full (although brief) sentences. “Late or early speaking says nothing about the child’s future capabilities or brilliance,” says Jaswal.
Since we assume that your niece is living in a typical environment where other people speak to her and speak to one another, speech is almost sure to come. “Kids typically try to use the type of communication that’s conventional in their community,” says Jaswal. If you want to help your niece along, though, talk more to her and ask her more questions. Basically, try to engage her. The more she’s spoken to, the more likely she is to try it herself.
In fact, even when caretakers are signing to your niece, they should also be speaking the words they’re signing, says psychologist Linda Acredolo, co-author of ”Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk.”
“Talking and signing together flood the baby with language,” says Acredolowhose research, published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, indicates signing may even give children a slight future verbal edge. “At 36 months, the [signing] babies in our study were speaking, on average, the equivalent of non-signing 47 month olds,” she says.
It also helps if there are plenty of people around who do their best to understand what the child is trying to say. When adults don’t respond to a toddler’s vocalizations with correct replies and actions, the child may try to “fix” the miscommunication with physical gestures, pointing, patting the person or using signs that have been successful in eliciting past responses, notes Wegner. So if adults usually didn’t understand your niece’s babbling but they do understand a sign, she may opt for that method of communication right now (although in the long run it won’t influence her ability to speak).
Consider, also, when you see your niece. If you usually see her at night, your view of what she does could be skewed. At 18 months, if it is late in the day and she’s very tired and very proficient with signing, it may be easier to sign or gesture than hunt for the correct word and articulate it so the audience understands, says Wegner. This is especially true if the child’s articulation is not precise and the adults haveto really exert effort to understand what she is saying. Adults also get tired late in the day and may not listen carefully (or they may not be familiar enough with the child) so they don’t give the child the response the child is seeking.
There are times when concern is warranted, though. If a child has been using words and then stops and seems withdrawn or socially remote, Wegner says, it’s cause for further investigation. A pediatrician may identify temporary hearing deficits, other developmental delays or underlying health conditions affecting the child.
Other than that, don’t worry. “If the child is enjoying it and the parent is enjoying it, it creates a good interaction. It’s fun and it’s not going to be detrimental … the more you communicate the better the child’s experience will be,” says Jaswal.
I agree with this article. I think that a lot of misconception comes from parents thinking that when you use baby sign language you aren’t continuing to maintain the verbal stimulation as well. But according to the research done by Acredolothe advanced verbal abilities come when the parents are signing and saying the words. The results are not as advanced if only saying or only signing the words to the children. It makes perfect sense to me that you should always give your children as many different kinds of stimulants in learning as possible. We all learn in different ways, many concepts are much easily understood for some children in a visual context apposed to an audioone or viceversa.
So the key is to make sure you are continuing to use both forms of communicating, verbal and sign.
Andrea Burton Ploehn, www.signing4baby.com