American Sign Language is a foreign language. The signs you are teaching your baby are concepts used in this foreign language. Clayton Valli is a leading researcher and linguist and defines American Sign Language. “American Sign Language is an autonomous linguistic system whose elements are visual rather than aural. It is a fully formed language….” Teaching your child American Sign Language gives them the chance to become bilingual. Many Universities accept American Sign Language as a foreign language and have courses for it.

Deborah Parrish, M.S., Signing 4 Baby Founder

Research done by Joe Fagan from Case Western Reserve University and Susan Rose From Albert Einstein College of Medicine are finding that children who do better on memory tests when they are infants, tend to score higher on traditional measures of IQ at two, three, and even six years of age.Sign language has been proven to strengthen memory skills by combining multiple forms of learning, such as visual and auditory.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby

I have seen it happen time and time again, those children that use baby sign language are light years ahead of those who do not.  There is a lot of research out there to back it up.

Research done by Burton L. White PhD cited that “Even some thirty years ago reports appeared that indicated that children taught sign language had acquired about seventy-five signs by the time they were nine months old. In contrast, the typical child of that age could understand fewer than ten words, regardless of how bright she was”.

For more benefits and research visit our site at www.signing4baby.com

Andrea Burton Ploehn

Your child will experience increased self esteem and confidence. As your child learns sign language and is able to communicate with you and other adults, they will experience a boost in self worth that will stay with them for life.Your child’s reading and spelling ability will accelerate. They learn to identify hundreds of objects and emotions through sophisticated play and increased interest in reading and books because of a heightened understanding of concepts.

You’ll connect with your child like never before! With today’s demanding society, children are getting less attention than ever before…to the point they are relying on video games and other “distractions” to influence them. Signing with your baby will allow you to connect with your child and make YOU their center of attention!

Your child’s life will be infinitely easier! You see, signing with your baby stimulates brain activity and engages the visual cortex…enabling your child to “get it” a lot faster than anyone else. That means your child will get a “head start” in life!

Your child will have improved memory storage. Using sign language helps open separate memory storage for cognitive development. By using visual, audio, and sensory stimulation, these multiple forms of learning allow for all types of learners to absorb information in a unique way.

Your child’s verbal ability will increase. Studies show that children who use baby sign language can be months and even up to a full year ahead of children who did not sign.

When I first heard about using sign language with babies, I was pretty skeptical.  I already knew sign language, but it had never crossed my mind to use it with a baby.  After a lot of research, I decided that when I had my first child, I would try it out.  Now after having three children and using sign language with my oldest two, I can honestly say it’s one of the best things I’ve done for them.  My third child is only 1 month old, but I am definitely going to continue using baby sign language with him.

One article I found was done by Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn, which showed in a long term study that “children using standardized language measures, children at 24 months using simple signs to communicate, were on average talking more like 27 or 28 month old.”

The study alsoshowed a “three-month advantage over the children who were not signing. Also the infants using signs were putting together significantly longer sentences. Then at 36 months the children using signs on average were talking more like 47 month old which translates to almost a full year ahead of non-signing children”.

It almost sounds too good to be true, but from personal experience I know that it really does work.  Both my son and daughter have been months ahead of the average.  I had people coming up to me in the grocery store and they’d ask how old my daughter was.  When I’d tell them 15 months, they’d stare at me in shock… because at that point she was saying full clear sentences.  I can’t tell you how secretly pleased I was!

If anyone is trying to decide if they should use sign language with their child, do the research and find all the resources you can.  That’s what I did, and the evidence was overwhelming that the benefits are amazing.

If you have any questions about my experience with my family using baby sign language, feel free to email me. signing4baby@hotmail.com .

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Co-Founder Signing 4 Baby

As a family we like to play games. We were playing hide and seek one night and Brandon started signing “where, I don’t know”. He kept looking for Annie but he just couldn’t figure it out. He did this when he was about 13 months old. Not many children can say full sentences like, “Where is Annie, I don’t know where she’s hiding”. With sign language though, he was able to communicate this exact thought.

When we can give our hearing babies the advantage of both ASL and English the benefits are fantastic. In her book Dancing with Words, Marylin Daniels explains that “Sign language has the unique capacity to tap into the natural exchange between hand and brain, optimizing the emergence of language in the child because of the physiological advantage of American Sign Language (ASL) over English.”

Games are a great time to reinforce signing. Your child is already doing something that they enjoy and when you add a sign to that environment then they automatically associate enjoyment with the signs.

The other day I was in the store and Brandon was signing, “Sad baby”. I looked around and there was a baby in the other line crying. I hadn’t even noticed him crying, but Brandon was really concerned. I thought it was amazing that at his young age he connected a baby crying with the baby being sad. Insights like this have let me know that I can teach even more advanced things and give him a jump-start.

Researchers Acredola and Goodwyn show in a study that “signing babies scored higher in intelligence tests, understood more words, had larger vocabularies and engaged in more sophisticated play. Signing Babies were followed until they were eight years old and on average scored 12 points higher on intelligence tests”.

Using baby sign language is such a great tool for parents, it really does help you tap into your children’s emotions.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

Lesson 8

Story: One time we were talking about catching something, and Annie started signing cat. If she hadn’t signed that, I never would have known that she misunderstood us. This wasn’t the only time this happened. Sign language helped me to clarify misunderstandings and explain things better so that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

Research: Communicating requires thinking, planning, and decision-making. Each one of these activities stimulates the developing brain in important ways that benefit the child the next time around. Because Baby Signing enables children to communicate at remarkably young ages, Baby Signers enjoy a “jump start” in the development of the neural substrate of language. (Acredola and Goodwyn)

Skill Development: Using signs can reinforce things you are already trying to teach your child. Just like using repetition in signing allows for more success, when you reinforce discipline or a concept in more than one way this also allows for more success. Just like some children learn visually and others audibly, you can ensure that they get as much information as possible to make the connections you are trying to stress.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby

When my children were first verbalizing sometimes it was hard to understand what they were saying. It was amazing how using the sign language helped, I’d ask them to sign the word so that I could tell what it was, and then I could help them verbally say it. This helped a lot with frustration, I know for a lot of kids they get so angry when they are trying to say something to their parents, but the parents just don’t understand.

Research from Joseph Garcia tells us that “Communication, like physical contact is an essential component in our children’s development. …Authorities suggest that 90% of the information we absorb is received through our vision.” Babies are born with intelligence and they learn faster than their muscles develop which would allow them to speak using verbal language. As infants learn sign they can begin the foundation for “mutual understanding” and this manual communication can contribute greatly to the “bonding process.” (Joseph Garcia, Sign 2 Me)

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby

I have to tell you an awsome experience I had a last year when my little boy was just barely one years old.

We went motorcycling with my parents and took some pictures of the kids up in the mountains. Brandon loves motorcycles and picked up on this sign very quickly. A few weeks later my mom sent us the pictures. Brandon found one of the pictures of him in the mountains and started signing motorcycle.

The amazing thing about this is that the motorcycle wasn’t in the picture, he recognized that this was the place we had gone to motorcycle. I couldn’t believe how good his memory and recognition was, he was only 16 months at the time.

Some helpful research I found that relates to using baby sign language was

Andrea Ploehn, Founder Signing 4 Baby