I was at a restaurant the other day and I saw a mom using sign language with her baby.  I asked the mom if her daughter knew many signs.  She told me she knew three: more, all done, and milk.  I asked her if she had taught her older kids sign language when they were babies and if she’d taught them more signs.  She said she had taught them sign language, but just the same three signs.  Then she said, but I don’t know why I do it, because it’s not like I can’t tell that they want more food when they try and grab it, and I know they’re all done when they push the food away.

My reply to her was, oh that’s too bad… maybe you should teach her more signs.  I was able to teach my children other food signs and when they woke up in the morning they’d tell me they wanted some bread, or a banana.  They could also tell me they were thirsty, but they wanted milk, not water.

This is just one example of how using sign language made it easier to know exactly what my children wanted.  A lot of parents I’ve talked to that haven’t gone on to teach their babies more signs just don’t see the benefit, but once they realize how much more their babies understand and are able to do with sign language, they are blown away!

Why not use sign language with your baby, it’s easy, has incredible lasting benefits, and it’s fun!

Andrea Ploehn

Just to name a few ways that signing has helped my children: Clarifying what they are trying to verbally say. I remember when Annie was little for instance, she was listening to the adults talk and we were saying something about how to catch something. She kept looking at me funny and then she signed “Cat”. The whole time she thought we were saying Cat. If she hadn’t have signed it we both would have gone on confused and frustrated that the other person wasn’t making any sense.

Signing has helped my kids with leaning their colors and animals. When I’ve taught my kids colors and animals I teach them the sign for them as well. When they get stuck on what the color is for instance, I simply sign it and it’s a quick reminder of what the color is. Even though they may just be repeating the “name of the sign” I showed them, I feel that I’m giving them another symbol for what they are looking at. In the same way we have verbal symbols that represent the color or object. The verbal symbols are so abstract that it can be hard for a child to connect the meanings. Sign language for a lot of people is easier to connect with its meaning. Incorporating many ways of learning something only adds to the number of resources they have to pull from. Kids all learn in different ways, so the more options you give them in learning the more likely they are to learn the concepts more thoroughly and quickly.

Another way signing has helped my children is adding to their self confidence. I mentioned in an earlier blog that sign language makes my daughter feel “cool”. Annie loves showing other kids and family signs. It has connected her with us and others that sign. It’s made her unique and smart in the eyes of others. It’s allowed her to communicate with my deaf cousin. It’s opened up a whole new way of exploring and learning things. All of this has helped to boost her self confidence. And now I see it happening with my son as well. Not to mention, the bond that my kids have with each other because of sign language. Annie helps to teach her younger brothers sign language and they all benefit because of the positive interaction.

Signing has also helped my children verbally. Both my daughter and son have been well ahead of the average as far as speaking and verbally communicating. My daughter was saying full sentences at 15 months old. And my son was speaking months ahead of the other boys his age. Every child is different, but I feel that my children benefited tremendously from using sign language.

The list goes on, and I’ll comment more on it later when I have more time… but those are just a few of the benefits I’ve seen personally in my own children.

Andrea Ploehn, co-founder www.signing4baby.com

Question:

Hi,

I’ve been reading your blog and visiting your website. I also sign with my daughter. The early benefits have been amazing! Besides all the typically mentioned early communication skills, sign language is helping her to start early reading and spelling skills (she’s 27 months old). But I’ve been wondering, when do the benefits of learning sign language “wear off”? Is there an age where it all seems to even out between signing babies and non-signers? I’ve read Acredolo’s study about the increased IQ points, but I’ve also read that early advances seem to even out by 3 years old and another that says they even out by 3rd grade.Hmmm…What’s with the fascination with 3?
Holly Miller http://hollytriedit.blogspot.com/search/label/sign%20language

Answer:

Thanks for emailing me, I love talking about sign language.  As far as any research that I’ve read about child development advances in connection with using sign language, I have only seen studies that are documented up to the age of 8, like you said.  I’m not aware of any other studies that have tracked a group of children past that point.

If you want my personal opinion though, I think that there are so many other benefits connected with using sign language as a child that last a life time.  Besides the academic benefits of early reading skills, spelling advancements, language development, and enhanced verbal abilities, etc… I feel that signing with children allows for them to develop abilities that aren’t typically documented by research.  For instance, the ability for the child to connect in unique ways with others and build greater self esteem,  increasing memory storage and problem solving abilities, learning to communicate and problem solve in multiple ways (visual, audio, and sensory), and learning a second recognized language, etc…

So to answer the question, when does it “wear off”, I honestly don’t think it does.  No matter what, children that use sign language are being exposed to a unique and special way of communicating that I feel gives them the “upper hand” in child development.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, signing4baby.com

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.

“How Can I Give My Children

The Social Skills,

Intellectual Development,

And Self Confidence That

They Will Need To Be

Successful In Life?!”

I’m sure that as a parent you have felt the same way too, so I started to research ways that would not only work well, but also be a lot of fun for the kids.

That’s when I stumbled across something that changed my life.

Let me explain…

One day while researching online I found a site that talked about the benefits of baby sign language!

It was interesting to me because I had actually studied sign language in high school and college, but didn’t realize how beneficial it was to teach my kids!

After reading this I started to become obsessed with learning more.  I began brushing up on my sign language and learning how to teach it to my kids.  I ended up buying stacks of baby sign language books; I searched the internet for as much information, resources and research that I could to decide the best way to teach my kids!

An amazing part of the story is that my aunt has a master’s degree in deaf education.  I explained to her what I was learning about, and she told me that she actually had a lot of experience using sign language with newborn babies!

“That’s When I Decided To

Use Sign Language

With My First Child”

A few months later my little girl was born.  We named her Annie.

At first she would just stare at me, but soon I noticed she started to respond to the signs I would teach her.

The first sign she recognized was “eat.”  As soon as I signed “eat” she would instantly start looking for what food I was going to give her!

Right after that she started to make signs to communicate back to me!

• When she was hungry, she would sign “eat”
  

• When she was tired, she would sign “sleep”
  

• When she was thirsty, she would sign “milk”
  

• And the list goes on and on…

As she grew older, it got even better!  In fact, before she was even a year old, every time she would get frustrated and start to throw a tantrum, I would just ask her to sign what was wrong to me…

… and 9 times out of 10 she used the sign to get her point across and the conflict was resolved!!!

By the time Annie turned 18 months old, she knew over 150 signs and could speak in full sentences!  By 21 months she had memorized “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and was speaking almost like an adult when most of her friends could only say a few words!

After seeing the benefits from Annie, we did the same thing with our new baby Brandon, and have had very similar success.

I have loved using baby sign language and I hope that as many parents as possible will be able to experience the same benefits and joy as our family has.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

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