My third child has been my slowest as far as verbalization.  With each of my children it’s been interesting to see how sign language has benefited them in different ways.  For instance, now that my little boy is starting to talk more I’ve actually started focusing on sign language more again just so I can understand what he is trying to verbalize.

An example is how he uses “Ga” for multiple things.  He says “ga” for water, “ga, ga” for dog, and “gaa” for book (I have no idea why!)  I’d picked up on water and dog, because he was already using those signs, thank goodness.  Then one day he was trying to tell me he wanted something and I had no idea what he was talking about.  We wandered around the house trying to figure out what he needed.  Finally he saw the book he wanted..”gaa, gaa, gaa”.  What in the world!  I never would have guessed.  Right then I signed book to him, then I took his hands and had him sign book.  We did it a few times until I could tell he understood.  Later that night when I was putting him to bed he said “ga”.  I asked if he wanted some water, then he said no and started signing “book”.  I grabbed a book and he started jumping up and down yelling, “yeah”!  That was ten times easier than wandering around the house. 

This is just another simple example of why I LOVE using baby sign language and how in many instances signing can help to advance and clarify verbal language skills.

Andrea Ploehn, signing4baby.com