BABY SIGN LANGUAGE: “I SEE what you are saying!”

Language is both verbal and non-verbal, making sign language a perfect way to build your babies’ early communication skills. Baby sign language is not just for children who are deaf or have hearing challenges. Communication is powerful and research has proven sign language does not inhibit spoken language development, quite the opposite. According to research, using sign language may increase language and cognition, even in hearing infants, as young as 4-6 months old.

BENEFITS Sign Language

1. Bonding: parent & caregiver bonding increases with positive communication and sign language is a tool to build these skills

2. Decreases Frustration: babies know what they want and need before they can successfully communicate it with spoken language; with sign language they can communicate earlier, before they become upset and frustration

3. Social Emotional Development: adults know that communication can be verbal and non-verbal, “insert eye roll”, and babies do too. Social connection and emotional understanding are rooted in gestures.

4. Enhances Language Development: sign language and spoken language both lay the groundwork for the development of fluent language and sign further enriches early language exposure

5. Improved Intelligence: language drives cognition, and as early as 3 months of age the two become inevitably linked, by 4-6 months this link can be studied

What Signs Should I Start With?

There is no list of what to start with, use your family, routines & priorities to guide you. Mommy, daddy and eat, are common early sign choices, but pick what is right for you and your little one.

1. Common Routine Words: words associate with family, meals, bath time, daycare/school, or bedtime are great places to start

2. Words to Ease Frustration: more, help, all done are great signs to communicate need

3. Something of Interests: a favorite toy or activity like ball, truck, baby or music

4. Words to Affirm Feelings: happy, hungry, hurt, sad, love or sorry

5. Emerging Words: “Ba” might mean bottle, blanket and bath, you can use signs to differentiate emerging word sounds into full words

6. Nouns: nouns like mommy, daddy, car, dog or cat are great places to start

Over time you can layer on verbs, adjectives, or manners like please and thank you. You can eventually pair 2-3 signs together, like more juice or stop please.

When to Start?

• NOW: Multiple studies show babies as young as 4 months old have benefited from exposure to sign language. You can start practicing signs with your baby as soon as they are watching your face and hands, babies won’t use signs they don’t see first. This will help you establish a routine for yourself.

• Babies will typically begin using some common signs, between 6-10 months. Remember babies and toddlers might make up their own version of a sign, which is great too, because communication is communication!

I am NOT recommending you stop talking, reading, labeling and explaining to your babies & toddlers, but pairing spoken words with sign language is a powerful tool. Some parents and caregivers are better at reading early signals their little person is putting down, but most parents who use sign language feel empowered to better understand their child’s wants & needs. Pick a sign or two and try it, I am confident you will SEE what I am saying.  

LUCK, LOVE & LIGHT Rachel

P.S. If you have concerns about hearing loss, talk to your pediatrician about the risk factors and signs of early hearing loss. Sign language remains foundational for the deaf and hearing-impaired communities.

RESEARCH

1.     Berent I, de la Cruz-Pavía I, Brentari D, Gervain J. Infants differentially extract rules from language. Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 8;11(1):20001.

2.     Bhatia P, Rems-Smario J, Jaradeh K, K Chan D. Childhood Hearing Health and Early Language Exposure: A Culturally Sensitive Approach. Adv Pediatr. 2022 Aug;69(1):23-39.

3.     De Ryck M, Van Lierde K, Alighieri C, Hens G, Bettens K. A protocol for a randomized-controlled trial to investigate the effect of infant sign training on the speech-language development in young children born with cleft palate. Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2023 Nov-Dec;58(6):2212-2221.

4.     Hall WC. What You Don't Know Can Hurt You: The Risk of Language Deprivation by Impairing Sign Language Development in Deaf Children. Matern Child Health J. 2017 May;21(5):961-965.

5.     Novack MA, Brentari D, Goldin-Meadow S, Waxman S. Sign language, like spoken language, promotes object categorization in young hearing infants. Cognition. 2021 Oct;215:104845.

6.     Novack MA, Chan D, Waxman S. I See What You Are Saying: Hearing Infants' Visual Attention and Social Engagement in Response to Spoken and Sign Language. Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 30;13:896049.

7.     Perszyk DR, Waxman SR. Linking Language and Cognition in Infancy. Annu Rev Psychol. 2018 Jan 4;69:231-250.