Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Baby Sign Language

I'm a big fan of Scott Hanselman. Aside from his many useful technical posts, I enjoy reading his posts about his son, Zenzo. That's due at least in part to the fact that Zenzo is right around a year younger than my daughter Ellen, so hearing about Zenzo learning to crawl, walk, or whatever brings me back to when Ellen was passing the same milestones.

 

It was with particular interest, however, that I read Scott's latest Zenzo post, entitled "Baby Sign Language". I was going to leave a comment on his blog, but frankly I just don't like comments. It's a subject for another post, but essentially I find that I just never go back to the site after I leave a comment - I've tried stuff like CoComment, but nothing has really been natural and easy. So I figured I'd just post here instead - the trackback is generated automatically, which is better than nothing.

 

But to the subject at hand: Baby Sign Language. We did this with Ellen. I'm a HUGE fan of it. But I knew I would be - I have a brother who is thirteen years younger than me, so I can clearly remember him as a baby. He has Down Syndrome, so he was unable to speak at all until he was nearly three. It was just too difficult a skill. My parents got the brilliant idea of teaching him ASL, and we were all signing simple signs with him for probably a year before he could communicate verbally. It was great - really helped him express himself.

 

Given my experience, I was pretty determined to teach Ellen sign language as well. Alice (my wife) was totally open to the idea (indeed, she probably would have done it regardless of whether I'd be interested) so we started with Ellen when she was something like six months old. For us, the primary sign was for "milk", which we'd show her every time she got fed.

 

Just like Scott, it was initially like signing to a wall. She didn't seem to care, and she certainly didn't sign back. But I knew from my brother that it was just a matter of time, and sure enough, at about eight months, Ellen was able to mime the sign back to us. It's pretty amazing to get any communication whatsoever (other than smiling and crying) from an eight-month-old.

 

Of course, she stopped signing shortly thereafter for a good six weeks, but once she started again, there was no stopping her. She probably knew about ten signs ("milk", "eat", "more", etc.) before she could speak her first word ("ball"), and she probably knew over two dozen when her verbal vocabulary passed her signing one. It was our primary way of communicating with her for months and months, and was a great help to both her and to us in knowing what she wanted.

 

Right around the time Ellen was really catching on to the signs, we had a friend staying with us for an extended time. He'd been hit by a car, so he had a lot of time to sit around and watch Ellen learn. His comment? "I'm totally doing this with my kids when I have them." Which was my exact sentiment from watching my brother.

 

It's funny for me to hear resistance to the idea. The one that really puzzles me is the "it'll slow down their speech" one. Not only is this contrary to clinical evidence (IIRC - we did the research but I no longer have the citation), but my personal experience has been the opposite. Ellen, like Zenzo, is bilingual in verbal languages (Chinese and English), and despite that seems to have verbal capabilities comparable to her contemporaries. Bilingual children generally take a bit longer to reach the same level of speech in a single language than children only learning one language (again, I don't have a citation any more).

 

But setting that aside, I always point out to people that all children use sign language. Every kid reaches their hands up when they want to be picked up, and every kid waves to indicate "goodbye". There are probably other examples - gestures are so baked into communication that it's hard to even think of them. Teaching ASL is just an extension of this.

 

I can't recommend teaching ASL to your baby strongly enough. It's totally worth it. And don't worry if you don't know ASL - just make up some sign and use it consistently. We used to do that all the time for new stuff we didn't know the sign for. Of course, it's not hard to find signs on the Internet, but when you're in the heat of the moment, anything will do as long as you pick something, tell your spouse, and stick with it.

 

I'll close here by answering one more of the questions Scott posed: Does Ellen still sign? Yes she does, but not to communicate. She communicates exclusively (and nearly endlessly :) ) verbally, but there are about five signs she still makes even when speaking. For example, she still signs "sorry" even as she says it - in English or in Chinese.

23 comments:

  1. I agree wholeheartedly. We taught a few signs to each of our three kids, and it's was a big help. The fact is, pre-verbal kids still have a desire to express themselves, and their motor skills develop faster than their verbal skills. Sign language is a great bridge to help get past that difficult phase where they know what they want, but can't tell you.



    Signs we taught included "milk", "juice", "eat", "more", "Mommy", "Daddy", "up", and "down", and a few others. That simple vocabulary was enough to help a 10-month-old get some messages across that otherwise would have been sources of frustration.



    Oh, and our experience has not been that their speech was impacted or delayed. They're all excessively, constantly verbal, and from an early age.

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  2. I'll be doing that with my kids when they come. I can't wait to "hear" from them as soon as possible.

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  3. Have a look of how chinese use hand signs to count:

    http://www.chinese-tools.com/resources/number-gestures.html

    Interresting!

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  4. Signing is a huge help. My children are now 10, 5, and 3 and we still use three signs almost daily: bathroom, yes, and no. It's really helpful to be able to indicate a need to "go potty" without announcing the need to a large crowd.

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  5. well.. actually i'm not sure that signing is so important..

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  6. I see. Are you going to defend that position? I don't have a control - if I had twins I suppose I could have signed with one and not the other - but I can say that empirically it was very rewarding to be able to communicate with a pre-verbal child. And not that I can site it, but there actually is clinical evidence in favor of the practice.



    So maybe you're just trolling.

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  7. i taught my oldest then lapsed at my second. my third was taught more signs than the first. all i can say is that it is so much easier, less confusing to teach them to "talk" before they can talk. they dont just learn the language, they learn how to express themselves. babies can express themselves so much earlier than they have the physical capacity to speak.

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  8. I have a question, I came across this blog by googling, and I know you wrote this blog a LONG time ago, but hopefully you'll see this comment and write me back or someone who has had experience with this might be able to help. I have a 5 and a half month old... I want to teach him how to sign to better communicate, but I want to teach him both English and Chinese too... so how do I go about it? My husband doesn't speak a lick of Chinese, so the original plan was for him to speak to my son in English and I speak to my son in Chinese, but now that I'm going to incorporate signing, do I sign and say the items in Chinese or English? Please help... you can email me at jchen6782@gmail.com Thanks!

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  9. I love sign language! Right now I'm learning how to sign with my baby on MindBites

    The author's name is Laura Berg and she teaches baby sign language classes (you can sign up online, google search: Mysmarthands) as well as how to make your own baby sign language flash cards. I'm loving her baby sign language video on dictionary terms and I hope she comes out with a DVD soon!

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  10. I have been using the Baby Signs(R) Program for six years with my three boys. The results are amazing! There has been so much research done on the benefits; reduced tantrums, higher IQ, greater parent/child bond, greater reading and vocabulary skills….. I can’t see a reason not to teach your child to sign!

    Just yesterday my 14 month old was sitting in his high chair with a sippy cup of juice. He (like always) said “uh-oh” and threw it on the floor. So I put it in the fridge and we all continued our breakfast. A few minues later he was getting upset and pointing at the fridge doing his sign for “milk”. I gave him his juice and he threw it back on the floor and kept signing “milk”. So I filled him a glass of milk and he was so happy! If he didn’t use Baby Signs(R) then I would’ve thought he was just ready to get down and wasn’t thirsty, not that he didn’t want the juice and preferred milk instead.They really do know what they want and they are so proud when they realize they’ve been understood.

    I am a Certified Independent Baby Signs(R) Instructor in Oregon offering classes for Parents and Caregivers, Parent/child classes, specialized playgroup classes and ECE (Early Childhood Education) classes for daycare centers. Private classes at your location available. Each class comes with a great kit full of tools to help you continue signing with your baby at home.

    Inquire @ babysignswithelizabeth@gmail.com

    And whether you take a class or teach yourself at home just keep signing with those babies!

    ReplyDelete
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