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babies and sign language
I have several friends who are teaching their babies sign language. I don't get it. Am I missing something?
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Re: babies and sign language
My friend tried to teach her daughter sign language when she was a baby but said it was a total wasted effort. The idea was that babies get frustrated because they can't communicate their basic needs, and before they can speak, signing can help ease the frustration.
However, according to my friend, it never worked. For the record, her daughter is now 2 and can speak better than some 5 year olds we know!
For my DD, it definitely helped her communicate before she could talk. From a development persepctive (I'm a pediatric occupational therapist), the hand/arm muscles are able to do more refined movements long before the muscles of the tongue, cheeks, lips. So, in that sense, babies can learn to use their hands to communicate before their mouths are developmentally ready to speak.
Starting somewhere around 7 or 8 months (I think) we started teaching DD some signs. I never tried to teach her every sign out there or anything, but she learned signs for: more, all done, drink, eat, book, milk, play, maybe one or two others. It worked really well for us and we plan to teach DD #2 as well. DD talks up a storm now - I think she's just a talkative kid; I don't think it's because she learned signs as an infant. And I don't think she remembers the signs anymore because she stopped using them when she started talking. It served its purpose though!
I think a few signs are great to help communication. Maggie learned eat way before she could say and some kids come up with their own signs for things if it is a motion you do a lot. She learned the eat sign at daycare and I remember one day after naptime just rambling and talking to her and asking her if she was hungry and she made the eat sign. I was surprised she knew what I said let alone responded with her own want.
I don't think it needs to be super structured or they need to learn a ton of signs though unless they are having communication problems. My sister's friend has a daughter who didn't really say any words until after 18mo but she had a variety of signals for what she wanted and she was an early pointer to help get her way.
TTC #1 Cycle 14 - IUI#1=BFN, IUI#2=BFP | TTC #2 Cycle 8=BFP!!
You can also check out this website:
https://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/glossary-photos.html
I didn't really get it at first either, but read up on it after getting some stuff from friends who are speech language pathologists and think it is great now because of the communication skills and frustration avoidance. The books say that you can start teaching it at 6 months, but they probably won't respond until at least 9 months.
Troy does a variety of signs and also talks - the books also say that it helps with language skills because they can put their thoughts into a concept and that easily translates from signing to talking.
Troy did some signs here and there for a while, but around 18 months, he started talking and signing all kinds of things. I was so surprised at some of the things that he picked up that I had no idea he was paying attention to. Really cool stage!