American Sign Language, or ASL for short, is a fantastic tool that facilitates and enhances early communication between parents and children, children and their peers, and children and care-givers.  It’s becoming increasingly popular to teach babies to communicate by signing. 

Before they acquire verbal language, hearing babies communicate by making vocal sounds and through body language. This is natural for them and it’s the reason that teaching ASL to babies and toddlers makes sense.  It’s been shown that learning a second language, such as ASL, at a very young age can cause an increase of as much as 15 I.Q. points but, there are other, practical reasons for teaching babies and toddlers to communicate using sign language.

Laine Podell-Camino, a presenter for Sign 2 Your Baby, and the proprietor of A Mother’s Haven in Encino, conducts an eight week ASL class, as well as Saturday workshops for hearing families with hearing babies or toddlers.  Laine, who specialized in early intervention for parents of deaf children and holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education and a Master’s Degree from Gallaudet University says, “I saw hearing and deaf babies sign up to 20 signs at 12 months old, and 75 signs at 18 months.  This is a large vocabulary for a toddler.”  When children can communicate their needs through signs, the frustration level is lowered for both children and parents.  Too often children end up crying or having tantrums when they are not understood, but such occurrences lessen when there is good communication.  “Teaching your baby to sign is one way to avoid a meltdown,” says Laine. 

Barbara Granoff, a presenter for Sign 2 Your Baby and a former teacher of deaf children, teaches early education and kindergarten teachers at Orange Coast College how to incorporate signing into their classrooms and, separately, she conducts ASL workshops for parents and babies.

“When I had my baby I started signing with her at about six months of age.  It was very natural.  I started with a few signs at meal time, like want to ‘eat’ and ‘more’ and ‘done’ and ‘yes.’  I started getting it back at 10 months to a year, receptively at about 9 or 10 months.  On my baby’s one year birthday after her first taste of ice cream, her hands flew ‘more, more, more!’”  Like all parents who use ASL with their hearing babies, Barbara also spoke the words she was signing.

“I almost stopped signing with my baby at 15 months of age, but so many parents asked me to teach them and their kids.  So I did research and discovered that there were many benefits for children who learned to communicate in ASL -- from increased self-confidence and enhanced verbal skills, to an interest in books and reading.  I feel it’s one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids,” says Barbara.  Barbara uses a variety of learning tools in her workshops, including WE SIGN songs and games. “Parents come with their babies and we do fun songs and activities,” she says.

Would you like your baby or toddler to be able to ask for specific foods, tell you where it hurts, when he needs help, that she wants her stuffed bunny, or that she wants to be held?  This kind of communication is not only possible, but it’s a joy!  Check out these web sites for more information about how to sign with your baby.

http://www.abcmesign.com/files/benefits.htm

http://www.sign2me.com/

http://www.babysigns.com/

http://www.amothershaven.com/sign.html

Ana signs 'milk' to her mom to get another glass of milk. Photo by Sign 2 Me.