We live in an exciting knowledge-based economy where technology and
education have made information more freely available to common folk
than ever before. The only problem is: Are we open-minded enough to
harness the information made available to help us make educated
decisions?
One such piece of free valuable information: 20 years
of painstaking research has proven that children who use sign
language have enhanced language, mental, social and emotional
development, as compared to children who do not.
There is now a growing international movement which teaches
babies to “talk” to you even before they can actually talk! Did you
know that infants' gross motor skills (ability to grasp objects at
3-4 months) much develop faster than their fine motor skills
(articulation). As such, babies can actually use their hands to
“communicate”.
One fundamental reason for using sign language with your child,
is not to miss out on positive two-way communication during the
periods when babies' articulators are not fully formed yet.
Laura Dyer, Speech Pathologist, in her book "Look Who's Talking:
How To Enhance Your Child’s Language Development Starting At Birth",
states that typically developing children ages 8 to 22 months
benefit from learning sign language because these children can use
signs to represent words that are too difficult for them to say.
Recent research has proven that teaching your baby sign language
will provide dramatic benefits to both children and parents:
INCREASED IQ
Dr Linda Acredolo and Dr Susan Goodwyn compared babies who used
sign with babies who had not. Their research shows that the babies
who used sign had a faster rate of cognitive development than babies
who didn’t sign. Later, when the same two groups were compared at
two years of age, the signers knew about fifty more spoken words
than the other babies who hadn’t learned sign.
At the age of three, the same signing group was found speaking
and comprehending words at levels almost compared to what is
normally expected at the age of four! They also scored well on tests
of memory, mental development and fantasy play.
In fact, a ten-year study at the University of California at
Davis found that seven-year-olds who signed as babies scored an
average of twelve points higher on the standard IQ test than members
of a control group who didn’t sign as babies.
Marilyn Daniels, who has done extensive research on hearing
children who have been taught sign language, explains that this is
because there is increased neuron connectivity when babies use sign
language. As such, there is increased stimulation and brain activity
resulting in denser brain development.
INCREASED VOCABULARY
Marilyn also performed studies to determine whether adding sign
language to the curriculum in pre-kindergarten classes would improve
the students’ comprehension of the English vocabulary. Research
concluded that the children who received sign instruction showed
significant improvement in English vocabulary for students who
received the sign language instruction.
In fact, the National Institute for Child Health & Human
Development studied 140 families with eleven-month-old babies for
two years. They compared families who used signs with their babies
with families who did not. The children in the families that used
signs performed better in all tests, scoring higher in intelligence
tests, had larger vocabularies and engaged in more sophisticated
play.
CONCLUSION
Sure, learning sign language is going to take effort, especially
for hearing adults. However, after enduring nine arduous months of
child-bearing, many parents will want to give the finest education
to their children.
Teaching your children sign language when they are babies will
help to lay a good foundation to their success in future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tani Lane is the webmaster for
http://www.funsignlanguagewithbaby.com. Here you can get a copy
of the ebook - Sign Language for Babies and Beyond. Receive also a
free evideo (over 250 signs) which you can use with your baby
straightaway! A certified instructor and mother of 4 reveals her
secrets and shares real life examples of joys and obstacles to guide
you through your own journey of using sign language with your baby.
