How Early use of Gestures and Sign Language can Promote Language Development
Around half a million Americans use sign language as their native language and many more know about it, but how many people have ever thought to teach their hearing child signs? This is what we call baby signing, and it can be beneficial to children’s language development. Baby sign is when hearing parents use gestures or signs to help their child learn to communicate. This is typically done within the first 2 years of the child’s life.
How can this help their language development?
Children’s language development goes at a rapid pace. The first thing that an infant learns is that crying will lead to food or comfort. As early as 6 months, infants can learn to use gestures for words like milk, mom, dad, and even diaper. Children’s motor skills often develop quicker than their speech. This allows the child to communicate what they want to without the parent having to guess. In a study done by Goodwyn, Acredolo, and Brown we see that hearing children who were taught gestures and signs for words outperformed children who had only been exposed to spoken language.
How to implement it into your child’s life?
In order to implement sign language into your child’s life there are a few steps to take. First find 5 words you want your baby to be able to communicate. Many times these are signs such as mom, dad, eat, more, and milk. Then in order for your child to start to understand them and use them, use the following steps. First, repetition is key! Using the signs every time the word comes up is important in learning them. Second, make sure it is fun. Sign in their line of sight with movement and facial expressions to make it interesting to the child. Finally, make sure to encourage your child and reward them with praise and attention when they do the sign.
Final Thoughts
Connecting gestures or symbolic signs to words with your child can be beneficial in many ways. Signing to your baby can help their expressive language development and allows you to communicate in multiple ways. Teaching your child signs is relatively quick and easy if you start early with your child. We have only included the basics of baby signing, but there are tons of resources available if you want to learn more.
Here at KLC Pediatric Therapy, we use sign language in addition to spoken language as one of the many ways to promote language development. All of the therapists at KLC Pediatric Therapy are passionate about early intervention! Contact us today to learn more!
Written by Brooke Barclay, Contributing Writer
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