Teaching Sign Language To The Baby Helps Him Express Himself | The Communication Blog

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Teaching Sign Language To The Baby Helps Him Express Himself

By Jason Grant

Before you small baby can be expected to speak his first words, the meanings of those words should form pictures in his head. The need for this type of perception becomes even greater when the baby starts to stutter his first complete sentences. There is no better way to graphically represent meaning than with the gestures and movements of baby sign language

The universality of sign language

Many people have seen movies where strangers come to a foreign land, not knowing the tongue of the natives there. The only way they can communicate is by the use of basic human gestures that everyone understands. After a time of associating movements with meaning, the lost people learn to speak like the natives. That is baby sign language.

Your language is foreign to your baby

In the early days of its life, an infant is unable to make sense of the sounds that we use to communicate with one another. It is only by relating those sound to the actions and signs we do as we utter them that the baby learns their meaning. Signing our meaning with gestures is a good way to teach meaning to infants.

Our first language was baby sign language

Even before they have begun to utter their first words, babies know that raising their arms to their mother means they want her to pick them up. Babies also seem to associate the act of swinging the head from side to side and back with negation. The same natural association seems to exist with nodding and affirmation.

There are many other actions that people associate with an idea. These actions should be used by parents when they talk to their babies. The words, reinforced by the movements, will make grasping the meaning of what was said easier. As a result they learn to speak earlier

The comprehension of language is hastened by baby sign language

The fact that babies use sign language should not be taken as a hindrance to their capacity for developing the ability to use spoken language. Experiments show that babies who use sign language can express themselves as adequately as babies one year older than they are. Other studies also indicate that the knowledge of sign language often comes hand in hand with a higher IQ

The types of sign language

Although the signs we use with our babies are entirely made up by us most of the time, there is nothing wrong with using one of the two formal sets of symbols in the world today. You might want to use either the British or the American system of signs with your child.

You may also start out with your own symbols and then migrate to one of the systems mentioned once the baby has grown in to a young boy or girl. The advantage of those formal systems is that the vocabulary is far more comprehensive. But even when using sign language, you should always accompany gestures with words. This prevents the child from abandoning vocal expression altogether.

As already mentioned, baby sign language is conducive to learning spoken language early. Teaching your child some form of sign talk stimulates his creativity by forcing him to discover new gestures to express new meanings. Eventually he will learn to be as inventive in spoken language. The skill also gives him the ability to communicate with deaf persons. Also it is an excellent way of talking without making a sound.

Doc # JG-712-UAW-uop9r

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