Teaching your (aurally competent) baby sign language is all the rage at the moment, but what exactly does it consist of? And what effect will it have on my baby?
Well, baby signing was conceived by a guy called Joseph Garcia who is an expert in child development. The basic premise is that babies are able to communicate before they can control their vocal apparatus properly - teaching them a sign language is a way to allow them to express themselves. By allowing your baby to communicate, the theory goes, one can respond better to their needs and consequently reduce the amount of time they spend crying.
Nor will teaching your baby a sign language hinder their mastery of speech. In fact, research has suggested that baby signing has a positive effect on the development of speech because it exercises the mental faculties to do with communication and also provides a transitory phase between actions and words. A good example of this would be food: If you and your baby develop a sign for feeding, you could use it not only to better understand when they were hungry, but also accompany the action with the words so as to form an association between the two.
We sell several books that will help you and your baby develop your own signs:
More information can be found on these sites:
- www.sign2me.com: Dr Joseph Garcia’s website
- Tiny Talk: Signing classes across the UK
The Baby Catalogue
In Confidence