I heard that some daycares are teaching sign language to all kids. Supposedly young children can pick it up before they can even talk. They say you can communicate with your child earlier by doing this, like when they are hungry, thirsty or have to go to the bathroom. Do you think this is really possible?
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i think it’s possible and really neat.
It’s becoming more common for daycares and new parents to teach children American Sign Language. My husband and I opted to use it with our children, the oldest being autistic and the youngest is now 7 months. When our oldest is frustrated an unable to verbalize his frustrations, he finds it easier to sign.. plus it gives him a valuable, positive outlet for his hands rather than wanting to strike out at something.
With our baby, by 4 months, he was signing simple, single words like “more”, “change”, “hungry”… it’s been much easier to know his wants and needs rather then trying everything because he’s crying and getting to what he wants as the last option.
A good site to check out is Sign To Me.
I work in a daycare with one and a half to two and a half year olds and we teach them simple sign language.
Yes, it’s possible. There are lots of moms at my church who have taught it to their kids. It’s handy to be able to know what they want before they can talk, but little girl who learned it wouldn’t talk until she was two because she just signed for everything!
I know it is possible and it should make parenting easier. It’s cool!
Yes. It is possible. My son is in speech therapy and he has learned a few words in sign language. It’s wonderful being able to communicate with him about certain things. Anything that is repeated enough can be learned by a child. Give it a chance…you will like it. This means that you need to learn it too. Good Luck!
Dianna
Mom of 2
It’s not only possible, but true.
Babies can understand words before they have developed the ability to coordinate their muscles to make the sounds and words they normally need to communicate.
By teaching them baby sign language they can express themselves and communicate their thoughts before they’re able to talk. The signs are simple such as a squeezing of the hand for when they want to breastfeed, or patting the back of the hand to mean doggie.
Babies have been using their own signs since the beginning of time. For example, a baby will stretch her arms out to you when she wants picked up. That’s sign language.
We are now picking up on their ability to communicate, and signing back to them.
it’s absolutely possible and great!
My friend is a speech therapist and does it with patients and her own kids.
They can control their bodies b4 their tongue/mouth/voice and can use basic signs from an early age for basic things ie: food, nappy, drink etc.
Helps keep the frustration levels down for all if you can understand each other. Speech is a very difficult thing to master and only developed late in humans.
Wow that sounds interesting. If there was such a school where I am at I would so put my child in there. That is considered another Language too, I think.
I use it with the kids I keep in my home day care and it’s great! I have a couple of kids who don’t realy speak yet and the signs are so helpful. They can tell me what they want and it encourages them to communicate in an intelligent way instead of grunting or jibberish.
Yes I think it is very possible cause my 22 month old niece can use sign language to talk to you and she was taught at her day care. She can say please, thank you, thirsty, bathroom, and love you. So yes they can use it very effectively. It is really cute too when they start to sign.
Yes. I teach my son signs from Baby Signs (some are American sign language, but a lot of them are not – the baby sign for dog is sticking out your tongue and panting) I actually started this because his old day care taught it to the kids so I bought the book and started doing it too.
I am really impressed with it and it’s amazing how much he can communicate. Whenever he sees a dog (even if it’s a picture) he’ll make the sign for it and I know what he’s talking about – much better than him pointing and me trying to guess what he’s seeing. He points out babies, frogs, birds, etc. too thanks to baby signs.
The authors of the book Baby Signs did a lot of studies and babies that learn the signs talk faster, say sentences sooner and have slightly higher IQ’s even when they’re 8 than non-signing babies. You can buy the book at amazon – see below. Right now, it’s $10.37 for new. Hope this helps!
Yes, it’s fantastic! Wards off a lot of the tantrums that result from kids not being able to express their needs or wants. I taught both my kids, plus the one I babysit. It also, from what I’ve seen speeds up the talking process, because part of what makes language so difficult is that we have SO many words for different things. By teaching sign and speaking at the same time, they have a visual cue to the word,and that helps them remember it. My 1 1/2 yr old is learning to talk SO FAST! My first has autism, so it was necessary for him to learn sign, but I started teaching him before he stopped speaking. They learn to sign around 10 months, and most children don’t really start talking until 12 months. So yes, it’s wonderful! You can also potty train a lot faster because you don’t rely on waiting for them to learn to talk. I think every child should learn basic signs. It also comes in handy if your child doesn’t speak too well. My husband has a hard time understanding what little ones say, but he has learned their signs, and I don’t have to interprete quite as much. There’s a myth that people believe, that teaching sign will delay a child’s speech, because why should they talk when you are accepting ‘gestures’? This isn’t true at all, there’s nothing out there to back it up.