Baby sign language offers Families benefits

The idea of babies signing makes good sense.

A baby's motor skills develop way before his verbal skills, therefore a baby as young as seven months can use simple hand signals to communicate his needs many months before he is able to do it linguistically.

Although teaching a baby to sign is a relatively a new phenomenon its roots are timeless.

Even at the fetal stage babies attempt communication with a return kick to a tummy rub or a punch to a loud sound, after birth and as they grow older they stretch their arms for "carry me," nod their heads for "no," wave their hands for "bye bye" or a simple ear piercing scream for all of the above.

The idea of baby sign language is to introduce a wider variety of gestures and increase an infants "signing vocabulary" for priceless benefits.

Intellectual Benefits from utilizing sign language include increased speed of the development of verbal language and increased vocabulary.

Research shows that older children who used baby sign language as infants have better verbal and reading skills thus promoting early literacy.

In addition, baby sign language is empowering and gives infants control over conversation. Baby signing can also promote early use of sentences. For instance a baby wanting to be read to, signs "more" and "read." This is a basic sentence but it forms groundwork for complex sentences.

The psychological and emotional benefits of baby sign language include giving an infant the tools to express his emotions, want and needs in a way that gets an immediate, correct response.

A baby who can sign has an easier time communicating and thus it reduces frustration and temper tantrums. This means that a baby can express feelings in a beneficial manner and this is emotionally satisfying.

Also when a child can sign their feelings, wants and needs and get positive responses, their confidence and self esteem increases.

An infant learns through experimentation and therefore successful interaction leads to increased confidence.

Through sign language a baby learns how communication works by encouraging an infant to share his thoughts; this in turn leads to improved social skills. Barriers in communication can produce a great deal of frustration for a child and this can lead to socially inacceptable behaviors like tantrums and aggression. Signing bridges this communication gap by providing a way for a baby to reach out and explore his world.

"Baby sign language" can help children with special needs like Down's syndrome, Autism, delayed speech or Apraxia.

Disruptive behavior by autistic children can be linked to the frustration developed by the inability to communicate and research shows that signs help speed up the child's ability to speak. Signing can also give children with special needs the opportunity to interact with typically developing children.

Baby sign language not only benefit an infant at home but its benefits also extend to daycares and other care givers in an infants life as well. Signing helps lower noise levels in preschool classrooms by reducing frustrated screaming and crying.

It can also be a great help to caregivers who have to attend to many children at the same time. It reduces the guess work when it comes to meeting children's needs, resulting in more time for positive developmental interactions.

The most important benefit for parents using sign language is that it takes the uncertainty out of parenting.

Every parent can find it frustrating when their infant cries and they can't quite work out why. Although traditionally a little instinct, common sense and a lot of luck has gone a long way. Signing can bridge this communication gap, exposing a parent to the fascinating internal world a baby is dying to share.

Finally another major benefit for parents using baby sign language is that it creates a stronger bond between parent and baby. When a parent can immediately understand and react to a babies need, the baby recognizes this and appreciates it; he feels immense love and trust.

For more Information visit: www.kindersigns.com