Language Development

A Family’s Signing Story

By Sara Bingham

Just a few years ago signing with your baby was a novel idea.  Parents felt using sign language with babies was reserved for children with special needs or that signing with babies would delay a child’s speech development.  Today more parents are learning basic American Sign Language (ASL) signs and know the benefits of using ASL signs with their babies and toddlers!

Debbie-Lynn Hoste of Toronto started signing with her daughter, Olivia, when she was five months old.  "Every time I breastfed, I would sign MILK and say it at the same time.   Very quickly, I just had to sign MILK to Olivia from across the room, and she would beam a big smile and squeal knowing what it meant."

Communication Before Speech Develops

A child’s first spoken words typically develop between 12 and 16 months of age.  A child’s first signs typically develop between 6 and 12 months of age.  By about 8 months, most babies start communicating by pointing to objects and looking expectantly at you and by waving bye-bye.  Using sign language with your baby builds on these natural gestures and allows a baby to communicate about specific desires.  Debbie-Lynn notes, “At seven months, Olivia surprised us by signing MILK, and would sign to anyone who was holding her when she was hungry.” 

Benefits Include Increase Vocabulary and Fewer Frustrations

Babies who are not signed to typically have 10-20 verbal words at when they are 18 months old.  Babies who are signed to and who are encouraged to sign back may have 80 or more words (a combination of spoken words and signed words).  Signing with young children helps them understand more and express themselves with a larger vocabulary!

When a toddler is understood more, there are often less temper tantrums and frustrations. Debbie-Lynn shares, “Olivia's understanding of signed words was incredible, and she was very quick to sign back once she learned words.  We had a lot of fun, and she had no temper tantrums whatsoever.   My friends and family were astonished at this very easy going little girl who simply asked for what she wanted and understood what was allowed or not.” 

Connecting with Siblings and Others

The continued use of ASL signs can also help families communicate together in quiet places, across distances, through windows.  Sign language may also help as families grow and new babies arrive.  Debbie-Lynn shares, “Olivia is now two and a half years old and she loves to sign to her little twin brothers who are now 11 months old.   They both have long ago understood the sign for MILK and will sign it back.”  Such a great way for families to connect!

Sara Bingham is the author of The Baby Signing Book and the founder of WeeHands, a sign language program with instructors across North America. For more information about WeeHands visit their website www.weehands.com.

Why Wait to Communicate?

by Sara Bingham

Signing with your baby, using American Sign Language, builds on your baby’s naturally tendency to use gestures to communicate. Most babies by 6-8 months have the ability to wave “bye-bye” and gesture when they want to be picked up. We teach our babies these “signs” by showing them the gestures over and over again while we say the words. You can teach your baby ASL vocabulary, using the same process. Initially, choose signs for activities or items that your baby will experience daily, e.g., “eat”, “change” (as in diaper change), “bath” and “up”. As well, choose signs that are motivating for your baby, e.g., “fan”, “light”, “ball” and “more”.   

Signing while singing songs and reading books will also be fun for your baby! My son, Joshua, signed his first sign at 9 months. I was reading an animal book to him and showing him the signs for each of the animals. He sat still when we got to a picture of a bright goldfish and looked at my hand pretending to swim like a fish. He looked at the picture and at my hand again. He smiled and imitated the movement I was making with his tiny hand.  I pointed to the picture and he signed “fish” on his own. 

By that evening Joshua was the owner of a beautiful goldfish! As our friends and family learned about Joshua's new ability, more fish paraphernalia rolled into the house. Relatives from Italy sent a beautiful board book about the sea. Because of wee Joshua's ability to share his interests with us through sign, we were providing him, with more fish-related vocabulary, in English, ASL and now Italian!   I stopped counting the signs that he knew when he reached 100 at 16 months!

Introducing American Sign Language to with your baby in no way will inhibit your child's speech, as my non-stop talking 4 year old Joshua can attest too! It will allow your baby to communicate clearly months in advance of their non-signing peers and will allow them to play with and experience language in incredible ways!

Sara Bingham is the author of The Baby Signing Book and the founder of WeeHands, a sign language program with instructors across North America. She is a frequent contributor to parenting magazines and baby-related professional websites.

Why Use Sign Language with Your Children?

By Sara Bingham

Why sign with your baby? The cheeky answer to that question is why not? Julie Roberts did it, Debra Messing did it, and Nicole Ritchie plans to do it. As informed parent though I know you want more than just what’s trendy, you want the facts.

Using American Sign Language with Babies

Signing with your baby, using American Sign Language vocabulary along with your speech, will not delay your baby’s speech and language development. Studies show that it can enhance language development.

The area of a baby’s brain that is responsible for understanding what is seen (visual area) develops before the area that is responsible for what is heard (auditory area). This means that babies can understand what is being shown to them earlier than what is said to them. So if you consistently show your baby the sign for MILK while saying the word, it is most likely the case at 4-5 months that she’ll be calming down because she understands what she is seeing, not necessarily what she is hearing, yet. Keep in mind that all babies develop differently though.

The gross motor ability to sign starts developing around 6-7 months (every baby is different) while the finer motor skills need for speech develop from 12 months onward. This of how easy it is to sign FISH, one hand moving as if imitating the tail of a fishing swimming. My son signed this at 9 months. He started attempting to say it at 12 months, /pish/, and it wasn’t until he was two years that he clearly said /fish/

Using American Sign Language with Toddlers and Older Children

During the terrible two’s most of the challenging behaviours that occur happen because a toddler can’t make themselves understood (and they are transitioning out of naps!). She wants your attention, and can’t get it appropriately; she wants to escape a situation (e.g., diaper changing) and can’t do it appropriately; she wants something and can’t communicate this effectively and/or appropriately. Sign allows toddlers to communicate clearly and appropriately – no more 20 questions and melt downs are lessened.

Sign also allows you to communicate with your family is places where you need to be quiet, at church or at the library. A well, it allows you to communicate through glass windows of all sorts:

• I remember giving my children, who were in the backyard, instructions while in the house one winter. I signed “STOP. NO SNOW on DOG. SHOVEL DOWN!”
• I signed “I LOVE YOU” to them when I dropped them off at gymnastics today as well – they were in the gym already and I was in the parent viewing room and we were separating by glass.
• I can sign to my son when he’s on the hockey rink. He started to laugh so hard when he realized he couldn’t sign “I LOVE YOU” back with hockey gloves on!

Sara Bingham is the author of The Baby Signing Book and the founder of WeeHands, a sign language program with instructors across North America. She is a frequent contributor to parenting magazines and baby-related professional websites.

Sign Language Works!

Will Signing Delay Speech?

Signing with young children will not delay a child's speech. There is no research out there, that I've found (and I'll keep looking!), that says this. We are a speaking world and our children want to communicate with us and they will do so in the way that is fastest for them. There will come a time that speech will be faster than sign (unless born into a Deaf family).
               
It's estimate that 10% of children will have a speech delay. If a child has no way to communicate, frustrations and challenging behaviours will occur. So if a child who is signed to falls into the 10% imagine what a wonderful thing being able to communicate through sign language is!

As well, the challenging behaviours that we know as the terrible two's are mainly about communication (and independence). These behaviours occur because a child wants attention, wants something or wants to escape a situation. If a child can communicate, e.g., through sign, many of these behaviours can be averted and child/caregiver can get on with their day.

How early do children begin to sign?

Most children, who are signed to, begin to sign anywhere between 8 and 12 months of age. It varies for all children and depends on what is signed to them. For example, if you sign MUSHROOM to me I will most likely never be motivated to sign back. If you show me the sign for CHOCOLATE I'll sign it back very quickly!

How long do they keep signing?

You can continue to use sign as long as your family wants to. My children are 4 and 6 years old now and we'll sign across distances or in quiet places. We are introducing fingerspelling to the words they are learning to read at school as well.

Who do they spend time with?

My children spent time with other children in the neighbourhood and children who were also in daycare with them. Some signed, some didn't. My daughter also now in kindergarten has a little girl with special needs in her class who she signs with.

What exactly is the milestone for beginning to speak - so how do you tell if a child is talking early or late?

The milestone for first words is typically between 12 and 16 months of age. Each child is different though. There are many, many speech and language milestones for children 0-3 years of age. Keep in mind that many of these milestones are language related, not speech related at all. Signing with young children helps with these language milestones. This is a good website to look at regarding speech and language milestones for young children:

http://www.pqhcs.com/firstwords/ages_stages.htm

Happy Signing!

Sara Bingham is the founder of WeeHands and the author of The Baby Signing Book.  For more information about signing with babies and toddlers visit the WeeHands website, www.weehands.com.

Babbling Now to Speak Later!

By Roxane Bélanger
First Words Preschool Speech and Language Program of Ottawa

These last few years, services for early childhood have multiplied... and so much the better, wouldn’t you say?  Given that we have been advocating for early intervention for so long!  Infant communication remains central to a child’s overall development. Speech and language are the most important indicators of later social and educational success of a child.  And communication starts at birth!

Let’s talk baby!

Infant communication is central to many community programs and an integral part of the stimulation and learning within educational centres.  In 2003, First Words developed two training programs for different audiences called “Baby Talk” and “Before their First Words” to respond to a dire need.  They enable both parents and educators, as well as community workers, to better understand how the development of communication unfolds in the child’s first year (from 0 to 12 months) and, above all, to acquire the means and tools to identify children at risk.

Upon evaluation after these trainings, many were surprised to realize that a fair number of recent research projects highlighted clear risk indicators that make it possible to better identify a communication delay in infants as early as at the age of 6 months.  Yes, it is possible to detect a communication problem even before a child reaches the age of 12 months.  One only needs to keep observing them closely!

Baby is now 6 months - start looking for risk indicators!

According to various research projects, there is a set of indicators that can help us all – day care educators or directors, community workers or parents – in detecting a problem with communication, speech, and language very early on!  Here is a brief summary:

1. Visual contact, facial expressions and gestures – At about 6 months, infants communicate using eye gaze to ask for objects, to play with an adult.  Moreover, children communicate with us through various facial expressions in order to socialize, protest, refuse an object, or share their feelings.  All one needs to do is observe them carefully and interpret those facial expressions!

At around 9 months, children will spontaneously start using concrete gestures such as showing an object (i.e. ball) or, pushing an object away (i.e. done with the bottle).  At 11 months, children will start using more symbolic gestures, such as “bye-bye” and pointing.  Gestures are an integral part of a child’s communication development.  You can help by using and imitating gestures when interacting with children.  Let’s get those hands talking!

2. Using communication – Babies first learn to communicate to make contact with other people and to satisfy their needs.  Babies learn communication long before they start speaking or using words.  They develop language while hearing us speak.  Children need to hear language to learn to use language.  Therefore, pay attention to the various reasons for communication, e.g., babies use communication to protest, to cry, to make requests (i.e. to eat, to be cuddled), to socialize, to draw your attention, to get something, etc...

3. Producing sounds and babbling – At approximately 6 months of age, babies use various sounds: vowels, consonants, and they even start babbling.  Around 10 months canonical babbling – i.e. the repetition of a syllable (e.g. babababa; badabada) – should appear.  By 12 months, if  a young baby does not babble this way, a discussion with the parent is warranted and the baby should be referred to a speech and language pathologist.  The absence of a variety of sounds and/or canonical babbling at 12 months is a major risk indicator.  According to some research, the late appearance of canonical babbling is in fact linked to later poor vocabulary (number of words) being developed at 18 months, 24 months, and even 36 months.  Babbling is a must for word acquisition!  You can also help babies and children babble along by :

• Imitating their sounds, vocalizations, babbling and words
• Giving frequent or better models of the sounds or words
• Naming objects, actions, people using their appropriate label
• Be face-to-face – the baby will benefit from your facial expressions and seeing make sounds and talk with them!

4. Understanding language – Learning to speak is a process that starts at birth.  At home or in a childcare environment, infants (e.g. 6 weeks old) should be surrounded by language.  Even if young babies do not understand the meaning of the words you use, they understand a lot through your way of touching and holding them, through the expression of your face, your tone of voice and your gestures.  This is how they start to develop their understanding of language.

Between birth and the first birthday, the understanding of language rapidly expands.  At as early as 12 months, babies often understand a range of words and can follow up on simple requests in context in the presence of an object, even if they are able to use only one or two words.  You may help any young child to understand you better by using the following strategies:

• Simplify and use a smaller number of words
• Repeat, repeat and repeat!
• Add gestures, actions and point toward the objects or persons concerned
• Speak more slowly
• Vary your facial expressions, your the tone of your voice 

5. Word production – Learning to speak is a gradual process.  Babbling and the appearance of the first words are closely linked.  Usually infants say their first words around the age of 12 months.  In fact, the appearance of the first words may happen anywhere between 8 and 15 months of age; this is considered to be the normal range for the appearance of first words.  But beyond 15 months, if the baby has not said his/her first words, one must consider referring him/her for speech and language screening.  At all times, continue encouraging the child to take turns in imitating sounds, repeated sounds! Above all, keep on naming all the objects and the actions they perform!  The beginning of their expression of language depends on it!

6. Playing abilities – For young children, socializing and communicating include a good measure of play.  You can observe children’s abilities to take their turn in simple games.  Observe if they show their interest in participating with you in social games such as “peek-a-boo”.  Later, you can look for the child’s ability to imitate and participate to more symbolic games (e.g. 18 months – taking a spoon and feeding a doll).

Your turn!

The routine linked with daily activities provides many opportunities for educators and parents to observe, to closely monitor but above all, to promote the development of communication in infants and young children.  So, go ahead!  Speak, speak, speak!  Repeat, repeat, repeat!  And, above all, have fun!

First Words Preschool Speech and Language Program of Ottawa (613) 580-6744

Click here for other Ontario provincial speech and language programs.

Best Time to Starting Signing

Question: When is the best time to start signing with my baby?

Answer: Anytime that you are ready is the best time!  I have noticed that most babies in our classes are between 4 and 10 months of age when they start. Over the last few years, the average age of the babies in our Signing Babies has gotten slightly younger.

When you are looking at a babies receptive (understanding) abilities, keep in mind that parents who are Deaf start signing with their babies from the day they are born and their ability to understand at 9 months is amazing versus babies who are not signed to...an understanding of 70 signs vs. maybe 5 verbal words. Regarding expressive abilities, babies, in general, will typically start signing back between 9 and 12 months (born to Deaf parents or not). We've have had a few stories of babies signing back earlier. All babies are different!

I started signing with my own children when they were 6 months of age.  Knowing what I know now, I would have started earlier with both my wee ones. That said, Joshua signed back at 9 months (fish) and Sabrina signed back at 11 months (no, more, eat - not all at the same time, but within the same week!).   

                        

I've found with both my children the most amazing experiences with sign occurred during the second year of life - when both of my wee ones were very mobile, active and inquisitive.  What a wonderful world there is too explore at this age!  Signing allows you to share so much more of the world with your baby.

Sara Bingham is mom to two children, Joshua age 6 and Sabrina age 4.  She is also the founder of WeeHands.  Since 2001, WeeHands has taught over 5000 families and caregivers to sign with their wee ones.  WeeHands, one of the Canada's first baby sign language companies, offers classes across North America.

Sign Language and Language Development

Question: "Will sign language delay our baby's language development?"

Answer: No, studies have shown that sign actually enhances a baby's language development by allowing them to learn and play with language before speech develops.   The motor skills needed for speech develop between 12 and 18 months while the motor skills needed for signing can develop between 6 and 12 months.  This means that babies who are signed to can be expressively using language months before their non-signed to peers.  This gives your baby the opportunity to play with language and shows them how they can influence their world ("hmmm, mommy gets excited when I sign cookie and I get to each something that I love!"). 

Babies can also use signs to choose the subject of a conversation.  A few months ago I was rushing to get Sabrina (at 14 months) into her car seat and she kept signing "dog".  I stopped and saw that the little terrier across the street was out on our neighbour's porch.  Sabrina loves this dog and was telling me to slow down and enjoy the moment with her!   

Signing allows babies to play with language. At 13 months, Sabrina knew the sign for "ball", one day she pointed to an orange and signed "ball". This provided me with an opportunity to teach her a new word. I cut up the orange and signed "orange" for each piece I gave her. She loved the orange and ate about 30 small pieces in 10 minutes! This equal opportunities to show her the sign for "orange". At the end of her snack, she knew and was using the sign for "orange"! At 16 months, Sabrina had a vocabulary of more than 80 words, a combination of her signs and verbal words. Babies who are not signed to at this age, typically have 10-15 verbal words. Signing allows babies to develop larger vocabularies!

Sara Bingham is mom to two children, Joshua age 6 and Sabrina age 4.  She is also the founder of WeeHands.  Since 2001, WeeHands has taught over 5000 families and caregivers to sign with their wee ones.  WeeHands, one of the Canada's first baby sign language companies, offers classes across North America.

Baby Sign Language on Internet Radio!

Sign Babies Founder, Nancy Cadjan, will appear on the Internet Radio Show Healthy Wealthy Wow! next Wednesday, January 24th.  During the show, she will be discussing baby sign language and giving away free Sign Babies and Learning Hands ASL Flash Cards. 

Join her for the live show on Grapevine Radio. Grapevine Radio broadcasts over real radio stations as well as over the internet.

GO TO WWW.GRAPEVINERADIO.COM AND CLICK ON THE MICROPHONE TO LISTEN!

Nancy will be on live on Wednesday Jan 24th at 12 MDT (that's 2pm Eastern and 11 am Pacific). On the live show, she will be giving away Sign Babies and Learning Hands ASL Flash Cards so listen and win!

If you can't listen to the live show, the show will repeat at these times (with no giveaways):

Wednesday Jan 24th 6pm (8 Eastern/5 Pacific)
Thursday Jan 25th 6pm (8 Eastern/5 Pacific)
Friday Jan 26th 12pm (2 Eastern/11 Pacific)
Friday Jan 26th 6 pm (8 Eastern/5 Pacific)
Saturday Jan 27th 6pm (8 Eastern/5 Pacific)

Hope you listen and win!

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