Baby sign language is used to communicate with infants and toddlers. Instead of just whining or crying, it helps young children to express themselves – their needs, feelings and wishes even before they can talk.

Gab at 10 months doing the Sign for Eat

The Baby Signs® Program was founded by Child Development experts Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn. Their two decades of scientific research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, showed that signing helps babies enhance their language, cognitive and social-emotional development.

The Proven Benefits of Signing:

Decreases frustration and aggression. Babies don’t have to totally rely to just pointing, whining, yelling or crying to express what they need or want. Signing babies are learning how to communicate with words and simple phrases with the use of sign language. Babies that sign have fewer moments of distress which means less stress for parents or caretakers as there is no guessing game.

Jump starts verbal language development. The children who had been encouraged to use signs actually learned to talk sooner, not later. Signing actually made learning words easier, not harder!

Promotes early literacy.  Signing babies are found to have larger speaking vocabulary & forming longer sentences. They are earlier readers, and have larger reading vocabulary.

Boosts intellectual achievement as measured by IQ at age 8. Research supports that hearing children who are taught sign language from an early age scored significantly higher on IQ tests.

Strengthens the parent-child bond. Communicating means connecting. Parents and babies that can communicate with one another feels closer and more tuned in to each other.  With this, relationship will grow closer and closer and become more satisfying to both parent and infant.

Fosters positive emotional development.  Being able to communicate makes both babies and parents happy, and happy babies are emotionally healthy babies.

Interested in learning or teaching your child baby sign language? Here are some useful links:

Frequently Asked Questions about Baby Sign Language

Check out the schedule of  my baby sign language Parent Workshop:  Baby Sign Language Workshop 2014