Chelltune: The Baby Signing Store

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Baby Signing – the latest craze?

Signing comes naturally to babies and children. From a young age they will use gestures to wave bye bye or put their arms out to indicate that they want picked up. As parents or carers we can build on these skills by teaching our babies some basic signs for the things that are important to them.

Baby signing may seem like the latest craze but since signing began centuries ago babies of Deaf parents or those who have a Deaf older sibling have been exposed to sign language from a young age. The effects of this have been positive. It’s only in recent years that more research has been carried out, the benefits of signing with hearing babies has now been discovered.

Research has clearly demonstrated that the use of sign language does not prevent your child from learning to talk; the opposite is in fact true. This is applicable for both hearing and Deaf children. The fact that signing may delay speech is a common myth.

Joseph Garcia undertook research into baby signing in the late eighties. He had previously worked as an interpreter and noticed that hearing babies of deaf parents were able to communicate their needs earlier than children of hearing parents. His research showed that babies who are exposed to signs regularly and consistently at six to seven months of age could begin expressive communication by their eighth or ninth month.

Dr. Marilyn Daniels, a professor of speech communication at Penn State University has also conducted research in this field. She found that hearing students in preschool classes who were exposed to both English and sign language scored significantly higher in vocabulary tests than children In classes where signing had not been used.

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