Signing with Hearing Babies of Hearing Parents
"As Joseph Garcia began working as an Interpreter in the late 1970s, he noticed that hearing babies of deaf parents who used sign language could communicate their needs and desires at a much earlier age than children of hearing parents who didn,t use signs. In 1987, Joseph began to research the use of American Sign Language with hearing babies of hearing parents at Alaska Pacific University. His thesis research showed that babies who are exposed to signs regularly and consistently at six to seven months of age can begin expressive commun ication by their eighth of ninth month.
After graduating, Gracia focused on creating a practical system for hearing parents to use sign language with their preverbal babies. He published his first book on the subject Toddler Talk in 1994. As Garcia began his doctoral studies in adult learing and education, he expanded and revised his programme, which is now known as SIGN with your BABY ™
Drs Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn conducted a longitudinal study funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development. The study showed that signing babies understood more words, had larger vocabularies, and engaged in more sophisticated play than non-signing babies. Parents of the signing babies in the study noted decreased frustration, increased communication and enriched parent infant bonding. Signing babies also displayed an increased interest in books.
Acredolo and Goodwyn revisited the families in the original study when the children were seven and eight years old. The children who signed as babies had a mean IQ of 114 compared to the non-signing control groups mean IQ of 102".
Quote taken from SIGN with your BABY Supporting Research . Northlight Communications
"Sign does not hinder language development in any way rather it fosters it. It picks up on the natural visual acuity young children possess and uses it to the child's advantage. Remember that babies understand much more than they are able to say. Speaking is difficult. It requires the development of dozens of muscles in the face, mouth and tongue and coordination of these muscles with the flow of the breath over the vocal folds in the larynx. From a purely developmental point of view, babies achieve the ability to construct language with their hands at least six to twelve months earlier than they do with their vocal apparatus".
"Dancing with Words" by Dr. Marlilyn Daniels