Home » Writing & Publishing » Language in Society » How Sign Language can help your Hearing Baby

How Sign Language can help your Hearing Baby

© Kara VanDam

Every parent knows the frustration--your baby is crying and you don't know why. You've checked the diaper, retrieved the pacifier, located the favorite toy, all to no avail. By the time you trial-and-error your way to the answer, that this time your child is hungry and wants a bottle, your child is so worked up she can't stop crying enough to swallow.

Now imagine you could roll back the clock. Your baby is hungry, and needs to get that point across to you. No tears, no sobs, instead your child raises her hand to her face and makes the sign for drink. Fifteen minutes and endless frustration on both your parts saved.

Sign language is at the center of what is quickly becoming parenting's newest tool. Though parents have long tuned into their children's gestures for clues to their wants and needs, sign language is equipping pre-verbal children with the ability to agree with their parents on what those gestures mean. The fact is, long before children have the physical ability to speak, they have a conceptual notion of the world around them. Further, children learn to manipulate their hands several months before they have the ability to accurately manipulate their mouths into words. By given children hand signs, they are able to express their emotions and needs several months before their mouth will let them.

Why can't children speak earlier? Simply put, speaking is really difficult and babies have neither the anatomy nor the practice to do it. Babies are born with a tongue that is larger relative to their mouths than it will be at any other point in their lives. This large tongue has about as much dexterity as a couch potato on the US gymnastics squad--in other words, this tongue is not going to be able to get on the uneven bars, much less swing around them. To prove to yourself just how strong and precise your tongue is, say the phrase "just you think about it, lady" once quickly and then a second time slowly, feeling your tongue shift and tense. In fact, even one word can put to work over seventy muscles. This ability requires two things: a smaller tongue relative to your mouth, and lots and lots of practice. As an infant's mouth grows, it practices. The problem is, as mentioned above, a baby's brain is slightly ahead of its mouth in terms of development. This is where the sign language comes in.

By teaching babies any where from a few to a few dozen signs, for requests (drink,

The copyright of the article How Sign Language can help your Hearing Baby in Language in Society is owned by . Permission to republish How Sign Language can help your Hearing Baby in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.