Parents turning to sign language for toddlers

[Alex]

Nora Dexter isn’t even 2 years old, yet she already knows two languages: English and American Sign Language. Nora’s mom, Katie, has taught sign language to both of her daughters. Emma, now 5 years old, started when she was just 7 months old. Katie explained, "With Emma, when I taught her colors she learned them in one sitting. She learned the colors of the rainbow just like that!"

Emma is now old enough to use words to communicate. Nora is just starting to talk, but she still uses signs to tell people what she wants.

Nora and Emma are part of a growing trend of teaching sign language to hearing children. Barbara Flewelling, a speech pathologist, said it’s a wonderful tool to help babies communicate.

She told News 8, "I think babies are hotwired -- and we are hotwired -- to tune into gestures, so sign language is a natural extension of that."

Teaching sign language to babies has become so popular that there is now a nationwide program called Baby Signs.

Karen Curtis is a Baby Signs instructor in Maine. She said that signing is a great way for parents to bond with their babies and that it actually promotes early talking.

Curtis said, "Several studies show verbal skills and literacy develop at a younger age and last longer -- usually ahead of average until 8 years old."

For the Dexter family, sign language has meant that the “Terrible Two’s” aren’t so terrible.

By Marnie MacLean
http://www.wmtw.com/news/6626511/detail.html

 

[Liebling:-)))]

Interesting...

My children know very few of British sign language. I sign them in German sign language mostly than British sign language but my children prefer German sign language and still pick few of British sign language.

 

[Rose Immortal]

It makes sense that babies would be "hotwired" to tune into gestures; I read somewhere that the exact same parts of the brain are responsible for gestured and spoken language.

 

[loml]

I read somewhere that the exact same parts of the brain are responsible for gestured and spoken language

Rose Immortal,

Spoken language tends to be processed mainly by the left cerebral hemisphere. When ASL is used, structures in both the left and right hemispheres are activated. Moreover, spoken language appears to have a critical period when exposure to language is essential for its proper development. When someone is not exposed to language as a child, it is likely that this person will never fully develop language abilities. Also, if this critical period for language is missed, the left side of the brain will not be devoted to language, as it is in most people. In other words, if structures in the left side of the brain are not recruited for spoken language processing by a certain age, they never will be. According to a study from Aaron J. Newman and his colleagues at the University of Oregon, there may be a similar critical period involved with processing of ASL in the right hemisphere. This research shows that the right angular gyrus is highly activated during ASL processing in people who learned the language from birth, but not in those people who learned it after puberty

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/sign.html