- Joined
- Feb 27, 2003
- Messages
- 4,225
- Reaction score
- 143
Like many new parents, John Donnelly and Denise Gale-Donnelly had trouble figuring out what was wrong when their 8-month-old daughter, Sabbia, woke up wailing in the middle of the night. "You're going, 'Is it it her teeth? Is she hungry?' " says Gale-Donnelly, who lives in White Plains. So when she spied a DVD at Borders that claimed parents could teach babies to use sign language, she grabbed it.
Two months later, when Sabbia woke up crying, Gale-Donnelly asked what was wrong, and the 10-month-old made the sign for hurt and pointed at her mouth. One frozen washcloth later, the problem was solved.
The Donnellys are not alone in using sign language to communicate with babies who can hear. Union Child Day Care in Greenburgh teaches signs to infants as young as six months. Gymboree in Scarsdale recently started a class in the topic. Books and DVDs on baby sign language have been selling off the shelves. The trend was firmly planted into popular culture when the blockbuster "Meet the Fockers," threw a signing baby into the usual mix of tortured dogs and sex jokes.
Baby sign language hit the mainstream after psychologists Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, published "Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk," in 1996. It's sold more than 200,000 copies and is one of McGraw-Hill's bestselling parenting books. Since then, Acredolo and Goodwyn have conducted research showing that teaching babies sign language raises their IQs. The team has trained hundreds of instructors in seven countries, and sell an array of board books, DVDs, flash cards and even a signing teddy bear. Another baby sign language researcher, Joseph Garcia, launched a similar line of goods a few years later. Now there are at least a half-dozen competing companies, with names like "Baby Fingers," and "Kindersigns," offering their own products.
Most of these programs teach American Sign Language. Acredolo and Goodwyn originally encouraged children to make up their own signs. But realizing the program could help bridge the hearing and deaf communities, the team switched to ASL for 90 percent of the signs.
Some professionals say baby sign language is just one more chapter in the Baby-Einstein-better-baby craze that creates unnecessary work for already over-stressed parents. And some parents say they don't need it. "In general, I can figure it out," says Bonnie Bradley of Dobbs Ferry.
But parents who use it say it's a godsend, not only to figure out why their children are crying, but also because it offers a window into their 1-year-old's mind.
"The most amazing thing that signing has allowed us to do," Gale-Donnelly, says, "is tap into what Sabbia is thinking about in a given moment. She'll come toddling into a room and does the 'I love you' sign."
The Donnellys started slowly, using the signs for 'milk,' 'more' and 'baby' whenever they said the words. By the time she was 10 months old, Sabbia was squeezing her fingers into a fist to ask for milk, and bringing her hands together for more.
Now, at 15 months, Sabbia knows more than 50 signs, and even puts them together, such as signing 'squirrel' and 'eat' and saying the word 'man' after she had seen a man feeding squirrels in the park earlier that day.
Teaching sign language to infants works because it's easier for most 10-month-olds to gesture than to speak, says Lois Cook, a speech pathologist and director of Speech and Communication Professionals in Mount Kisco, which is affiliated with Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor. "The motor skills do develop before speech and language skills. ... Because most children understand speech by 8 months, they will be able to make their needs known through signs several months before talking."
And parents say that's months of fewer tantrums and tears.
"It really does eliminate some form of frustration," says Fairoza Brown of New Rochelle, who taught her daughter, Ameerah, sign language through a "Baby Fingers" sign language class in Manhattan and now brings her her 11-month old son, Malik, to the class. "It's hard for them when they're cognitive of their wants and their needs and they can't verbalize it."
Some parents may worry that if their toddlers can communicate through signs, they'll lose their desire to speak. But parents and experts disagree. "There's tons of evidence to the contrary," says Kate Franklin, a speech pathologist who is director of assistive technology at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. In fact, she says, research shows that sign language can facilitate speech. That's because once children have a positive experience with one form of communication, they are more eager to try another, elaborates Cook, of Speech and Communication Professionals.
Sabbia said her first word at 7 months and now uses more than a dozen words. Ameerah said her first word at 10 months and now at 27 months, is speaking in complete sentences. "Once they start speaking it's very seldom that they do signs," says Brown. But, she adds, Ameerah would use the signs to clarify things. So if Brown was unable to tell whether "ba" means ball, book or bottle, Ameerah could clarify with signs.
Union Child Day Care in Greenburgh brought in a sign language program several years ago at the request of several parents and board members, says Nancy Pappas, the center's infant health coordinator.
There's even some research that says that babies who learn sign language grow up to be smarter. In a National Institute of Health study, Acredolo and Goodwyn found that babies who learned to sign were a year ahead of their peers in verbal communication by age 3 and as second graders, scored 12 points higher on a standard IQ test.
But it's just that type of research that concerns some professionals. "I wouldn't want parents to think that they're putting their children at a disadvantage (if they don't do it)," says Claire Lerner, director of the parenting resource project at Zero to Three, a nonprofit promoting healthy early development for children. "It may raise their IQ but do your children need their IQ raised?" Lerner asks, pointing out that a higher IQ does not make a child happier or necessarily more successful when they grow up.
Acredolo is vehement that achieving a higher IQ is not what baby sign language is about.
"We are not in the Better Baby University World stuff," says Acredolo, who is a professor emeritus at University of California, Davis. Sign language, she says, gives you "a window into your baby's mind" and allows babies to "share with you what they see and what they're excited about."
But not all parents are ready to jump on the sign-language bandwagon. "I've heard of it but I never considered it for my children," says Cornelia Burnett of Tarrytown. She says she can tell what her 19-month-old daughter wants by paying attention to "how they are crying or by what body language they have."
Other parents, like Suzanne La Plante of Hastings-on-Hudson, say it may be a good idea, but hasn't had the time. "It's just a matter of trying to fit it in."
And not all professionals are convinced that teaching babies sign language helps their development. Ben Watson, director of the Speech-Language Pathology Program at New York Medical College in Valhalla doesn't believe that sign language helps babies learn to talk, or even that signing comes easier than speaking.
"Motor control of the fingers is every bit as complex of motor control of the mouth," he says, and because the mouth is used for nursing, "the oral motor system matures more quickly."
Lerner, of Zero to Three, is afraid that parents may be too caught up in teaching their children the correct signs.
"Maybe he's pointing to the crackers. What he wants is crystal clear, but instead of giving him the crackers, you try to teach him the (ASL) 'more' sign. That's a perfect example of how this can work in ways that I don't think the creators wanted at all. ... What's most critical to us is that parents are reading their child's cues and responding effectively."
Which, in the end, is the point on which everyone agrees. Whether parents teach their children ASL signs or simply learn to understand the cues their children are already using, the most important thing is that parents show their children that they're listening, says Dr. Sharon Syc, a clinical assistant professor at the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development in Chicago. "We're saying that we think infants have something important to tell us ... It's not just about the production of words. It really about listening to one another."
By Amy Sara Clark
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/LIFESTYLE01/601310411/1031
Two months later, when Sabbia woke up crying, Gale-Donnelly asked what was wrong, and the 10-month-old made the sign for hurt and pointed at her mouth. One frozen washcloth later, the problem was solved.
The Donnellys are not alone in using sign language to communicate with babies who can hear. Union Child Day Care in Greenburgh teaches signs to infants as young as six months. Gymboree in Scarsdale recently started a class in the topic. Books and DVDs on baby sign language have been selling off the shelves. The trend was firmly planted into popular culture when the blockbuster "Meet the Fockers," threw a signing baby into the usual mix of tortured dogs and sex jokes.
Baby sign language hit the mainstream after psychologists Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, published "Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk," in 1996. It's sold more than 200,000 copies and is one of McGraw-Hill's bestselling parenting books. Since then, Acredolo and Goodwyn have conducted research showing that teaching babies sign language raises their IQs. The team has trained hundreds of instructors in seven countries, and sell an array of board books, DVDs, flash cards and even a signing teddy bear. Another baby sign language researcher, Joseph Garcia, launched a similar line of goods a few years later. Now there are at least a half-dozen competing companies, with names like "Baby Fingers," and "Kindersigns," offering their own products.
Most of these programs teach American Sign Language. Acredolo and Goodwyn originally encouraged children to make up their own signs. But realizing the program could help bridge the hearing and deaf communities, the team switched to ASL for 90 percent of the signs.
Some professionals say baby sign language is just one more chapter in the Baby-Einstein-better-baby craze that creates unnecessary work for already over-stressed parents. And some parents say they don't need it. "In general, I can figure it out," says Bonnie Bradley of Dobbs Ferry.
But parents who use it say it's a godsend, not only to figure out why their children are crying, but also because it offers a window into their 1-year-old's mind.
"The most amazing thing that signing has allowed us to do," Gale-Donnelly, says, "is tap into what Sabbia is thinking about in a given moment. She'll come toddling into a room and does the 'I love you' sign."
The Donnellys started slowly, using the signs for 'milk,' 'more' and 'baby' whenever they said the words. By the time she was 10 months old, Sabbia was squeezing her fingers into a fist to ask for milk, and bringing her hands together for more.
Now, at 15 months, Sabbia knows more than 50 signs, and even puts them together, such as signing 'squirrel' and 'eat' and saying the word 'man' after she had seen a man feeding squirrels in the park earlier that day.
Teaching sign language to infants works because it's easier for most 10-month-olds to gesture than to speak, says Lois Cook, a speech pathologist and director of Speech and Communication Professionals in Mount Kisco, which is affiliated with Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor. "The motor skills do develop before speech and language skills. ... Because most children understand speech by 8 months, they will be able to make their needs known through signs several months before talking."
And parents say that's months of fewer tantrums and tears.
"It really does eliminate some form of frustration," says Fairoza Brown of New Rochelle, who taught her daughter, Ameerah, sign language through a "Baby Fingers" sign language class in Manhattan and now brings her her 11-month old son, Malik, to the class. "It's hard for them when they're cognitive of their wants and their needs and they can't verbalize it."
Some parents may worry that if their toddlers can communicate through signs, they'll lose their desire to speak. But parents and experts disagree. "There's tons of evidence to the contrary," says Kate Franklin, a speech pathologist who is director of assistive technology at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. In fact, she says, research shows that sign language can facilitate speech. That's because once children have a positive experience with one form of communication, they are more eager to try another, elaborates Cook, of Speech and Communication Professionals.
Sabbia said her first word at 7 months and now uses more than a dozen words. Ameerah said her first word at 10 months and now at 27 months, is speaking in complete sentences. "Once they start speaking it's very seldom that they do signs," says Brown. But, she adds, Ameerah would use the signs to clarify things. So if Brown was unable to tell whether "ba" means ball, book or bottle, Ameerah could clarify with signs.
Union Child Day Care in Greenburgh brought in a sign language program several years ago at the request of several parents and board members, says Nancy Pappas, the center's infant health coordinator.
There's even some research that says that babies who learn sign language grow up to be smarter. In a National Institute of Health study, Acredolo and Goodwyn found that babies who learned to sign were a year ahead of their peers in verbal communication by age 3 and as second graders, scored 12 points higher on a standard IQ test.
But it's just that type of research that concerns some professionals. "I wouldn't want parents to think that they're putting their children at a disadvantage (if they don't do it)," says Claire Lerner, director of the parenting resource project at Zero to Three, a nonprofit promoting healthy early development for children. "It may raise their IQ but do your children need their IQ raised?" Lerner asks, pointing out that a higher IQ does not make a child happier or necessarily more successful when they grow up.
Acredolo is vehement that achieving a higher IQ is not what baby sign language is about.
"We are not in the Better Baby University World stuff," says Acredolo, who is a professor emeritus at University of California, Davis. Sign language, she says, gives you "a window into your baby's mind" and allows babies to "share with you what they see and what they're excited about."
But not all parents are ready to jump on the sign-language bandwagon. "I've heard of it but I never considered it for my children," says Cornelia Burnett of Tarrytown. She says she can tell what her 19-month-old daughter wants by paying attention to "how they are crying or by what body language they have."
Other parents, like Suzanne La Plante of Hastings-on-Hudson, say it may be a good idea, but hasn't had the time. "It's just a matter of trying to fit it in."
And not all professionals are convinced that teaching babies sign language helps their development. Ben Watson, director of the Speech-Language Pathology Program at New York Medical College in Valhalla doesn't believe that sign language helps babies learn to talk, or even that signing comes easier than speaking.
"Motor control of the fingers is every bit as complex of motor control of the mouth," he says, and because the mouth is used for nursing, "the oral motor system matures more quickly."
Lerner, of Zero to Three, is afraid that parents may be too caught up in teaching their children the correct signs.
"Maybe he's pointing to the crackers. What he wants is crystal clear, but instead of giving him the crackers, you try to teach him the (ASL) 'more' sign. That's a perfect example of how this can work in ways that I don't think the creators wanted at all. ... What's most critical to us is that parents are reading their child's cues and responding effectively."
Which, in the end, is the point on which everyone agrees. Whether parents teach their children ASL signs or simply learn to understand the cues their children are already using, the most important thing is that parents show their children that they're listening, says Dr. Sharon Syc, a clinical assistant professor at the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development in Chicago. "We're saying that we think infants have something important to tell us ... It's not just about the production of words. It really about listening to one another."
By Amy Sara Clark
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/LIFESTYLE01/601310411/1031
