Weaving Professional and Personal

Sign2Me, Baby Signs and Signing Time, three respected, influential leaders in the baby signing movement, agree on the following benefits of signing with infants.


Signing...

• Reduces frustration and tantrums
• Creates an early ability to communicate
• Stimulates spoken language development

Each program lists additional benefits but these three were common between all of the programs. I will discuss additional benefits in another post. 

As I reviewed these benefits I began to reflect on my own use of signing with my daughter, Emma. I returned to the observation, "watching," and "wondering," phases.  Emma is 14 months old and is able to communicate her desires and needs quite effectively through signing and spoken words. Of course she screams to express herself at times, but these moments are very few and usually stopped quickly. I wonder if this is due in part to her ability to sign? Yes, I believe that signing has greatly enhanced her ability to communicate which in turn has decreased her frustrations and need to have a tantrum. 

Emma frequently uses the sign, "more" to indicate that she wants a snack. She also signs "water" for a drink and "all done" when she is finished eating or done with another activity. She does say "more" and "water" along with the sign and is beginning to say "all done." These signs allow her to express herself and they allow me to understand her needs so that I can respond accordingly.  Signing "all done" has been very helpful in reducing the instances of food being throw onto the floor. She is able to tell me she is finished instead of having to show me by throwing a plate.  Emma has begun to sign "potty" which is going to be wonderful as we move into the toilet training phase. 

In addition to signing her needs Emma is also able to express her desires. She signs "play," "book," "ball," and "dog" to convey what she would like to do. I feel that this empowers her as she moves into the more independent toddler stage. For example, she just woke up from a nap and was fussing. I asked her what she wanted and she signed, "eat." She is now happily having a snack while I finish this blog! :) I think that many toddlers know what they want to do but have no way of telling the adults. Intellectually they understand their desires but physically they are unable to verbally express everything, resulting in the dreaded "terrible" twos and threes.  I have no illusions that we will have our fair share of meltdowns; however, I am confident that they will be resolved more quickly and lessened by the ability to communicate through signs. 

Many critics of signing with babies argue that signing will delay verbal development. However, research has proven quite the opposite and all three signing companies agree that signing can enhance and help speech.  When I sign with Emma I say the word along with the sign. There have been some instances where she says the word before the sign, some where the sign comes first and others where they have come together.  For her 12 month well-baby appointment I made a list of her words and signs for the doctor.  I just reviewed that list and at 1 year old Emma had 23 spoken words and 13 signs ( I have no idea how many she has now!).  5 words she could both sign and say. Through my personal observations and reflections I see only language enhancement by including signs throughout our day, just as advocated by Sign2Me, Baby Signs and Signing Time.

Barbara Stripling (2010), reminds us that "...inquiry is recursive and cyclical, with learners going back and forth between the phases of inquiry to resolve new questions and complexities as they arise." I like order, lists and steps so going back in a project is counter intuitive to my personality. I love to mark things OFF the list. :) However, as I explore the benefits of signing with babies I am going to return to "watching" to help me as I "weave" the professional information together.