Sign Language: Not Just for the Hearing Impaired

My sister-in-law started it. About six years ago, just as she was about to have her first child, she discovered a growing trend in baby education – baby sign language. She’s the kind of person that loves to find new and fun ways to educate children, being a Montessori school teacher herself. Baby sign language was right up her alley.

I heard about this, and skeptic that I am, I didn’t believe it would work. I figured it was a joke – the kid wouldn’t be learning “real” sign language. I thought that maybe it would affect his ability to learn to speak; maybe he’d be delayed. I didn’t know any better, mainly because it seemed like New Age-y mumbo jumbo and I didn’t know anyone that had personally taught their kids the stuff. I heard a lot of second, third and fourth-hand accounts, usually about a friend of a cousin of someone’s half-brother who taught his kids.

Jennifer began teaching her son, Jackson, when he was about nine months old, and he picked it up slowly but surely over the following couple of months. By the time he was a year old, he could ask for milk, he could say he was tired, that he was hungry and that he wanted to play. Most importantly, he could ask for more of something.

The kid rarely threw a tantrum, didn’t seem to feel a lot of frustration in expressing himself, and was generally pretty well-behaved (that would change later, not because he couldn’t express himself, but because he’s a born adventurer!)

My wife and I had our first child in 2005, about a year after her cousin was born, and we knew immediately that we’d be teaching her sign language.

Nell asked her sister what she used to teach Jackson the signs, and was told about the Signing Time DVD series. Jennifer gave us one of her Signing Time DVDs, which we hung onto for several months while we waited for Autumn to get to an age where we could start with her. We decided nine months, like her cousin, would be a good target. Sure enough, nine months rolled around, we started watching the DVD with her, and she started to pick it up! I was floored.

Autumn learned to communicate before she learned to talk, and it was awesome. She rarely got frustrated with us, tantrums were kept to a minimum, and my and my wife’s stress levels were down, too.

My son was born in 2008, and is turning a year old six days from the time I’m writing this. We’ve been showing him that Signing Time DVD, along with six others that we’ve added to the library, for about three months now. He can sign more, milk, all done, play and moon (which seems random, and it kind of is – funny what kids latch onto).

Autumn still knows her signs and uses them to communicate with Chris. He will actually sign something to her and she’ll tell me or my wife – which saves him the trouble of having to cry and making us guess what he wants. It’s simply amazing.