BABY SIGNS

How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can TalkBy LINDA ACREDOLO SUSAN GOODWYN

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-161503-7

Contents

Chapter One

Introducing the Baby Signs Program

Carlotta was sound asleep when her inner “mommy alarm” went off. Fifteen-month-old Sophia was crying. Hurrying into her daughter’s room, Carlotta noticed immediately that Sophia was desperately and repeatedly blowing air through her lips, her sign for hot. “Are you hot, sweetie?” asked Carlotta, surprised because the room was actually quite chilly. When the blowing and crying continued unabated, Carlotta felt Sophia’s forehead and discovered the source of her daughter’s distress: “Oh, you’ve got a fever!” Some medicine, water, and lots of cuddles later, Sophia was content to settle back down in her crib.

HAVING A SICK CHILD IS AN UPSETTING AND WORRISOME experience for all parents. Because very young children can’t talk, parents often have to resort to guessing what’s wrong. Is he teething? Does she have an earache? Is he cold or wet or simply lonely? In this story, Sophia, long before she could say the word hot, was able to tell her mother exactly what she was feeling.

The signs Sophia and hundreds of thousands of other babies around the world are using are based on both extensive child development research and old-fashioned common sense about how babies communicate. All babies learn to wave a hand for bye-bye, shake the head back and forth for no, and nod the head up and down for yes. These conventional gestures are just three examples of the many simple, easy-to-remember signs that babies can learn and use to talk about things in their world that they don’t have words for yet. Unfortunately, most parents never appreciate their baby’s ability to learn additional signs beyond bye-bye, yes, and no that could help them communicate in ways that otherwise would be impossible until they can speak.

Talking is so easy for adults that we forget how difficult it was to learn. When a baby finally produces a true word, he is demonstrating an impressive degree of mastery over all the large and small body parts necessary to make the particular sounds involved. There’s the tongue to place, the lips to form, the vocal chords to control, the breathing to regulate, and much more. The reason for “baby talk”—those difficult-to-decipher words, such as “wawa” for water—is that babies are physically unable to string together necessary sounds in the word but are doing their best to practice. It takes time, often until they are three years old, before they have mastered their vocal chords enough to make them do exactly what they want them to do.

Considering how slowly babies learn even easy words like ball and doggie, let alone difficult words like scared or elephant, many months are lost that could have been spent having rich and rewarding interactions, both for the child and the parent. Thirteen-month-old Jennifer’s experience of “reading along” with her father is a wonderful example of the joy that comes from successful communication.

Jennifer loves books. As her dad, Mark, settles on the couch after dinner, she toddles over. Holding her palms together facing up, she opens and closes them, making the sign for book. Mark’s immediate, “Oh, OK. Go get a book to read,” satisfies her, and she soon returns with her favorite book of animal pictures, cuddles up close, and begins turning the pages. With delight, she looks at a picture, scrapes her fingers across her chest, and looks up with a broad smile at Mark. “Yep, you’re right! That’s a zebra!” Mark says. The next page brings Jennifer’s finger to her nose with an up-down motion and a proud “Yep, that’s an elephant!” from Mark. As the pages turn, Jennifer bounces her torso up and down, opens her mouth wide, tilting her head back, and rubs her hands together. Without hesitation Mark acknowledges that in each case she is right again: “That is a kangaroo,” “That is a hippopotamus,” and “That is water the hippo is swimming in.” They continue through the book, pride clearly showing in both their eyes.

It doesn’t matter how big or little you are—successful communication with other people makes life better. In fact, for the young, who are dependent on their parents for everything, it can even be the link to their survival and well-being.

Is the Baby Signs Program Good for Babies?

Imagine how frustrating it would be if you were unable to talk and had no way to express your needs, fears, and thoughts about the world. You would feel as if you were locked in solitary confinement. Babies can feel this same way, which is why they so frequently throw tantrums and use whatever means they have—especially pointing and crying—to try to convey what they are thinking and wanting. Daily life with a preverbal baby tests everyone’s patience, but more than two decades of research have consistently shown us that the Baby Signs program can make bringing up baby an easier and more fun experience.

What’s more, our research has proven that signing is actually good for babies. In a large- scale study funded by the National Institutes of Health, we observed 103 families with eleven-month-old babies for two years. One-third of these families were encouraged to use signs; the other two-thirds were not. Our plan was to compare the groups periodically using standardized verbal language and cognitive tests to see whether the Baby Signs experience was having any significant effects—good, bad, or indifferent.

So what did we find? In a nutshell, the signing babies outperformed the other babies in comparison after comparison. They scored higher in intelligence tests, understood more words, had larger vocabularies, and engaged in more sophisticated play. (For more details about the research, see Appendix B.)

Benefits for You and Your Baby

Most gratifying of all, however, were the ways parents described the experience of using the Baby Signs program. They talked enthusiastically about advantages we were expecting: increased communication, decreased frustration, and an enriched parent-infant bond. However, they also alerted us to many more subtle advantages we hadn’t considered, like increased self-confidence and interest in books. Here are some of the benefits of signing revealed in our research, benefits you and your baby can expect to enjoy, too.

Benefit 1: Decreases Tears and Makes Family Life Easier

Signing alleviates frustration and avoids the need for a baby to depend on pointing, crying, or an urgent “Uh! Uh! Uh!” to get a message across. The story of Sophia demonstrated how using signs helped a preverbal baby tell her mother what she was experiencing and what she needed. Parents also find that signing opens a window into their child’s mind that profoundly enriches the experience of parenting.

In the following story, the Baby Signs program helped turn one sleepless night into a sublime experience of sharing for a father long before his son had the ability to speak.

Thirteen-month-old Bryce often had difficulty sleeping through the night. One morning just before dawn, he awoke and began to cry. Realizing it was his turn, Bryce’s dad, Norm, reluctantly crawled out of bed and went in to comfort Bryce—typically not an easy job. Norm thought a change of scenery might help them both, so he took Bryce out on the front porch, sat down on the glider, and began to glide back and forth. Just as they were settling in, Bryce noticed the sun peeking up from the horizon. Still whimpering, he looked at his dad with tear-stained cheeks and flashed his fingers, making the sign for light. Norm’s heart melted, and he Bryce tightly. “That’s right, Brycie. The sun is coming up and giving us its light.” Norm still remembers this as one of his favorite moments with his son.

Let’s consider what young Sophia, Jennifer, and Bryce have in common. In each case a baby was able to convey a message without words and enjoy the experience of being quickly and accurately understood. Interchanges such as these foster feelings of competence and trust, and mitigate frustration. The result is a warmer, more satisfying relationship between child and adult. It’s a basic fact of human life that when we can communicate with others, we feel more connected. And when that connection, especially between parent and child, yields lots of positive interactions—such as those experienced by these three children—the product is almost inevitably deep feelings of affection and love.

Our research has found that using signs decreases tears and tantrums. The reason is not hard to understand. Unsuccessful communication is often the reason for meltdowns during the “terrible twos” (a period of time that can actually start in the first year and extend into the third). When babies and toddlers are able to communicate their needs, they are much less likely to resort to moaning, crying, and frustrated tantrums to express themselves. No doubt this is partly the reason we found in our research that using the Baby Signs program actually makes family life easier and strengthens a baby’s bond with parents, siblings, grandparents, and caregivers.

Benefit 2: Allows You to See How Smart Your Baby Is

Not only is the inability of babies to communicate very frustrating to parents, it also leads them to assume that their babies are not thinking about things, are not aware of what is happening around them. As we describe in our second book, Baby Minds, an enormous amount of cognitive activity is actually going on in their little heads, even at birth. Certainly, by the time they are nine to twelve months old, babies are simply bursting with things to talk about, but they generally have to wait until eighteen months to two years for the words that enable them to do so. That’s why, once they start using signs with their children, parents are amazed at how much their babies notice, understand, and remember about the world.

The three real-life stories we have described provide good examples of how much smarter babies are than we often assume. Sophia, Jennifer, and Bryce may not have been talking yet, but they knew quite well what they wanted to say, and with the Baby Signs program they could say it. At the same time, those around them got a wonderful glimpse into just how much was going on in their heads. Sophia was able to tell her mom she had a fever, Jennifer was able to demonstrate an impressive grasp of the animal kingdom, and Bryce was able to help his father appreciate the specialness of an otherwise frustrating moment. Unlike most parents, who have to guess what their babies are thinking, the parents of Sophia, Jennifer, and Bryce could easily follow their children’s lead, focusing attention where the babies most needed it to be. With a window into their baby’s mind they otherwise would not have, parents of signing babies learn a valuable lesson: there truly is “somebody home in there.”

Benefit 3: Helps Your Baby Speak Sooner

It’s easy to understand how using signs reduces frustration. One of the other well- established benefits, however, may surprise you. Babies taught signs actually learn to speak sooner and have richer vocabularies. In one of our studies, the signing babies on average knew about fifty more real words than their non-signing peers by the age of two. Moreover, these gains did not disappear as time went on. A year later, at age three, the signers were both saying and understanding words at levels almost comparable to what is expected at age four! Why does the Baby Signs program help babies master language more quickly? Here are a few possible explanations:

• Food for thought for the brain.

Babies come into this world with a mind-boggling 100 to 200 billion brain cells (or neurons). What they don’t come into the world with are the trillions and trillions of connections among these neurons. These connections, as much as the neurons themselves, are what enable them to organize thoughts, see relationships among things, remember past events, and master language. How do these connections come about? Both their creation and their continued existence depend a great deal on a child’s experiences in the world. The more often a child encounters thought provoking objects, events, and problems, the more connections are made and strengthened.

This general principle is clearly relevant to the relation between signing and learning to talk. Every time a baby successfully uses a sign, changes occur in the brain, bringing the child closer to mastering language. The circuitry in the brain—which talking requires—develops along with a child’s experience with language. Because using signs enables children to begin the process earlier, the development of this circuitry gets a significant jump start that continues to pay off for years down the road.

• Like crawling is to walking.

Just as babies learn to crawl before they can walk, using signs gives them a developmentally appropriate way to communicate before they can talk. Once children learn to walk, they no longer crawl because of the greater freedom walking affords them. Communication is the same way. While signs are useful before children have words, speech allows them the ability to communicate more quickly and more fully. As your child’s mind and body develop, she will naturally transition to speaking in order to convey ever more complex ideas and longer sentences. Far from getting in the way of the process, using the Baby Signs program provides a bridge that helps the transition from no language to spoken language.

• A tutorial for talking.

The experience of signing teaches babies useful lessons about how language works—lessons that speed up the process of learning to talk once words are finally available. By enabling a baby to practice learning and using symbols to label objects, express needs, and describe feelings, signing creates the mental framework that makes it easy to incorporate words as soon as the baby’s vocal chords are developed enough to use them.

• A richer speech environment.

The natural reaction to a baby’s use of a sign is to “bathe” the child with words, and the more words a child hears, the faster she will learn to talk. Using the Baby Signs program results in children hearing lots of words and sentences directly relevant to the topic they have chosen. We always encourage parents to say the word every time that they or their baby use a sign. Not only will you be using words right along with any signs you show your child, but once he begins to produce signs on his own, you will find yourself responding with words and words and more words. When she begins to look at you and sniff for flowers while strolling through the park, you will automatically respond with something like, “Oh, you see the flowers! Yes, those are pretty flowers. We see lots of flowers, don’t we?” This exposure to words they care about is exactly what children need in order to learn how to say the words themselves.

Benefits in Brief

Our research studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health, have revealed numerous benefits for babies and for families. Using the Baby Signs program

• reduces tears, tantrums, and frustration;

• allows babies to express their needs and share their worlds;

• enriches daily interactions and strengthens the parent-child bond;

• reveals how smart babies truly are by providing parents a window into their baby’s mind;

• helps babies develop language skills and speak sooner;

• builds a positive foundation for a baby’s future emotional development by helping her express her feelings in a constructive way;

• jump-starts intellectual development, resulting in higher IQs in elementary school; and

• boosts a baby’s self-esteem and self-confidence.

The three examples we’ve included in this chapter, the stories of Sophia, Jennifer, and Bryce, illustrate some of these factors underlying the positive effects of signing on verbal language. In each case, the use of the Baby Signs program provided the children with exactly the kind of rich interpersonal conversation that yields faster language development. Our research files are filled with experiences like these. When combined with the objective data we obtained from over a dozen standardized language tests, they enable us to sum up our two decades of research on language development in one short statement: we now can say conclusively that encouraging babies to use signs not only leads to better communication before words come along, but it also makes learning to talk easier. (For more details about the transition to speech, please see Chapter 6.)

Benefit 4: Jump-Starts Intellectual and Emotional Growth

Learning to talk is only one of the cognitive benefits of the Baby Signs program. Our research suggests that using signs also has significant and long-term benefits for your child’s growing brain. The signing babies in our study, who had greater language skills than their nonsigning peers, also scored more impressively on tests of mental development, pretend play, and the ability to remember where things are. We wondered, however, what the effects of the Baby Signs program, especially its positive effect on learning to talk, would be down the line.

At the urging of those parents in our research studies who suspected that there were long-term benefits, we conducted a follow-up to our National Institutes of Health study. We compared two groups of eight-year-olds, former signers and nonsigners, using the WISC-III, a traditional IQ test. The results were startling and impressive. The children who had been signers had IQ scores on the average 12 points higher than their nonsigning peers. They scored an average of 114, while the children who had never learned signs averaged 102. (The average child in the United States scores 100 on the test.) We controlled for family income, education, and other factors that influence IQ scores. What does this mean? While the nonsigners were on average scoring just about as you would expect eight-year-olds to score, the former signers were performing more like nine-year-olds! (For details of this follow-up study, see Appendix B.)

Why such a positive long-term effect? For one thing, we believe that the early language advantage that signing yields serves children very well as they continue on into elementary school, helping them understand things better, explain things better, and ask better questions when they are confused. This possibility is strongly supported by independent research from Stanford University by Virginia Marchman and Anne Fernald showing that babies with better verbal language skills at twenty-five months did significantly better on cognitive tests at eight years. They suggest that improvements in what researchers call working memory (the ability to hold things in immediate memory) may be what underlies the connection.

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Excerpted from BABY SIGNSby LINDA ACREDOLO SUSAN GOODWYN Copyright © 2009 by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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