Baby Sign Language and Speech Development

Posted On June 7, 2017

Whether your child is under or over a year old, I think baby sign language plays a major role in developing their speech and language a step ahead.

It’s easy to communicate with your child through sign language as they know what you are signing and telling them to do. It’s a two-way communication rather than only you are doing most of the talking which your child cannot understand.

Before I taught my daughter a sign language, I made sure it would not hinder her speech development in the future. It’s quite astonishing that I rather found out it encourages them to speak and understand even more.

This way it not only develops her speech and understanding of the words clearer but also develops a strong bond between us.

The gesture sign helps them to develop good gesture from the beginning such as ‘Thank you”, “Please”, “Sorry”, “Excuse me”. Likewise, it also develops their vocabulary skill furthermore.

The simple gestures like waving goodbye and hello are the first thing they learn. So, it’s quite obvious babies learn hand gestures earlier than the speech.

Therefore, implementing sign language earlier in their life would encourage them to understand words clearer. However, it is also important to utter the words along with signing so that they can connect both together.

The expert says that the best time to teach the sign language is between 8 months – 18 months. At this stage, their hand movements are developed to a greater extent.

Anyone can easily teach basic sign language to their babies. Some of the simple ones are:

“Eat” sign like putting food in your mouth,
“Milk” sign like milking a cow,
“Book” sign like opening and closing a book,
“Please” like rubbing your palm over the chest in a circular motion, etc.

It’s not that difficult as you are thinking. Babies are good imitator so if you sign whenever you are about to do the action would really help them understand thoroughly.

Therefore, consistency, repetition and practising on a regular basis will help both you and your babies to communicate using sign language.

I started teaching my daughter basic signing when she was about a year old. I began with the simple ones such as, Thank you, hello, bye-bye, star, circle, eat, etc.

These days she has been learning even more signing. She even says the word and shows me what it is by signing. It’s quite amazing to see how fast she catches-up with everything she learns.

It has certainly made my life easier as both of us are aware of what other is talking about. Furthermore, it minimises her tantrums and maximises her happiness quite a lot.

I would personally recommend every parent to teach their child sign language for once. It not only fills the gap of communication between you two but also makes your life much easier.

If you are curious about where to learn baby sign language then don’t worry. There are many online courses and websites where baby sign language is taught.

Even now there are YouTube baby sign language musical videos available where your babies can enjoy and learn sign language just like a nursery rhyme. It’s fun and exciting as well as educating and knowledgeable at the same time.

Click here to watch my daughter signing at 18 months.