The first blog I ever wrote, which was over a year ago now, focused on the benefits of baby sign language. I started that post with a disclosure about how in the literature there was a bit of a debate about whether or not baby sign language was beneficial for typically developing babies…

What I’ve realised in the last year, though, is that I am a professional. I have a Bachelor of Early Childhood Education – which means I spent 4 years studying how children learn and develop. I also have a Masters in Learning Intervention – which means I spent a further 2 years learning what we (as teachers and parents) can do to help children learn and achieve important life skills, like speaking, reading and writing. When I first started writing these blogs I was afraid to say what I believe to be true (based on science that I spent years studying!) because the internet is full of rhetoric that might be contrary to what I am saying.

All that being said, today’s post is about what I believe to be true – based on my extensive research and study into children, how they learn, and how we can best support them to thrive!

Let’s start with what baby sign language is – it’s the deliberate use of signs to help you and your baby communicate before they can speak. But, did you know that babies naturally use gestures to communicate before they can speak. Have you ever watched a baby reach up to their parent, clearly asking to be picked up? Have you ever watched a baby wave goodbye before they can speak? Have you ever seen a baby blow a kiss, but they can’t talk yet? These are all naturally occurring gestures that babies pick up from their environment to communicate with us while they are still developing their capacity to speak.

Enter “baby sign language”. What baby sign language is actually doing is leveraging this natural tendency of babies to use non-verbal language to communicate before they have speech. And I might interject here, this is actually something that people, regardless of age, do when spoken language isn’t available. If you’ve ever travelled to a foreign country and tried to get directions when you didn’t speak the local language, I bet you used a range of sloppy gestures to try to figure it out. So, non-verbal communication and gestures are a natural part of what we do as humans to communicate. Adding signs into interactions with a baby simply gives more non-verbal tools to communicate in absence of speech.

So, yes. Baby sign language really is that great. Not because it’s some crazy magic trick that only some parents can achieve, but because it is adding to the naturally occurring phenomenon that is your baby’s language learning journey.

Now that my rant is over, I ask of you one thing – if you see somewhere online that says “there isn’t enough research to back baby sign language as being effective”, please forward them this blog. Or give them my email – [email protected] – so I can share with them the truth about language development and the truth about baby sign language. Just because no one is paying for research into this stuff, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.

OK. Now my rant is over. LOL.

Thanks for reading!

Meg