As a teacher and a mum, I’m very passionate about supporting language development. (You can read why on my blog – Why the focus on language? It’s the foundation of learning.) And language development starts WAY before infants begin to speak. In fact, language development begins while a baby is still in the womb. They are developing neural pathways in the brain when they listen to their mother and other people “on the outside” speaking. Then, in those early months just after birth, those same neural pathways continue to be strengthened by interactions with parents and loved ones, listening to people talking and watching faces – remember that more than half (studies vary from 55-90%) of communication is NON-VERBAL!

You’re probably thinking – but what does this have to do with signing? Well, signing is non-verbal. It provides infants with a visual cue for speech. This is known among many different professions to be super helpful in supporting language and literacy development. Many teachers use cued articulation (hand gestures when sounding out words during reading) and speech therapists often use a range of different visual cues to help children with difficulties to access communication.

But let’s look specifically at what signing does for infants. It provides babies with a visual reference for words. It helps them isolate out words in a sentence. Baby sign language gives infants a tool to communicate their thoughts, needs and wants before they can talk. Because often what a baby is thinking far exceeds what they are able to express. Speech requires very fine motor movements that babies just don’t have yet. Signing is a wonderful tool for parents to communicate with their babies as it also tunes them into non-verbal communication with their infant.

The other very interesting fact about adding signing to your parenting tool kit, is that we know that strategies we implement for children with additional or diverse needs, child with disabilities, is that for typically developing infants and children will also get benefit, which sometimes looks like a boost. Infants that learn sign language have been shown to communicate earlier, communicate clearer, and have larger vocabularies. As a teaching and learning specialist, I can tell you that those benefits have massive flow on effects, such as superior social and emotional development (because communicating is connecting) and language outcomes are directly linked to literacy – so children with better language, have a much easier time learning to read and write.

So, there you have it – learning to sign with your infant isn’t just for them when they are a baby, it also helps them as they grow and start school!