Using words before they can talk

By Nicole D. Tursi
NH Mirror Contributor

Now that you have brought home this bundle of joy, you will spend months looking at him or her and wondering what is going on inside their beautiful, little minds.

What if I told you that as a parent you can find out?

Nicole Tursi holds her daughter, Beatrice, who is making a sign for "rooster." (Courtesy Photo)

Not sold yet? What if I told you that the utilization of American Sign Language has the potential to forever alter the way in which care-giving adults interact with preverbal children? It goes beyond simple communication by reinforcing fine and gross motor skills, which have a critical impact on the development of language and cognition.

The use of sign language creates opportunities for the developing child to practice and master mid-line movement, which is considered a milestone during infancy.

All of these processes come together to increase opportunities for the right and left hemispheres of the brain to work together. During the preschool and kindergarten years, continued signing has further been linked to higher standardized test scores in early elementary school.

If you’re a parent like me, you might be ready to start but you still have some questions. Parents typically have the same reservations when considering sign language as an enhancement to communication: Will sign language prevent or slow my child from speaking? When should we start? Won’t we confuse our baby? Sign language must be difficult to learn and we’re too busy.

Positive effects

Sign language effects on language development are positive. The use of sign language provides the pre-speech child with the ability to explore and understand the basic functions of language at a very early age.

The National Institute of Health looked at a group of pre-speakers and found that hearing children who were consistently exposed to sign language as part of their communication scheme by age 2 were using on average 50 more words than non-signers.

Sign language gives a vocabulary boost by helping to prevent the typical communication breakdown that happens when babies begin to attempt speech by clarifying mispronunciations with concrete signs.

This ability to successfully get a point across encourages the child to continue mastering pronunciation and in turn limits some of their frustrations.

Starting age

When to start is a personal family choice, but there is really no reason to wait. Think of it this way, learning to speak is one of the more difficult tasks your child will undertake. Even though learning to talk is at times incredibly frustrating for your little one, you don’t forgo speaking to them until they are able to speak.

The comfortable suggestion is starting somewhere between the 6- to 12-month range. Then you can expect the typical child to begin to sign sometime between 7 to 10 months. Research shows that the average child will acquire upwards of 50 signs.

Signing explosion

As a new parent, like many of you, I was concerned about confusing my oldest, so I talked to my pediatrician. He looked at me and said, “Well, then don’t show them any trees until they can spell tree.”

I got the point. I started my first child at two weeks old and started in the hospital with my second. Both of my children accumulated upwards of 100 signs.

When they started to sign, their signing exploded because they had seen so many signs for so long. During that time they were able to rehearse them mentally over and over until their motor skills developed enough for them to form the signs.

Even better, starting early gave me months of rehearsal time and got me ready for their preverbal communication explosion. Sign language actually decreased their frustration, giving them the power to control and change conversation topics, alert us of concerns and demonstrate to us what hurt.

Sign language smoothed out early childhood for our family and others I have worked with. Sign language gives preverbal children the ability to communicate successfully and with true meaning long before they have the ability to verbalize.

Enjoy learning

The final hurdle for most parents when considering signing is their own confidence. I know you are thinking, “This sounds great, but sign language must be so difficult to learn and our schedules are so busy.”

Taking a baby and parent sign language class is an easy, enjoyable way to begin your sign language adventure. The parents I work with are continually amazed at how fun and effective signing can be. Children won’t get the benefits of sign from videos, as they don’t teach and are actually shown to impede language development.

“Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn. They don’t get that interaction from watching TV or videos,” said Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “In fact, the watching probably interferes with the crucial wiring being laid down in their brains during early development.”

By taking a class with a certified sign language instructor, you are guaranteed a quality program that will improve your chances for success. Once your little one begins signing, you’ll be hooked, and by age 2, they will have on average 50 more words than a non-signing peer. You will be saving precious time. Instead of guessing what your child wants, they will be able to tell you.

Just think if you could save five minutes a day in communication time, at the end of the year you will have gained over 30 hours of time to just sit and love your little one. And no one is too busy for that!

Nicole Tursi lives in Strafford and is the owner of My2Hands sign language instruction for families and care givers. Visit www.my2handsadvantage.com for more details.