Baby Signs and Early Head Start

One of the best gifts a professor can receive is when a student decides to follow in his or her footsteps. I was incredibly lucky in this way when a bright and energetic graduate student chose to focus her career on extending the signing work Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I had done at UC Davis. This student was Claire Vallotton—now Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University.

One direction she took was to determine if signing would have benefits for low-income families as it had with middle-income families in our own work. To this end, she conducted a study with families from an Early Head Start Program in Northern California. The positive results were published last year in the journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (Vol. 27, 2012, pp.401-415). Here is a brief summary in her own words of what she found:

“Mothers in the ISI [Infant Sign Intervention] group were more attuned to changes in children’ affect and more responsive to children’s distress cues. Mothers in the intervention group also viewed their children more positively, reducing parenting-related stress. This study provides evidence that a simple infant sign intervention is an effective tool to promote bidirectional communication and positive interactions for preverbal children and their parents (p. 401).”

Claire’s results provide a great backdrop for our current Baby Signs Scholarship Fund project. Through the website Rockethub, we are building a fund to provide financially-strapped groups like Early Head Start and teen and foster parent programs with Baby Signs® Program trainings and resources. We’d love to have your help! Please visit http://rkthb.co/43041 for details--and if you’re unable to contribute monetarily at this time, you can still help by telling your family and friends about the Baby Signs® Program and this worthwhile initiative.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Signing with Babies : An Easy Intervention

A new research study from Stanford University has revealed that low-income children have already fallen significantly behind in verbal vocabulary development by 18 months. In addition, Dr. Anne Fernald and her students found that this negative standing in comparison to higher-income children keeps growing. Specifically, by 2 years of age, the more affluent children had learned 30 % more words in the intervening months than had the lower-income children. One reason for the gap, research shows, is because low-income children simply hear fewer words directed at them each day—and learning a language depends on hearing that language!

Why is this early vocabulary gap a concern? One important reason is that vocabulary size at early ages is a good predictor of the ease with which children learn to read—and reading, by anyone’s estimation, is a key contributor to doing well in school. Another important reason is because verbal language is the vehicle by which children can ask questions and understand answers—also a key contributor to success academically.

Why do I bring his up in a blog about signing with babies? The answer is probably obvious to those of you who already enjoy signing with your child. Our NIH-funded research has shown that signing speeds up verbal learning, and one reason it does so, is because signing by a child pulls words from the adults around him or her, thus contributing to the overall number of words the child hears.

Think about how you would respond if your baby, during a stroll in the park, suddenly turned to you with a smile and signed “butterfly.” Would you ignore the sign or simply say “Yeah, that’s a butterfly”? Not likely. What is practically inevitable is a reply like “You’re right! That’s a butterfly! Oh look, there’s another butterfly. See how yellow they are?” etc., etc., etc. Without that sign, in contrast, parent and baby would be more likely to proceed in silence. In other words, signs enable babies to initiate conversations about things in which they are interested, and when one is interested in something, one is more likely to pay attention to what is said in return.

The larger point I’d like to make given what I’ve said above is that introducing low-income families to signing is an easy and inexpensive intervention that can help close the vocabulary gap. What’s more, signing would also bring lots of other proven benefits--like lower frustration and happier parent-baby interactions--benefits that make life easier and more satisfying to parent and baby alike.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!  

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Playtime is a Time to Talk, Talk, Talk

Although we frequently recommend playing make-believe with your child because it nurtures vocabulary development and conversation skills, there is definitely a place in the playroom of every child for non-fantasy toys—manipulative toys in particular. The adjective “manipulative” is used to describe toys where the goal is to make something interesting happen by manipulating components. For example, a typical busy box has handles to pull, windows to open, switches to push, wheels o spin. Toddler versions of these include age-old favorites such as stacking rings, puzzles, jack-in-the-boxes, and shape-sorters.

These toys are wonderful because they promote problem solving as well as provide entertainment. Just keep in mind that conversations needn’t turn totally boring when moving parts become the focus. Make sure to go beyond unimaginative phrases like “how about that one.” Be creative. Describe the colors and movements. Talk about the characters that pop up. Make comparisons to other toys. Ask your baby which parts she likes best. Talk about who gave the toy to your child. And don’t forget to extol your baby’s virtues with more than just “Wow!” when she does a good job. How much longer can it take to add, “You’ve sure made Mickey Mouse pop right up! He pops out like Donald Duck did. Remember how Donald Duck jumped up when you turned the wheel? Let’s show Daddy when he comes home.” As we are always telling toddlers to do, “Use your words!”

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

A Study of Signing and Memory

Ask a parent what signs they are most anxious for their children to learn and the answer is likely to be EAT, DRINK, MORE, and ALL DONE—the “Mealtime Signs.” There’s no doubt that these signs are important to both parent and child, but other signs are important as well. Babies use signs for all sorts of reasons besides wanting to eat or drink. One of my favorite uses of signs is to enable babies to talk about their memories.

It comes as a surprise to many parents (and many researchers) that babies and toddlers are, indeed, capable of laying down memories for salient experiences and retrieving those memories after a considerable time. We tested this capacity ourselves in our lab at the University of California at Davis a decade or so ago. Here’s what we did.

Fourteen-month-olds were invited to our lab for a study about signing. While the parent and child were waiting for the experiment to begin, they were in a room with a live mouse named “Mickey” contained in a colorful “house” cage. Not surprisingly, the children were inevitably drawn to the mouse.

When the experiment itself began, the mouse was removed and parents were asked to try teaching a set of signs to their child over the next 2 months. The signs represented different categories (e.g., requests, nouns, adjectives) and included the sign for MOUSE. The parents were told we were interested in which signs were more easily learned.

In reality, the experiment was a test of whether the babies would use a sign to indicate a memory. Specifically, when the families returned to the lab 2 months later there was no mouse in the room and our video cameras filmed the children to see if they would use the MOUSE sign to ask about it, thereby indicating that they remembered the presence of Mickey during their earlier visit.

What did we find? Yes, indeed, we saw enough of the toddlers sign MOUSE with quizzical expressions (or even combined with a WHERE? sign) that we knew we had succeeded! Toddlers can indeed remember an event that occurred 2 months earlier and can use a sign to “say” so!

So, resist the temptation to stop with the Mealtime Signs. Teach signs for lots of other things your baby might want to talk about—and remember!

Happy Signing! (and don’t forget to look for us on Facebook)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Playing Pretend: Talk about Fun!

baby sign language

Just last week in this blog I took a detour from talking about to discuss how important pretend play is to children’s cognitive development. The point I made then is that playing pretend encourages a form of mental “gymnastics;” the child is learning to keep in mind not only what he or she is doing in the present (e.g., feeding a bottle to the doll) but also that the doll represents a real baby and the pretend milk represents real milk. That’s not something a 12 month old can do, but by 18 months, the development of this kind of mental flexibility is underway.

Well, here’s another benefit of pretend play for your child’s development. Research shows that helping children engage in pretend play is an easy way for parents to support language development. In this case, what we’re talking about here is participating with your toddler or preschooler in pretend scenarios—like talking to Grandma on a toy phone, pretending to make and eat imaginary foods, playing with dolls or trucks in ways that involve imagination.

Why does not only encouraging but actually participating in this kind of play with your toddler or preschooler benefit language learning? The answer is because pretend play is language rich when parents are involved—both in terms of language you say to your child while playing and language your child says to you in response. For example, a tea party with your child might introduce new vocabulary words like cups and saucers, tea and teapot, the names of friends or new foods, etc. Or play with a toy plane might involve words like take-off, landing, pilot, the names of destinations. In addition, your questions to your child (for example, “Who are you inviting to our party?” or “Where is the plane going?”) require your child challenges your child to draw from his or her existing vocabulary to provide appropriate answers. In other words, these kinds of pretend interactions help children learn to both understand more language and to talk themselves.

So, whether your child is into tea parties or trucks, baby dolls or train tracks, make it a point to get down to his/her level (both figuratively and literally) and join the fun. Who knows? You might actually have fun exercising your own imagination!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Our Study Still Stands Tall!

One of our Baby Signs® Instructors called my attention last week to an article by a Speech Pathologist who was questioning our research findings that signing helps children learn to talk. She was basing her criticism on a study by researchers in England who claimed to be replicating our study but finding no positive effects when the verbal development of their signing group of babies was compared to that of their control group of babies.

Whenever such criticisms arise, the first thing I do is get my hands on the supposedly contradictory study and read it carefully. So that’s what I did, and just as I suspected, the authors didn’t have a leg to stand on! Let me outline a few of the more blatant differences between their study and ours, differences that explain why they didn’t find the language advantages we did. This post will be longer and a bit more “academic” than usual, but please bear with me. We want every parent who’s signing with a child or even contemplating doing so, to share the unwavering confidence we have in our own research.

Issue: Sample Size. The smaller the sample size (number of subjects within two groups), the harder it is to demonstrate a statistically significant difference between them, especially when the behavior in question varies dramatically from subject to subject as early language development does.
• Our study--Goodwyn, Acredolo, & Brown (2000): 32 in the Signing Group, 39 in the Control Group.
• English study: 10 in each Signing Group, 10 in the Control Group.
Conclusion: Goodwyn et al. was more likely to detect a facilitative effect, the English study more likely to miss a facilitative effect genuinely there.

Issue. Length of the study. Language development in its early stages is notoriously variable across children. The longer data collection continues, the more likely that trends will be visible.
• English study: Ceased data collection at 20 months.
• Goodwyn, Acredolo, & Brown (2000): Continued data collection well past 20 months (i.e., 24, 30, and 36 months).
Conclusion: Goodwyn et al. (2000) was more likely to discover a meaningful trend in the direction of a facilitative effect of signing.

Issue: Number of Signs Learned. To determine whether signing by infants facilitates learning to talk, the “signing group” has to have actually learned a meaningful number of signs. The larger the number of signs learned, the better equipped the study is to determine if signing makes a difference. If a baby learns only a handful of signs, one wouldn’t expect much of an effect on learning to talk.
• Goodwyn, Acredolo, & Brown (2000): Average number of signs learned = 20.3 (Range 9-61 signs)
• English study: Highest average number of signs learned across ages was 8.67 (Range 2-17 signs)
Conclusion: Goodwyn et al. was in a better position to test the effect of signing because the subjects in their study actually learned many more signs.

Why does the number of signs a baby uses matter to verbal development?

• Signs pull language from adults. Babies learn words from listening to adults. When a baby uses a sign (e.g., BIRD) upon seeing a bird, the adult responds with lots of words (“Yes! That’s a birdie! We call that a robin. See, there’s another bird. Oh, the bird flew away.”) The more signs a baby knows, the more likely this is to happen.

• Signs enable babies to pick the topic. Again, babies learn words from listening to adults. When a baby uses a sign, it starts a conversation about something the baby is interested in, thereby making it more likely the baby will listen to and learn from what the adult says. The more sign a baby knows, the more likely this is to happen.

• Signing excites babies about communicating and motivates them to move on to an even better system--words. The more signs a baby is able to use successfully to communicate, the more motivated he/she is to get better at communicating—that is, to move on to words.

• Signs increase a baby’s interest in books. Babies learn new vocabulary from reading books with parents. Because signs enable babies to be active participants in book-reading (naming pictures with signs), babies are drawn more strongly to books, thereby exposing them to more new vocabulary items. The more signs a baby knows, the more likely this is to happen.

Issue: Why did children in Goodwyn et al. (2000) learn more signs?

• Instructions to Parents. The instructions to parents clearly can affect the number of signs learned.
o Goodwyn, Acredolo, & Brown (2000): Parents were encouraged to choose whatever signs they thought their child might be interested in learning and to add new signs at any time. This freedom addresses the fact that not all babies are interested in the same things.
o Kirk et al. (2013): Parents were told to stick to a specific set of first 10, and then 20 signs no matter what their child’s interests.

• Amount of modeling. The more a sign is modeled by the parent, the more likely it is to be learned by the child.
o Kirk et al. (2013): Data indicate that parents on average modeled a sign “a few times a week to once a day.” This isn’t nearly enough!
o Goodwyn et al. (2000): Modelling rate was not reported. However, the likelihood that parents would, in fact, model signs was increased by the fact that they were given specific toys and books depicting objects represented by signs.

Given all the points I’ve outlined, I hope you can see why we disagree so strongly that this new study somehow negates our findings of a facilitative effect of signing on verbal development. And even if you hadn’t read this posting, all you would have had to do is talk to parents of preschoolers who used signs as babies to feel confident that signing is not just “okay,” but actually really good for language development.

Happy Signing! (and don’t forget to look for us on Facebook)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

When to Start Signing

One of the most frequent questions our network of Baby Signs® Instructors hear when they give their Parent Workshops and Sign, Say & Play® classes is “When should we start signing with our baby?” Truth is, there’s no “perfect” time to start signing. Over the years we’ve noticed three different approaches parents take to the issue of when to get started. Each has its own advantages. I will describe all three approaches so you can decide which approach will work best for your family.

Birth – 8 months
Some parents start early – at birth or sometime during the first 8 months. These parents want their babies to get lots of exposure to both signs and words from the very beginning. And they like getting into the habit of signing early on. If you know that you have the patience and the persistence to use signs yourself even though your baby is unlikely to sign back until she’s a bit older, then starting early may be a good choice for you.

8-12 months
Many parents choose to wait until their babies are 8-12 months old to start signing. The advantage of starting during this time period is that babies are closer to the age that they can start using signs themselves (usually around 10-11 months). If you like to see more immediate results, starting during this age range may be best for you.

12+ months
Some parents wait until their babies are 12-18 months old before they start using signs. Even at these later ages most babies still don’t have the words to express all the thoughts they want to share. The advantage of starting during this time is that babies are likely to learn signs more quickly, sometimes within a matter of days. With this approach, however, babies will use their signs for a shorter length of time because signs drop off quickly once babies start using more spoken words.

Finally, is it ever too late to start signing? No, not if a child is still frustrated because he or she can’t say the words needed to communicate important things. In other words, any baby or toddler who shows readiness to communicate, but cannot do so effectively with words, is a candidate for signing, and as a parent, you should not feel that it’s too early or too late to start.


Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Signs: Here, There, and Everywhere!

Do you remember how, once you were expecting a baby, you began to see pregnant women everywhere? Or, having finally decided to buy a particular car, you started to notice how many like it were already on the road? Where did they all come from? The answer, of course, lies in the heightened awareness that your own situation creates. It’s as though you have special radar unconsciously scanning the environment for the things that are momentarily of special importance to you.

The same thing happens to your baby when she learns a new sign or new word. With a new label at her command, she suddenly sees examples everywhere—even in places that you don’t expect. For example, for 14-monthy-old Eli, the “apple” sign made even a trip to the grocery store a special adventure, what with apples, labels on apple pies and apple juice and even pictures of apples on greeting cards. His mother, like many of us, nad never realized how pervasive apples were in the environment until Eli set about to find them all.

In a similar way, 15-month-old Trina had a love affair with her “bird” sign. Everyone expects to find birds out the window or at the park—but at church? Sure enough, embedded in the stained-glass windows over the altar were not one but two ornamental doves, peace symbols to the congregation but just plain birds to Trina. At least using signs was a quiet way to talk about them!

Like these parents, you’ll find yourself amazed at how vigilant your baby can be. She may be only a baby, but lots of mental activity is happening for her behind the scenes. And each time your baby tells you about something with a sign, she is providing you with a glimpse into all that activity, enabling you to respond appropriately and enthusiastically.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, PhD.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Metaphorically "Speaking"

One of the most creative ways we use language is to point out similarities between things, similarities that strike us as especially informative, beautiful, or even funny. “His face was an open book.” “My love is like a red, red rose.” Such parallels are called metaphors or similes. You may be surprised to learn how early such creative begins—especially when babies know simple signs.

An airplane ride was the occasion for a particularly nice example: Fifteen-month-old Brandon was settling into his seat for his first airplane ride when he looked toward the window and began smacking his lips enthusiastically. “You see a fish?” asked his mom as she followed his gaze. But it was raining quite hard and all she could see was water dripping down the window beside his seat. Nevertheless, Brandon was insistent and continued to sign even more vehemently—fish, fish, FISH! Suddenly the mystery was solved as his mom looked at the window with different eyes. “Oh! I bet you’re telling me it looks like our aquarium at home!” said his mother in amazement. “You’re absolutely right. That’s where fishies live!” Brandon’s response? A big, satisfied grin.

Other babies have shown similar creativity with their signs: 11-month-old Cady calling the broccoli on her plate a “flower,” 18-month-old Elizabeth calling the long-hosed vacuum cleaner an “elephant,” 16-month-old Austin using the “monkey” sign to describe a particularly hairy young man, and 17-month-old Carlos describing a trip through the car wash as “wind” and “rain.”

Using signs, babies continue to teach us a valuable lesson: Bring fresh eyes to even an old place and you may be surprised by what you see!

Happy Signing! (and don’t forget to look for us on Facebook)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Going Beyond Single Signs

There’s no doubt that a single sign—such as MORE, for example—conveys important information. But there’s also no denying that the combination MORE + COOKIE is even clearer. Babies seem to know this intuitively; that’s why as soon as they can, they begin stringing two words (or signs!) together and sentences are born.

This important intellectual milestone—the ability to put true words together—typically occurs on average around 20 months, with many babies waiting until their third year. Things happen much earlier, however, with signs. Because signs are easier to learn than words, babies can begin putting them together with each other and with single words as early as 12 months! The most useful signs in this regard are MORE which can be combined with lots of other signs or words (e.g., cookie, milk, book, bubbles, etc.) and ALL GONE which is equally combinable (e.g., with water for down the drain, food words or signs, and even animal signs when animals run or fly away).

Many signing babies, however, don’t stop with just two. Here’s a great illustration: Michelle, mom to toddler twins Jimmie and Julianna (see photo), decided to make a detour from shopping and take the kids for their first trip through the car wash. She thought they might enjoy it. Instead, they began crying hysterically, clearly terrified by the onslaught of water, brushes, and noise. That night when Daddy got home, they immediately told him all about it…with signs: CAR + BATH+ SCARED! For weeks afterward, when they would get in the car they would repeat the same “sentence” just to make sure Mom wouldn’t forget and take them there again!

Yup! Sometimes one word (or sign) alone isn’t nearly enough!

Happy Signing! (and don’t forget to look for us on Facebook)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

I'd Love to Meet You!

I’m currently in the midst of preparing for a 2-day, in-person training in Denver on June 24-25. I love these trainings! It’s my chance to share my passion for the Baby Signs® Program “up close and personal” with others who are eager to pass along the good news to families in their own communities. The attendees come from two different groups. One group includes individuals interested in starting their own home businesses by becoming Baby Signs® Independent Certified Instructors. These folks will not only have fun giving classes, but will also have the satisfaction of earning extra income. The other group are representatives from child development related organizations and agencies who want the ability to teach Baby Signs® classes to the clients they serve. We call folks in this latter group “Agency Certified Instructors.”

These trainings always leave me with good memories—and new friends—which is why I look forward to them so much. Here’s an example: One of our attendees—who I will call Joyce—was eager to become an instructor because of her experience with her grandson, Jacob. Unfortunately, Joyce lived some 1500 miles away from Jacob and had only been able to visit right after he was born. Her daughter tried to bridge the gap with a photo of Joyce on his bureau and a routine where he would kiss the photo every night while his mom said “Goodnight Grandma. We LOVE you!”

When Jacob was about 11 months old, Joyce's daughter announced she was going to begin teaching Jacob to communicate with signs. Joyce had never heard of such a thing and was more than a little dubious. (She even admitted at the training that she had been secretly worried that using signs would slow down Jacob learning to talk, an admission which led nicely during the training into my description of our research at UCD proving the opposite is true!).

All her qualms faded away, however, one night when Joyce and her daughter inaugurated their brand new Skype connection. Joyce, of course, was eager to say “Hello” to Jacob. Jacob, always glad to get in front of the computer, cooperated by climbing into his mother’s lap and turning his eyes to the screen to see what fun game was going on. But then, in something of a double-take, his eyes grew wide as he caught sight of Joyce. He then spontaneously leaned forward, kissed the screen, smiled broadly and—much to Joyce and her daughter’s delighted amazement—signed “LOVE” by crossing his hands over his heart!

Jacob and Joyce continued after that night to communicate via Skype, with Jacob using his signs to tell her about his day. But no matter what other amazing things Jacob did with his signing, nothing could top that first memorable moment. And that’s why she was at our training. Why shouldn’t every grandma experience the magic of learning that, although she may be far away, she’s far from forgotten!

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about our upcoming training, just click “Professional Trainings” on our home page. Hope to see you there!

Happy Signing! (and don’t forget to look for us on Facebook)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

From Signs to Speech—Inevitable!

Parents and babies love the Baby Signs® Program because it reduces frustration and makes being together even more fun. But speech is even more important, isn't it? Will babies be willing to move on to words if life is so easy with signs?

Despite our federally-funded research evidence showing that signing babies actually learn to talk sooner, some parents still worry that their babies will be too content with signing to do the work of learning to talk. Below are four reasons why children are, in fact, eager to make the transition from signs to speech:

New Places to Go: As toddlers get older and more mobile, they are more and more likely to wander away from direct eye-to-eye contact with parents—around corners, behind chairs, up and down the slide. Signs, which require being able to see each other, are much less effective that words in such situations. You simply can’t shout a sign from around the bend!

New Faces to Meet: Greater mobility and maturity also mean that children are destined to meet more and more new people along the way—people who engage them in conversations and most likely don’t know signs. They may be new playmates at daycare or cashiers at the grocery store or friendly parents at the park. Conversing with these folks requires words.

New Games to Play: Getting older also means that children become increasingly attracted to activities that keep the hands busy—like finger paints, crayons, puzzles, ladders to climb, bikes to ride. Signing in such situations is much less convenient that words!

New Things to Say: To a 15-month-old, simply telling you that he sees a butterfly is a magnificent feat—and one easily accomplished with a simple sign. However, as children grow intellectually, gathering more and more information about the world around them, the ideas they want to get across become much more complicated. Except for children whose parents are capable of teaching them to be fluent in ASL, complex ideas and observations are beyond the power of simple signs to express. Words are the perfect substitute.

So, don’t worry about the transition to speech; your child will be eager to move on to words. In fact, if you’re like many parents, you’ll actually be a bit sad to see the signs slowly drift away one by one as an onslaught of words takes over!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

The Baby Signs® Program & Learning to Talk

By far the most frequently voiced concern about encouraging babies to use signs to communicate before they can talk is that doing so will slow down verbal development. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Baby sign language actually speeds up the process.

How do we know? With a grant from the federal government, Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I compared verbal development in babies using the Baby Signs® Program with that of non-signing babies. In test after test the babies who signed were more advanced than the non-signers in language skills. (The published study is available on our Baby Signs web site.) We really weren’t surprised because we had already observed the following ways in which baby signing spurs language skills.

• Signing is to talking as crawling is to walking. In other words, just as crawling excites babies about getting around even faster by walking, the excitement of being able to communicate with signs motivates babies to figure out ways to communicate better—and the most obvious way is with words.

• Signing provides practice. The experience of signing teaches babies useful lessons about how language works (like using symbols to label objects, etc.). These lessons speed up the process of learning to talk once words are finally available.

• Signing pulls language from adults. The natural reaction to a baby’s use of a sign is to flood the child with words, and the more words a child hears, the faster he or she will learn to talk. What’s more, signs enable babies to pick the topic of conversation, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will listen attentively to the words parents say.

• Signing changes the brain. Every time a baby successfully uses a sign to label something, circuits in the brain are strengthened; circuits that then make learning words easier.

• Signing makes book-reading more fun. Babies who sign can actively participate in book-reading by labeling pictures they see well before they would be able to do so with words. Because taking a active role is more exciting they sitting passively on the sidelines, thereby making the experience more fun. How does that help language? Books expose children to lots of new vocabulary words and stimulate conversations.

So, the next time someone suggests that your use of the Baby Signs® Program is going to keep your child from talking, just smile knowingly, roll your eyes, and say “Oh, that old wives’ tale!”

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Signs: A Window into the Infant Mind for Researchers Too

I spent last Tuesday with my twin, almost 4-year-old grandchildren—Nate and Olivia—because they were home sick from preschool. Both of them were great signers, so I decided to see if they remembered any of their signs. I mentioned that they used to use a sign for “more,” and Nathan quickly tapped his fists together, clearly remembering something from easily 18 months earlier. Then Olivia did the sign for “all done” and Nate asked me to remind him what the sign was for “drink.” Soon we were all into it with them remembering lots of signs—like book, bird, dog, and moon—and even a specific experience when they had used the bird sign to talk about a hawk out back. My conversation with them reminded me of one of my favorite signing stories where a 2-year-old little girl, who had switched from sign to words a whole year earlier, suddenly began to teach her doll the sign for “more!”

The doll story and my conversation with Nate and Olivia reminds me of one of the less obvious gifts signing with babies has given us. For a very long time, researchers (as well as parents) assumed that babies’ memory abilities were severely limited. And who was to tell us differently? After all, without words to share their thoughts, babies seem almost oblivious to the past and future. But now, with signs at their disposal, babies are sharing what they see, hear, feel, and even what they remember with both parents and researchers! Finally we’re getting proof that babies are a lot smarter than they look!

Let’s hear it for signing with babies!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Baby Sign Language—A Boon to Multilingual Households

One of the most frequent questions I get is the following: “My baby is exposed to two languages at home. Won’t adding the Baby Signs® Program just make her task more complicated by adding a third?”

The answer is a strong and resounding “No!” The truth is that, no matter what form bilingual input takes, adding signing to the mix actually makes the child’s job easier, not harder. Here’s why.

In a bilingual household, babies hear two words being used to label objects, and what they need to figure out is that both words are equally valid—in other words, that they mean the same thing. For example, if babies hear both the word “leche” and the word “milk,” they need to understand that the words are equivalent.

And that’s where signing becomes helpful. Quite simply, signs act as mediators between the languages, making the equivalence of words obvious to the baby. For example, when the baby hears “leche” from Mom and “milk” from Dad and both parents pair the word they say with the MILK sign, the parents are making the job of connecting the object with the meanings of both words much easier for babies.

In other words, rather than confusing children in bilingual families, signs help smooth the road to understanding and speaking both languages.

Happy Signing

(and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Doll House vs. Fire Station

In this post I’m going to be bringing together a number of different themes (and not signing with babies, for a change) that are salient in research on early child development: Sex differences in choice of toys; the fact that girls learn to talk on average earlier than boys, and the relationship between different types of play and language development. And I’m going to do all this by highlighting a a photo I took last week while taking care of my twin grandchildren, Nate and Olivia.

• First, sex differences in choice of toys: From the time they were old enough to make choices for themselves, it’s been clear (despite efforts from parents and grandparents to the contrary) that Nate was in love with anything with wheels and vroom-vroom noises and Olivia with anything pink, purple, and with the word “princess” or “baby” in the title. In fact, one of the most recent of Olivia’s favorites is a large pink and white plastic doll house complete with pink and white frilly furniture and a pink clad baby. Needless to say, Nate is not equally enchanted.

• Second, sex differences in verbal development: One of the most robust of all differences between boys and girls is the fact that—on average—girls learn to talk earlier than boys. (Note. This is true for learning words, but not signs. No sex difference there.)

• Third, relationship between types of play and verbal development: Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I discovered a number of years ago that pretend play, in contrast to manipulative play (where the child just moves pieces in some way—like shape sorters, hammers and peg boards, puzzles), helps facilitate language development. There are a number of reasons why, but the main one is because pretend play involves so much language itself! The child is thinking and often explaining out loud pieces of some kind of simple plot, either alone or in response to questions from adults. Susan and I suspect that one of the reasons boys lag behind girls in language is because the toys they are typically given (with some exceptions to be sure) are less likely to inspire pretending than the baby dolls, tea sets, and doll houses typically given girls.

So, how do these three observations relate to the photo above? Take a close look at the nature of the toy Nate is playing with. It is, in fact, a miniature structure. But instead of being a typical “doll house” like Olivia’s, it’s a pretend fire station. It has many of the same things Olivia’s does--a kitchen (firefighters have to eat after all), bathroom, bedroom and living area—but it also has a pole to slide down, a treadmill, an elevator, a fire truck, and a heliport! My point is that it has characteristics that Nate, like lots of little boys, value while at the same time promoting the type of play (i.e., pretending) that is so good for language development. And he loves it! I stood and watched him play for a long time and was amazed at the imaginary scenarios he was describing in words, both to himself and in explanation to me.

The lesson in all this is directed at parents and grandparents as they think about appropriate toys. Simply, keep in mind that pretending is critical to both boys and girls and that sex difference in preferences for pretend scenarios are often a fact of life, but that with a bit of creative thinking on our own parts, it’s possible to satisfy both requirements.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Everyone Benefits from Signing with Babies!

Before I retired from UC Davis, I was lucky enough to have a graduate student who fell in love with the research Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I had been doing for so long on the effects of signing with hearing babies. Her name is Dr. Claire Vallotton, and she is now an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University continuing her (and our) research on the topic.

I just heard from Claire the good news that one of her studies has just appeared in the professional journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2012, Volume 27, pps. 401-415). The results are exciting and worth sharing here because they extend the benefits of signing beyond just middle-class families to low-income families enrolled in an Early Head Start Program in Northern California.

Why is this important? We all know that parents who have the luxury of higher education, access to parenting books and mommy-and-me classes, and progressive child care programs are eager to pursue anything that holds the promise of benefitting their kids. And this certainly includes the Baby Signs® Program. What’s more, they usually have the time and energy to follow-though on the information they receive. As a result, middle-class babies all over the world are enjoying the many benefits that signing has been proven to bring.

But what about parents who are less likely to be aware of signing and it’s benefits and less likely to have the time and energy to implement the program. Unfortunately, many low-income families fall into this category.

What Claire has done is demonstrate--with an experimental study comparing EHS families whose Home Visitors encouraged them to sign with families whose Home Visitors did not—that Early Head Start parents can be effective teachers and that both parents and children do benefit from the experience. Her specific goal, unlike the emphasis in our own research on verbal language development, was to see how signing would affect the intricacies of parent-child interactions.

So what did she find? She found that moms in the signing group were more attuned to changes in their children’s emotions and more responsive to their distress cues. In addition, the signing moms also viewed their children more positively, a benefit that reduced perceived stress. All these positive changes are important because they are critical components of a healthy “attachment” relationship—which, in turn, is a predictor of positive emotional development long term.

I can’t say that we’re surprised by these findings. In fact, we would have been surprised if she hadn’t found them. But we are definitely pleased to have them in print for the world, including policy makers, to see!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

How to Make the Most of Book-Reading

In last week’s blog, I talked about how signing spurs language development by increasing a baby’s enjoyment of books. Part of the explanation that I gave for this positive relationship between books and language development involved something researchers call “Dialogic Reading” Quite simply, this term means engaging your child in a conversation about what’s on the page rather than just reading the text and moving on. What I want to do today is provide some specific tips for how to get such conversations going.

• Instead of only asking for labels (like “What’s that?”), ask questions that require some thought to answer (“Where do you think Goldilocks is running to?”) In general, good openers include “Why….?” “How….?” “Where…?” You’ll find you naturally expand on whatever answer your child provides, thus providing more words for your baby to ponder—and learn (e.g., “Too big? Yes, Goldilocks was too big. She was just too heavy for that little bitty chair.”).

• Ask about things that are more abstract, like feelings or predictions about the future. “How do you think Goldilocks felt when…?” “What do you think Goldilocks told her mommy when she got home?” Parents really underestimate children’s ability to think about such things. What’s more, helping your child identify a character’s feelings will indirectly help her identify her own.

• Ask questions that relate the book’s events to your child’s own life. “Have you ever seen a bear?” “What would you do if you woke up and saw three bears?” Like the rest of the human race, babies are more interested in things that have direct relevance to their own lives.

• Relax, laugh a lot, and “go with the flow.” Don’t worry if your child gives the wrong answer—or no answer at all! The point is to make talking fun. A child who genuinely enjoys such give and take will be motivated to get better at participating. A child who doesn’t, who feels “interrogated” and put on the spot, will emotionally withdraw and see book-reading as aversive. In other words, “Dialogic Reading” is not—I repeat—is not an IQ test! It’s just a simple way to enrich the experience of cuddling up with Mom or Dad and a good book.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program

and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Baby Sign Language and Learning to Talk

By far the most frequently voiced concern about encouraging babies to use signs to communicate before they can talk is that doing so will slow down verbal development. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Baby sign language actually speeds up the process.

How do we know? With a grant from the federal government, Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I compared verbal development in babies using the Baby Signs Program with that of non-signing babies. In test after test the babies who signed were more advanced than the non-signers in language skills. (The published study from the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior is available on our Baby Signs web site-- www.babysigns.com).

We really weren’t surprised because we had already observed the following ways in which baby signing spurs language skills.

1. Signing is to talking as crawling is to walking. In other words, just as crawling excites babies about getting around even faster by walking, the excitement of being able to communicate with signs motivates babies to figure out ways to communicate better—and the most obvious way is with words.
   

2. The experience of baby signing teaches babies useful lessons about how language works (like using symbols to label objects, etc.). These lessons speed up the process of learning to talk once words are finally available.

3. 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 he or she will learn to talk. What’s more, signs enable babies to pick the topic of conversation, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will listen attentively to the words parents say.

4. Every time a baby successfully uses a sign to label something, circuits in the brain are strengthened; circuits that then make learning words easier.

5. Signing makes book-reading more fun for babies because they can actively participate, and book-reading increases a baby’s exposure to vocabulary items.

So, the next time someone suggests that your use of the Baby Signs® Program is going to keep your child from talking, just smile knowingly, roll your eyes, and say “Oh, that old wive’s tale!”

Happy Signing! (and don't forget to follow us on Facebook!)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, the Baby Signs Program

and

Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

.

Sign language beneficial for babies in low-income families, study finds

Dear Readers,

Below you will find a recent article from the UK which highlights the advantages that signing has for infants from low-income families. It's exciting to see that others are coming to recognize the benefits to the parent-infant relationship and early language development that we've been touting for so long. My only reservation concerns the suggestion that such results are restricted to low-income children. As those of you familiar with the Baby Signs Program know, our foundational research funded by the US federal government (NIH) revealed significant positive effects of signing on language development among middle- and upper-income children. The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nonverbal Behavior ( 2000) is available in full on our website, www.babysigns.com.

Happy Signing!
--Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs Program

Sign language beneficial for babies in low-income families, study finds

Reprinted from Children & Young People Now (UK)

By Ross Watson 15 March 2010

Sign language used by mothers in low-income families can have a profound effect on babies' development, according to research conducted by the University of Hertfordshire.

The research, partly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, will be discussed at an ESRC-organised event on Thursday called Communicating with Your Baby.

Based on a two-year study of 25 mothers and their babies, the findings suggest sign language has a significant impact on babies experiencing language delay, which the researchers claim is most likely to occur in low-income households.

The research showed that signing is likely to have very little impact on the language skills of most babies. But it suggested that sign-language classes in children's centres could have wider societal benefits for babies from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"In families where the language environment is known to be less than optimal, gesture is identified to have the potential to effectively promote better mother-infant interaction," said the report. "The appeal of the sessions is likely to attract attendance at Sure Start centres, therefore these sessions provide community practitioners with access to parents at risk and enable other services to be opened up to them.

"Through early intervention, gesture has the potential to reduce the disadvantage that children face from impoverished language abilities, and ultimately bring about lasting benefits."