to facilitate their ability to communicate, but is it a

Winter 2010 DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD Volume 38, Number 1 21

Early educators and families can teach hearing, pre-verbal children to use sign language in orderto facilitate their ability to communicate, but is it a good idea? It may be easier for babies to usea manual mode of communication than an oral one, but does it really make a difference in thelong run?

Sign Language With Babies:What Difference Does It Make?

Susan Kubic Barnes

Teachers and families of babies and toddlers know howfrustrating it can be to be unable to understand what theiryoungest children are thinking. Often gestures andwhining can be clearly interpreted, as when toddlers reachup both of their arms. Adults and even older childrenassume that a toddler with arms in the air wants to bepicked up. But what if the baby is actually reaching towarda toy on a shelf or is calling attention to somethinginteresting outside the window?

Teaching sign language—to deaf or other children withspecial needs or to hearing children with hard-of-hearingfamily members—is not new. Researchers found one studydone by Gallaudet in 1910 (Johnstone, Durieux-Smith,& Bloom, 2005). Teaching sign language to typicallydeveloping children has become increasingly popular sincethe publication of Baby Signs® (Goodwyn & Acredolo,1996), now in its third edition. Attention to signing withbabies has received much publicity.

• Numerous programs have been introduced to helpfamilies and teachers learn to better communicatewith children as young as 6 months old.

• In the popular 2005 film “Meet the Fockers,” Jacktalks to his grandson using sign language.

• Hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, andnumerous television shows, have featured stories onprograms that teach infant and toddler sign language.

There is no reliable estimate of the number of familieswho sign with their children, but Amazon.com reportedsales of Baby Signs to be in the top 300 of all books soldin 2004 and 2005. Even in 2006, when many other baby-signing books became available, the book remained in thetop 600 (Pizer, Walter, & Meier, 2007). The third edition

is available on Kindle, Amazon’s wireless reading device.Some of these programs claim that using baby sign

language will speed verbal development (Baby Signs,2008) and some claim to enhance early brain development(Baby BumbleBee, 2008). However, a search for scholarlyresearch and empirical studies to support these claims findsthat there is conflicting evidence.

Language development is so important to success inschool and in life that accurate information for families,caregivers, and other educators is crucial. This articlebegins with a brief history of sign language and a review ofnormal language development. It then reviews the researchon the effects of sign language on hearing children’slanguage development and the overall benefits of signingwith babies.

Sign Language: How It StartedThomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who co-founded the

American School for the Deaf (ASD) in 1817, promotedthe policy of teaching sign language to the hearing brothersand sisters of his deaf students for two reasons. First, thedeaf child would have a way to communicate, andsecondly, the hearing children would increase their ownlanguage proficiency (ASD, 2008).

Susan Kubic Barnes, M. Ed., is an Instructor in the Depart-ment of Early, Elementary and Reading Education, JamesMadison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia. She previouslytaught preschool at the University of Michigan and kinder-garten in the public schools. Her JMU faculty responsibilitiesinclude supervision in public and private preschool andkindergarten classrooms with children of diverse backgroundsand varied abilities. Her research interests include using mediaand technology to support children’s learning and assessingthe effectiveness of adult-child interactions.

22 Volume 38, Number 1 DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD Winter 2010

The 1853 issue of American Annalsof the Deaf and Dumb contained anarticle that explained the benefit ofteaching hearing children languagethrough verbal and non-verbal tech-niques. Gallaudet said that “the morevaried the form under which languageis presented to the mind through thevarious senses, the more perfect willbe the knowledge of it acquired, andthe more permanently will it beretained” (Daniels, 2004, p. 87).

More than a century after thatarticle was published, the book SignLanguage Structure described Amer-ican Sign Language (ASL) as a truelanguage with sound phonological,morphological, and syntactical struc-tures (Stokoe, 1960).

After Spanish and Italian, signingis the third most commonly usedlanguage in the United States (Yule,1996). Dozens of studies with school-age children show that sign languageenhanced students’ reading ability. Inthe 1990s, the International ReadingAssociation began to feature lecturesat their conferences addressing thebenefits of including sign language intypical classroom instructional set-tings (Daniels, 2004).

To better understand how signlanguage may affect language dev-elopment in young children, it is important to know about thetypical development of language inhearing children.

Typical Language Development

For the families and caregivers oftypically developing children, the rateof verbal language developmentbetween birth and 2 years of age—when most children have acquiredvocabulary and the fine motor

coordination required to actually saythe words required to make theirneeds known—is frustratingly slow.

Receptive language develops beforeexpressive language. For example,infants will turn toward sounds andbe calmed by gentle voices, but theycan only make cooing and gurglingsounds. The graph in Figure 1(Machado, 2007) shows how childrencommunicate verbally at differentstages of development.

• At about 6 months of age, babies are able to reciprocate in“conversations” by making sounds when others talk to them and to make noises to gain attention. Caregivers often say that the cries babies make when they are hungry are different than other soundsthey make.

• Typical 1-year-old children will recognize some

Subjects & Predicates

The proponents of infant sign language believe that because sign language and gestures,like spoken language, represent thoughts in a symbolic way, it may be easier for veryyoung children to first learn language using signs. Perhaps the essentials of language ac-quired through the manual modality transfer to the verbal modality when children de-velop the ability to create the phonemes.


meaningful words, including their own names, and will try to make sounds that sound like words.

• Normally developing toddlersare usually able to comprehendsimple questions and follow simple directions by the time they are about 15 months old.They may be able to say a fewwords, but articulation skills are just emerging, so these words are usually not very clear.

• Most children begin to speak when they are between 1 and 2years of age.

It was once believed that talkingmarked the beginning of the abilityfor children to think symbolically anduse symbols for communication.However, research has shown thatchildren gradually come to use sym-bols to represent concepts. Adults andother children support children’slanguage acquisition from the mo-ment they are born, some believe evenbefore birth. When people speak andread to children, they model manydifferent aspects of communicationincluding how to make sounds and totake turns in conversation. Theyprovide labels for interesting objectsand events.

Long before children are able todevelop control of the articulatoryactions required for meaningful oralcommunication beyond babbling,they master many gross motor skillsused in manual modes of commun-ication, such as sign language. Veryyoung children can, for example,grasp objects and point to things.These intentional communicationsignals, called “performatives” or“deictic” gestures, begin around 10months (Goodwyn, Acredolo, &Brown, 2000). As these infant body

signals are used over and over, a typeof sign language emerges. Halliday(1979) explained that with this goal-oriented signal and sound system, the“child tongue” form of communicationprogresses naturally into word use.

Infant Sign LanguageThe proponents of infant sign

language believe that because signlanguage and gestures, like spokenlanguage, represent thoughts in asymbolic way, it may be easier for veryyoung children to first learn languageusing signs. Perhaps the essentials oflanguage acquired through themanual modality transfer to the verbalmodality when children develop theability to create the phonemes.

Research OverviewMany reports supporting the view

that teaching sign language benefits

young children were based on studiesdone with hearing children of deafparents using ASL and spoken Englishconcurrently (see Table 1). Some ofthe problems with these studies areidentified here.

• Many samples were small (some with just one infant).

• The subjects were not matchedto randomly assigned control groups, so there may have beenselection bias.

• It is possible that these childrenwere precocious.

• Some are original studies and others are secondary analyses of data collected from originalresearch (Johnson, et al., 2005).

Findings reported from thesestudies are interesting. Daniels (2004)describes a study (Holmes & Holmes,1980) that reports the experiences of hearing parents who used both

Figure 1. Approximate frequency of child utterances from 6 to 12 months.

Note: From Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts: Early Literacy (8thed.), p. 29, by J.M. Machado, 2007, Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learn-ing. Copyright 2007 Thomson Delmar Learning. Reprinted with permission.


Table 1. Selected studies of infant sign language in chronological order of publication. (N = sample size)

Authors & Dates N Description Results

Holmes & Holmes, 1980* 1 deaf parents signed at home with hearinginfant

oral language acquired earlier than norm

Bonvillian et al., 1983* 11 deaf parents signed at home with 10hearing infants and 1 deaf child

sign language development exceeded oralnorms

Folven et al., 1984* 13 deaf parents signed at home with hearing infants

early gesture use correlated with sign andoral language development

Orlansky & Bonvillian, 1984* 13 deaf parents or ASL interpreter signedwith hearing infants

increased language development compared to norms

Folven, 1988* 9 deaf parents signed with hearing infants accelerated language development

Orlansky & Bovillian, 1988* 13 deaf parents or ASL interpreter signedwith hearing infants

accelearted language development

Daniels, 1994 14 deaf parents signed with hearing infants standard scores higher on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test

Goodwyn & Acredolo, 1993 22 hearing parents taught to use signs andtoys to encourage signing

acquired signs earlier than words

Gregory, 1994* 1 deaf and hearing parent signed withhearing infant

rapid learning of word/sign

Caprici et al., 1998* 1 deaf parent signed with hearing infant no difference compared with norms

Goodwyn & Acredolo, 1993 103 3 groups: one group of hearing parentstaught to use signs and toys to encourage signing; one control group gotno instruction; the other control groupgot verbal training

infants who used symbolic gesturing in-creased the joint attention time with par-ents and expressed more advancedexpressvie language

Acredolo & Goodwyn, 2000 43 hearing parents taught to use sign language with hearing infants

sign group had higher IQ than norm

Goodwyn et al., 2000 103 3 groups: one group of heairng parentstaught to use signs and toys to encourage signing; one control group gotno instruction; the other control groupgot verbal training

some improvements on language for ex-perimental groups

Moore et al., 2001* 103 3 groups: one group of hearing parentstaught to use signs and toys to encourage signing; one control group gotno instruction; the other control groupgot verbal training

joint attention and signing predictedmore advanced expressive language

Pettito et al., 2001* 3 deaf parents signed with hearing infants vocabulary similar to norms

Holowaka et al., 2002* 3 deaf parents signed with hearing infants no difference between bilingual andmonolingual children

Pizer et al., 2007* 3 Texas families, all hearing with no priorASL knowledge, chose to sign

baby-signing may have encouraged common misconceptions about ASL

*Cited in Johnstone, Duriex-Smith, & Bloom (2005).


sign and spoken words with theirown child. The child was found to

develop language earlier than mightbe expected.

Other studies suggest that childrenexposed to sign language achievehigher than average scores on stan-dardized tests. It is possible that usingASL has a positive impact on thehearing child’s attainment of languagebecause concepts were presented withwords not only orally, but also visuallyand kinesthetically (Daniels, 1994).

More empirically sound studiesinclude those by Acredolo andGoodwyn (1990, 2000). These stud-ies looked at the effect of signing byhearing parents and included twocontrol groups, one receiving trainingto merely encourage verbal languagewith their infants and a secondcontrol group receiving no training or intervention.

In the experimental group, parentsreceived training in how to usesymbolic gesturing for commun-ication with their children. Thesechildren were exposed to an adapted“baby sign language” and not acomplete sign language system. Theresearchers postulated that thelanguage development of typicallydeveloping children could be ad-vanced if parents used and taughttheir children sign language. Thefindings also suggest that acquisitionof this skill does not hinder thedevelopment of vocal language(Goodwyn, Acredolo, & Brown,2000). Most of the programs adver-tised today are based on the workdone by Acredolo and Goodwyn.

How reliably can these findings begeneralized to other groups ofchildren? As noted in Table 1, theparents in at least one study were allexperienced signers. It is possible thatchildren of hearing parents withoutexpertise in sign language would haveless success in implementing a signingprogram with their infants.

The National Institutes of Healthfunded Acredolo and Goodwyn to doa long-term study. The children wereassessed using standardized languagemeasures at 11, 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36months. In addition, as manychildren as could be relocated at age 8were assessed using the WISC-III test,the most commonly used measure ofchildren’s intelligence. A summary ofthe results of their study is found onBabySigns.com (2009) and is shownin Table 2.

During this study, the signs usedby families and trainers were based onnaturally occurring gestures, knownby the experimenters as baby signs.Since that initial study, most of thewords taught in baby sign languageprograms have been adapted from theAmerican Sign Language system.According to the District Manger forBaby Signs, Inc., serving CentralVirginia, complicated or difficultsigns are sometimes modified to makeit easier for young children to produce

meaningful signs (B. Broughton,personal communication, March 24, 2006).

Some families choose to make uptheir own signs for individual itemsthey routinely use around the house.These signs often are iconic, whichmeans that they are gestures thatmimic the actions related to the wordsthey represent. For example, to makethe sign for drink, signers might shapetheir hand as if holding a cup andbring that hand up to their lips. Anexperienced ASL instructor, Sebrey(2008), explains how these signs easilybecome a natural means to com-municate with babies and with othermembers of the family.

Reported Benefits of Signing With Babies

The results of the Acredolo andGoodwyn study (2000) may leadobservers to believe that use of signlanguage causes accelerated languagedevelopment and improves scores onintelligence tests. Acredolo andGoodwyn believe that baby signsstimulate brain development bystrengthening connections that makeit easier for a baby’s subsequent effortsto communicate to succeed. Theyexplain that without the use of sign,this neurological growth would be

Table 2. Results for children who were in Baby Signs® treatmentgroup (BabySigns.com, 2009).

24 Months 36 Months 96 Months

Signers were, on average, talking morelike 27- or 28-month-olds and putting to-gether significantlylonger sentences.

On average, signerswere talking like 47-month-olds, puttingthem almost a full yearahead of their averageage-mates.

Signers scored an average of 12 pointshigher in IQ than theirnon-signing peers.

Language development is important to success in

school and in life.

delayed several months until the babycould articulate words. They alsobelieve that baby signs can helpinfants understand the idea that theycan connect with people.

There are correlations between theuse of sign language and the rate ofvocabulary development and perhapsintelligence, but is it evidence to saythat there is a direct causalrelationship? While the Acredolo andGoodwyn study design did randomlyassign families to the treatment groupand control for some importantvariables, such as child’s initial ability,parent income, and birth order, thedesign could not control for allpossible factors that could impact theoutcomes of the study.

• It is quite possible that the parents in the treatment groupwere more motivated than other parents to continue to support their children’s language development after the initial involvement in the sign language program.

• Perhaps other caregivers and therapists involved in the program were more engaging with signing babies than non-signers.

• Perhaps it was not just the effect of using sign language, but the impact of larger amounts of time that adults and children spent together asthey engaged in communication.

It is important for reviewers ofthese results to bear in mind that theseor other factors may have had aneffect on the reported outcome. Moreresearch is needed before claims of adirect cause and effect relationship canbe fully supported. There is no ev-idence, however, to indicate thatteaching sign language to babies andtoddlers does any harm, such as slow-ing the emergence of verbal language.

On the other hand, some evidenceindicates that the use of sign languageas a temporary transitional tool tocommunicate with preverbal childrenmay encourage some misconceptionsabout the deaf community and ASL.These assumptions include the mis-taken beliefs that communication usingsign language is easier than speaking,that sign language is based on spokenlanguage, and that sign language isuniversal (Pizer et al., 2007).

Despite the weak direct evidencethat infant sign language leads to anincrease in intelligence, there are otherpositive indications, includingcountless anecdotal and testimonialrecords such as these.

• A special education teacher said, “If you want to know what it feels like to be a toddler, go to a country whereyou don’t know the language and just try to get along. Just getting something to eat or finding a restroom when you don’t know the language is so frustrating!” (P. Kennedy, personal communication, March 2006).



Most of the words taught in baby sign language programs are adapted from theAmerican Sign Language system. Complicated or difficult signs are sometimes modified to make it easier for young children to produce meaningful signs. Some families make up their own signs for individual items they routinely use around the house.

More research is needed before claims of a direct

cause and effect relationshipcan be fully supported.


• Young children may throw temper tantrums as a result ofa feeling of frustration becausethey are not able to verbally express themselves. The practice of signing is thought to reduce this frustration because it gives babies the opportunity to identify important objects, express their personal needs, and describe how they feel.

• Toddlers also get the chance toparticipate in choosing what they want to do and what theywant to talk about. This abilityto communicate strengthens the bond between caregivers and children by extending thetime that adult and child spend together attending the same interests.

• One professor in early childhood education and an expert in child development claims that early childhood centers that adopt school-widesigning programs for their nurseries and preschool programs report that parents and teachers say that the environment is more quiet andpeaceful than non-signing centers (A. Papero, personal communication, March 2006). These caregivers claim that this more relaxed environment is in part the result of the pre-verbal children having the ability to communicate with adults and other children using sign language.

Sharing InformationWith Families andColleagues

Parents and early childhoodeducators are always looking for waysto help children succeed in school andin life. Publication of Acredolo andGoodwyn’s work has spawned aplethora of companies eager to sellproducts to help caregivers to use signlanguage with very young children.While searching the Internet, adults arelikely to find claims similar to these.

Evidence is also mounting thatchildren with special needs, suchas apraxia of speech, autism, orDown Syndrome who have diffi-culty with speech can make greatstrides in their communication de-velopment when Signing Time ispart of their regimen. The multi-sensory approach of Signing Timeengages visual learners, kinestheticlearners, and auditory learners ofall ages and abilities, while makingsign language easy and fun. (Sign-ingtime.com, 2009)

This is the best baby sign languageDVD that I have ever come across.The "Talk to Me" DVD had moresigns than I could have ever imag-ined. I have used other videos andnone of them even come close tothis one. There are tons of differ-ent signs and I love how they werebroken up into different cate-gories. It is so easy to use. You candefinitely tell that this was done bya real "mom" who had used thesetechniques herself. It is very userfriendly, and very inexpensive forthe amount of information you aregetting. I have used this with mybaby and it is working great!Thank you!! I could not praise itenough. I would recommend thisto anyone who has a baby! (tiny-babysigns.com, 2009)

We had a blast signing with ourdaughter. I was a little skeptical atfirst. I did not see the point inteaching sign language to a babyin the months just before shewould begin speaking. But it wasso much fun when Isabelle startedto learn the signs. For a while, wecould hardly keep up! And now Iam convinced that signing withour daughter gave her an invalu-able head start on learning.Thank you for a great product!(yourtalkingbaby.com, 2009)

I have been attending classes for6 weeks now ... my eldest can al-ready sign about 20 words andcan string 4 signs together, andmy baby has already signed to askfor milk which is absolutely fan-tastic! Little Bear Baby Signingclasses are thoroughly enjoyableas it (sic) combines communicat-ing, singing, experiencing differ-ent sensory mediums, reading,playing and all in a friendly envi-ronment. Everything you need tohelp build essential learning skills.( l itt lebearbabysigning.com,2009)

Many families and early childhoodprograms looking to support child-ren’s development are purchasing co-mmercial programs and products.Most of these products include videosthat are described as an excellent wayto learn sign language. Other popularproducts are flash cards that illustratesigns, puppets to make signs, bookswith pictures that help support thesigns demonstrated on the video orflashcards, CDs with songs to practicesigns in a fun way, and classes.

The courses are usually taught to agroup by a trainer who also serves asthe local distributor of the company’sproducts. The Baby Signs® cert-ification program is $199 (babysignsproducts, 2009). With training,

centers often get a discount on theclassroom kit. A standard classroomkit includes a set of three CDs, acouple of cloth books, a signingpuppet, some flash cards, and twoDVDs for $250. Many companies sellindividual instructional DVD videosand music CDs for about $20(babysigns, 2009).

While thousands of parents andteachers—determined to give theirchildren every possible opportunity toexcel—are enrolling in classes andbuying these products, others maychoose not to use sign language orsignals, believing that these practiceswill delay the development of verballanguage. Actually there is evidencethat the opposite is true. Lapinski(1996) explains that signing and theeye contact it requires helps childrenlearn that communication is arewarding, reciprocal process.

The interaction between adult andchild is the most important factor inthe development of language. Bycarefully observing infant eye andbody movements such as head turns,adults can get clues as to what is ofinterest to children. Attentive care-givers notice hand and body move-ments that indicate that children aretrying to communicate their ideas.For example, children who smacktheir lips may be hungry, while thosewho turn their heads away from abottle or push it away are probablynot hungry. When adults respond tothe natural signals that children make,communication is reinforced andchildren learn more about the waylanguage works.

As infants and toddlers progressfrom being passive receptors oflanguage to participants in two-waycommunication, signs, gestures and

other non-verbal com-munication play importantroles. Children each de-velop in their own uniqueway, with many en-vironmental factors, in-cluding the attitudes andbeliefs of significant adults,playing a role in earlylanguage development.

Families and teacherswho believe that theirchildren have the potentialto be communicative part-ners talk to them that wayand help to make it cometrue (Snow, De Blauw, &Van Roosmalen, 1979). Bytalking during daily rou-tines such as feeding andbathing, adults help child-ren make connections be-tween the activities andwords associated with

them. Smiling and acknowledgingchildren’s sounds and gestures en-courages them to continue theircommunication efforts.

The difference in speaking abilitybetween early talkers and late talkersusually disappears by the time thechildren are 3 years old. The goal of adults should not be to getchildren to talk as soon as possible,but to foster a warm and nurturingrelationship that allows each childto feel confident and secure.

The most important benefit ofusing sign language may be that it isanother tool families and teachers canuse to achieve this goal. The wealth ofeveryday opportunities for mean-ingful interaction provides richness inthe lives of children’s early languageacquisition. Sebrey (2008) remindsher readers that the benefits of signingare not just for babies. By signing,people can communicate across crowdedrooms and from airport windows. Goodcommunication is an essential build-ing block in the foundation of allloving relationships. Maintainingthose relationships is the best thingadults can do for children.

ReferencesAcredolo, L.P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (1990).

Sign language in babies: The significanceof symbolic gesturing for understandinglanguage development. Annals of ChildDevelopment, 7, 1–42.

Acredolo, L.P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (2000).The long-term impact of symbolic ges-turing during infancy on IQ at age 8.Paper presented at International Confer-ence on Infant Studies, Brighton, UK.


Signing and its eye contactconvey that communication

is a rewarding, reciprocalprocess.


By talking during daily routines such as feeding andbathing, adults help children make connections betweenthe activities and words associated with them. Smilingand acknowledging children’s sounds and gestures en-courages them to continue their communication efforts.The difference in speaking ability between early talkersand late talkers usually disappears by the time childrenare 3 years old.


Acredolo, L.P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (2003).The Baby Signs Research. Retrieved 8March 8, 2008, fromhttp://www.babysigns.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/institute.research_extensive/extensive_research.cfm

American School for the Deaf (ASD).(2008). History. Retrieved March, 2008,from http://www.asd-1817.org/history/history-asd.html

Baby BumbleBee. (2008). Products page.Retrieved March, 2008, fromhttp://www.babybumblebee.com

Baby Signs. (2009). Research and productspages. Retrieved March, 2009, fromhttp://www.babysigns.com

Bonvillian, J.D., Orlansky, M.D., Novack,L.L., & Folven, R.J. (1983). Early signlanguage acquisition and cognitive devel-opment. In D. Rogers & J.A. Sloboda(Eds.), The acquisition of symbolic symbols(pp. 207–214). Chicago: Plenum.

Capirci, O., Montanari, S., & Volterra, V.(1998). Gestures, signs, and words inearly language development. In J.M.E.Iverson & S.E. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.),The nature and functions of gesture inchildren’s communication (pp. 45–59).Rome: Italian National Council of Research, Institute of Psychology.

Daniels, M. (1994). The effect of sign language on hearing children’s languagedevelopment. Communication Education,43, 291-298.

Daniels, M. (2004). Happy hands: The ef-fect of ASL on hearing children's liter-acy. Reading Research and Instruction,44(1), 86-100.

Folven, R.J., Bonvillian, J.D., & Orlansky,M.D. (1984). Communicative gesturesand early sign language acquisition. FirstLanguage, 5, 129–143.

Goodwyn, S.W., & Acredolo, L.P. (1993).Symbolic gesture versus word: Is there amodality advantage for onset of symboluse? Child Development, 64, 688-701.

Goodwyn, S.W., & Acredolo, L.P. (1996). Babysigns: How to talk to your baby before yourbaby can talk. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Goodwyn, S.W., Acredolo, L.P., & BrownC.A. (2000). Impact of symbolic gestur-ing on early language development. Jour-nal of Nonverbal Behavior, 24, 81-103.

Gregory, S. (1994). The first signs andwords: Language development in a bilingual environment. In J. Kyle (Ed.),Growing up in sign and word. Bristol,UK: Centre for Deaf Studies.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1979). One child’s pro-tolanguage. In M. Bellowa (Ed.), Beforespeech (pp. 171-190). London: Cam-bridge University Press.

Holmes, K.M., & Holmes, D.W. (1980).Signed and spoken language develop-ment in a hearing child of hearing par-ents. Sign Language Studies, 28,239–254.

Holowka, S., Brosseau-Lapre, F., & Petitto,L.A. (2002). Semantic and conceptualknowledge underlying bilingual babies’first signs and words. Language Learning, 52, 205–262.

Johnstone, J.C., Durieux-Smith, A., &Bloom, K. (2005). Teaching gesturalsigns to infants to advance child develop-ment: A review of the evidence [Elec-tronic version]. First Language, 25(2),235-251.

Lapinski, S. (1996). Signs of intelligence.Child, 11(4), 46-51.

Littlebearsigning.com. (2009). Testimonialspage retrieved May 20, 2009, fromhttp://www.littlebearbabysigning.com/id3.html

Machado, J.M. (2007). Early childhood expe-riences in language arts: Early literacy (8thed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Moore, B., Acredolo, L.P., & Goodwyn,S.W. (2001, April). Symbolic gesturingand joint attention: Partners in facilitatingverbal development. Paper presented atannual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.

Orlansky, M.D., & Bonvillian, J.D. (1988).Early sign language acquisition. In M.D.Smith & J.L. Locke (Eds.), The emergentlexicon: The child’s development of a linguistic vocabulary (pp. 263–292). San Diego: Academic Press.

Petitto, L.A., Katerelos, M., Levy, B.G.,Gauna, K., Tetreault, K., & Ferraro, V.(2001). Bilingual signed and spoken lan-guage acquisition from birth: Implica-tions for the mechanisms underlyingearly bilingual language acquisition.Journal of Child Language, 28, 453–496

Pizer, G., Walter, K., & Meier, R.P. (2007).Bringing up baby with Baby Signs: Language ideologies and socialization inhearing families. Sign Language Studies,7(4), 387-429.

Sebrey, L. (2008). The parents’ guide to babysigns. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Signingtimes.com. (2009). Our Story pageretrieved May 20, 2009, fromhttp://www.signingtime.com/aboutus/our-story/

Snow C., De Blauw, A., & Van Roosmalen,G. (1979). Talking and playing with ba-bies. In M. Bellowa (Ed.), Before speech(pp. 269-288). London: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Stokoe, W.C. (1960). Sign language struc-ture: An outline of the visual communi-cation systems of the American deaf.Buffalo, NY: University of Buffalo De-partment of Anthropology and Linguists.

Tinybabysigns.com. (2009). Testimonialspage retrieved May 26, 2009, fromhttp://www.tinybabysigns.com/id78.html

Yourtalkingbaby.com. (2009). Testimonialspage. Retrieved May 27, 2009, fromhttp://www.yourtalkingbaby.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=2

Yule, G. (1996). The study of language.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Limited number of printed copies available.Also available in PDF format. Contact the

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for pricing and availability information.

Dimensions of Early Childhood

Theme Issue:

Gateway to Lifelong Learning

•The Brazelton TouchpointsTM Approach to Infants and Toddlers in Care: Foundation for a Lifetime of Learning and Loving

•Professional Development Programs for Infant/Toddler Caregivers: Setting the Stage for Lifelong Learning

•On the Move: Environments That Stimulate Motor and Cognitive Development in Infants

•The 3 R’s: Gateway to Infant and ToddlerLearning


Put These Ideas Into Practice!

Sign Language With Babies:What Difference Does It Make?

Susan Kubic Barnes

Note: Dimensions of Early Childhood readers are encouraged to copy this material for early childhood students as well as teachers of young children as a professional development tool.

If colleagues or hearing parents of a hearing child ask whether they should use a babysign language program, find out what their expectations are. If they want to...

learn more about the deaf

community

give children a headstart in their language

development

understand and meetthe needs of children

more effectively

Explain that baby signing is not the same

as ASL, which is a very complex language system. Most families do not continue to use a baby sign language after children begin

talking. Baby signs are based on ASL but they are not universal, and will vary from place

to place.

Share that while thereare many studies thatshow a relationshipbetween increasedearly vocabulary

development and babysign language, signingmay not be the onlycause. Other factors,such as time spent

engaged in meaningfulinteractions with a

child in daily activitiesand the motivation ofadults are also very

important.

Encourage adults tocontinue to attend to

children’s natural cues.Many families and

teachers effectively usetheir own gestures forthings at home and in

early childhoodprograms.

If a center or familyadopts a packagedsystem, with sometraining, they caneffectively support

each other. There is noevidence of harmcaused by signing.

to facilitate their ability to communicate, but is it a

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