Encouraging Speech and Language Development with Sign Language

We all look forward to our baby's speech and language development; in fact, a baby's first word is one of the most anticipated milestones. Most children say their first word between ten and fifteen months old. Imagine how amazing it would be to get a two to seven month head start. Using sign language can give your child's speech and language development that head start. Whether you are looking to sign with a preverbal baby to boost infant language development (the kinds and number of words used) or with a late talking toddler or a toddler or preschooler that is having difficulty with speech development (the sounds and sound combinations that make up words) research has shown for more than two decades that sign language can help.

The use of sign language does not cause any delay in oral language development. The research actually shows that it promotes early language development and can improve, enrich and encourage children's oral language skills. Our language development in infants page contains some videos of very verbal signing babies in action. Take a peek and you will see that using sign language with these little ones in no way interferred with their speech development.

There is a misconception that signing with children can hinder their speech and language development and even cause delayed language development or a speech delay. Research has shown that children who sign talk sooner, have larger vocabularies and put words together sooner than peers who do not sign. They also have better peer interactions and are much less prone to crying. Teachers and child care providers who use sign language also report that their classrooms are calmer and have less fighting, especially when compared to previous classrooms in which they did not sign.

By giving children a visual cue to pair with the auditory (signing and saying words) we give them multiple methods of learning language. When they begin to sign back they add in a kinesthetic aspect and are now "doing" language by producing the signs. This multimodal method of language learning gives children more opportunities to develop language skills.

The muscles of the mouth are some of the finest muscles we have. It takes a bit of time for babies to be able to control those muscles for speech production. In terms of baby language development, babies will move through predictable stages of language development. If you are lucky your baby will say a first word around his first birthday. By eighteen months old he will have ten to twenty words and by twenty-four months old he will have almost 200 words. If you sign with your baby he could be using single words at eight to nine months, have twenty plus words by twelve months and be using phrases by eighteen months. Many children will begin to combine sign and verbal words. Then, as they become more verbal, the signing will just fade out unless you encourage its continued use.

Signing with older toddlers, preschoolers or school age children can provide benefit by reinforcing words or concepts learned with a visual reference, cue them to attend or pay attention or stay on task. Toddler language development includes the addition of new words each day and the use of some early concepts (size, quantity, etc). Language development in preschoolers tends to be the addition of more complex concepts (time, spatial, etc.) and more use of social language. Using Sign Language adds a fun and "participatory" component to learning language; like the hand movements of finger plays (Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, etc).

When it comes to the speech and language development of children, the addition of sign language is a fun and easy way to boost the language skills of any child. It is never too early or too late to start signing.