12 months WATCH ME sign

Imagine there’s a way to chat with your baby before she’s able to speak. There is – it’s called baby sign language and its benefits could surprise you

Ever found yourself sobbing helplessly at 3am wondering what it is that your crying baby wants? Because she’s not talking yet, communicating with her can be tricky. Luckily, there is something that can help – it’s called baby sign language, and it’s taking the parenting world by storm.

BABY SIGNING 101

You read right: baby sign language is the thing. A pretty useful one at that! Using just a few signs when you talk to your baby gives her the tools to communicate with you before she learns how to speak. “From the age of six months, babies are cognitively ready to communicate, but because speech only develops between 12 and 24 months of age, they need an additional way to communicate,” says Monita Bester, founder and trainer of baby sign language company Tinyhandz. “While baby’s articulators (mouth, lips, tongue and teeth) mature slower than their hand-eye coordination, a baby can learn signs that help them in understanding and communicating with those around them. With signing, you are giving your baby a tool in hand (literally) that is easy enough for little hands to use.”

There are a number of other benefits too, says Monita:

It enhances your child’s verbal language development.

It enables children to communicate their wants and needs much earlier in life.

It enhances language and listening skills, as well as cognitive development.

Research shows an increase in IQ level. It boosts self-esteem. It reduces frustration for babies, toddlers and their parents or caregivers, which in turn leads to fewer tantrums.

Parents are provided with a window into their infant’s world, which strengthens the bond between them. It improves vocabulary. It promotes bilingualism. It encourages an early interest in literature.

BUT WON’T SIGNING DELAY SPEECH DEVELOPMENT?

Actually, it won’t. It may seem counterintuitive, but signing with your baby does not delay her speech development at all. In fact, it may just give it a boost. As Monita points out, a healthy, hearing baby receives sound input through her ears, and then produces her own sounds as a natural reaction to this. Verbal development is something that happens quite naturally, much like the development from sitting up to crawling, and so chatting to you is something that occurs naturally. “It’s important to understand that the visual stimulation provided by sign language actually activates the same centre in the brain that is activated by speech,” explains Monita. “This shows that using sign language mimics the development of speech,