Benefits
 
Benefits Minimize
  
Family Minimize
Signing with your baby will help strengthen the bond between your family and its newest member by allowing your child to communicate with you during his pre-verbal stage. Have you ever witnessed your child staring off lost in thought and wondered what he was thinking about? Giving him the gift of sign language will allow him to express himself to you. At 14 months my daughter pointed out the moon as she noticed it for the first time. One client of mine, whose son was also 14 - 15 months at the time, walked around the house signing his step sister's sign name, she had left the day before after a weekend visit, letting his mom know he missed her. Teaching your babies to sign enables THEM to ask YOU a question or initiate a conversation about something that interests them.
  
Frustration Minimize

Using sign language with your baby lessens frustration, crying, and tantrums; especially during that "terrible two's" time when many tantrums are a result of not being able to communicate their desires. Imagine your baby wants her favorite doll from another room, misses her daddy, or is scared of the dark, but is unable to tell you these things with words. Because she has no other means to tell you what's wrong, she begins to cry. So you begin to guess. Perhaps she is hungry, thirsty, cold or hot, has a wet diaper, etc. As you try and comfort her as you guess her crying becomes more intense. If you finally guess what's wrong then the crying stops and you are both feel relieved. If you never guess or guess incorrectly you are both left extremely deflated and frustrated. But what if your baby could make the sign for doll, want Daddy, or dark scary? Then, you could easily solve the problem with out the stressful, time consuming guessing game. As your child learns to talk, there will be times that you find it difficult to understand her vocal words. Signing provides an additional clue to what your child is trying to say, lessening frustration as your child begins to talk as well.

  
I.Q. Minimize
Research shows that children who signed as babies have an I.Q. score an average of 12 points higher than their non-signing peers.

In addition to raising your baby's I.Q. signing with your baby increases his vocabulary and language skills by providing an early foundation for language. Babies can sign a 2 to 3 word phrase long before they utter a word. So, when they finally do start talking, they already have an understanding of the syntax and grammar of the language. They "hit the ground running" so to speak. Sign language also provides them with more opportunities for positive feedback for their verbal attempts. A baby who can sign 'balloon' as she makes an attempt at saying the word "ba" will say "ba" again the next time she sees or wants a balloon. But a baby who says "ba" for balloon and is responded to with a bottle first, then a ball, then finally the balloon that the mother notices another child carrying is less likely to repeat the verbal effort the next time she sees a balloon. For this reason, babies who sign tend to talk earlier as well.
  
Play Minimize
Sign Language also increases your baby's ability to pay attention and listen by teaching her in infancy to stop, look, and listen to what is being said or shown. This increased ability to pay attention as well as the increased language and vocabulary helps spark an interest in books at a younger age. Because a baby who signs can interact more as you are reading, signing babies tend to develop earlier pre-reading skills.

Teaching your baby sign language also helps your child develop more sophisticated play. The natural gestures of American Sign Language lend themselves to playing more imaginatively. One client of mine had a 16 month old who pretended that his jump-o-line was a car. And, the early language allows your baby to communicate not only with you at an earlier age, but also with other peers; fostering an earlier transition from parallel play to playing together. At 21 months my daughter and a signing friend of hers had a real conversation while riding in a wagon together on a nature walk. I marveled as the two of them discussed the squirrels playing in the tree, and the different birds and flowers they saw along the way.
  
Language Minimize
We've all heard the benefits of teaching our toddlers multiple languages. By using American Sign Language you're not only giving your baby these benefits, but you're also making it easier to teach him additional languages. Once your child has grasped the concept that the sign for cat represents the spoken word cat you can replace the spoken English words for the word cat in any other language while still using the same sign.
  
Self Esteem Minimize
If you still need a reason to sign with your baby. Think about this. Your baby will be able to influence her world from a very young age by initiating and participating in conversations while her non-signing peers are limited to grunting, pointing, and crying. Your baby is also likely to be more stable emotionally since she feels understood and validated long before she is able to speak. Using signs to express emotions such as happy, sad, mad and scared also helps your baby to recognize and label emotions in a constructive way. The more you and your baby communicate, the greater the opportunity for positive interactions and this leads to higher self esteem and self confidence for your baby.