common questions

I wanted to touch on and share my views on some of the common questions that I get regarding signing.

As an instructor, I get a lot of questions on why sign?

To which, my answer would be "why not"? The benefits of signing are tremendous: studies have suggested that it aids in speech development and are also thought to increase IQ. But to me, one of the most important things is that it is a way to communicate with your child. Why wait till 12 months or 18 months before they can speak a bit to tell you what they want? Truly, why wait?

Why not allow your child and you an avenue where the child is able to tell you what he likes before he masters the verbal ability to speak? If he wants milk or prefers to have juice instead of water or if he wants to go down for a walk again to see the birds up in the trees. Imagine if you had gone for a walk with your child 2 days before and he is fussing. You would have no way to knowing that all he really wants is to head down and see the birds again since a lot of things can have would have happened over 48 hours. How else is your child able to tell you what he wants if he is not able to verbalise it yet? (That by the way, was a personal experience with my daughter - she wanted to head down to see snail after seeing that it has rained and the snails would be out.)

Of course, there is also the other concern about speech development which I have already shared my thoughts on in one of my earlier posts.

In addition, what about bonding? Do not underestimate how much your child can and may want to share with you. I remembered having dinner with my in-laws and my daughter was giggling away suddenly. I asked her why she was laughing and she signed to me "glasses". I turned and I saw a man who just entered the restaurant in a crazy pair of glasses - bright orange thick plastic frames with really loud designs on it and it did look funny. I started laughing as well . To have such an understanding and bond with my child, was indeed priceless. She was perhaps only 13 - 14 months old then.

Another common question that I get is if results are guaranteed where after the course, how soon is my child able to sign back.

Let me first share that the course is meant for the adults -parents, caregivers, etc. So that you can learn the signs and teach them to your child. Hence, how soon a child is able to sign back really depends on a lot of factors, of which one is how consistent you are.

Other factors would include the child's age (since they may not have the motor skills to master some signs yet), the child's personality, etc. Remember that each child is uniquely different - if each pregnancy is a different experience then we should expect her to progress differently from his siblings and friends.

The important thing is sign sign sign away and your child will sign back as she makes the association. Sign language is like any other languages out there - it is a 'live' language. It evolves and the more we use it, the better we get at it. So the key here is to practice practice practice.

This then leads to another question: does it require a lot of work to teach my child to sign? It must be hard.

Personally, I do not find it hard and for a few of my signing friends, the response is also similar. This is because at one time, we usually teach / expose to the child a few selected signs. So, it would be repeated. And if I can borrow an example from the book Baby Signs, when we wave bye bye to our child, do we ever go "ok, here we go again, lets put our bags down and make that concerted effort and sign bye and wave?"

Similarly, that 4 - 5 signs each time will come to you as naturally as that.

Lastly, with older children or children who have already started to speak, I get the question, why sign when they are already starting to speak?

In cases of young children, they may be able to speak smaller shorter words but for longer words, they may still be unable to speak them. Hence, signing enables and empowers them to express and communicate their thoughts. I believe many parents have also read that during early years, the more stimulation is given to young children, the more connections and synapses are formed which, of course, are important for brain development. With signing to hearing children, the child is being exposed to a multi sensory approach - Bodily-Kinesthetic, Spatial and Linguistic. And if you were to be using additional home materials such as Baby Signing Time or Signing Time DVDs, your child will be also able to learn through Musical and Naturalist intelligences in addition to the three mentioned above.

I recently went to the Zoo with my daughter and prior to going, I showed her a Signing Time DVD and taught her the signs of many animals. She had a field day! And when the word of the animal was too large for her, she'd sign to me. What I would then do is to teach her how to pronounce / say the word slowly. This I believe, aids in helping her say the word.

And oh, the look on her face when she saw giraffe and zebra in the flesh for the first time, was another priceless moment.

Here's a clip to share of her signing to some simple words when I held up a board book for her - note how she chooses to say the words instead of signing them to me. This is to share that once the child is comfortable with speaking, they may choose to use that to communicate instead of signing. Signing does not replace speaking.