If you’re a parent of a young child, you’ve no doubt heard about teaching sign language to your pre-verbal babies. I was skeptical at first, but I’m all for trying “new” things. I started out by reading about how sign language can increase babies’ vocabulary, promote calmness, and help babies communicate early.

Some books suggest waiting until your child is about 6 months old, but others pointed out that deaf children are signed to from birth. The only problem with starting very early is that parents may get frustrated when there’s no indication that the baby has caught on. Little babies’ dexterity doesn’t allow for obvious attempts at signing.

But I went ahead and started signing when my daughter was about 4 months old. The great thing about it was that I didn’t have to “learn” sign language first. I just got a book with signs geared toward babies, and learned as I went along. I started with common words like milk, mommy, and more. Whenever I saw an object that was interesting to us, I looked up the sign (either in the book or online), and taught it to her.

Why do I think sign language benefited us? Some people think that learning signs will keep their children from speaking, but I think the trick is to talk out loud even while signing. Whenever I taught signs I always spoke the word too. So I did a lot of speaking and repetition. I don’t know if that’s why my daughter started speaking so early, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt.

And before she could speak, she was able to tell me when she wanted milk. At her grandparents’ house, she was able to tell them when she wanted mommy. Words that she couldn’t mimic she understood when I signed to her, even from across the room. I could see her visibly calm down when she wanted something, signed for it, and had her request acknowledged.

Now that she’s two-and-a-half, she loves to speak our “secret language,” and her dexterity is making her signs even more recognizable. She’s almost able to make the sign for I Love You, which makes her very happy.

Signing also draws their attention to lots of new things. You might not think to point out flowers, grass, trees, the sun, the moon, and other objects. But when I was learning new signs I was eager to point out everything just so I could teach her a new sign.

What about you? Did you sign with your babies? Do you think it helped increase their early vocabulary?

Theda K. Rogers