FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS -
Sign With Me and Sign language
How does sign language “work”
with hearing infants?
While most little ones talk by two years of age, they have the ability to understand and desire to communicate long before then. Sign Language capitalizes on infants’ natural tendencies to gesture and on the developmental fact that babies have control over their hands before they master skills required for speech production. Thus, with sign language infants and toddlers can express with their hands what they are learning to say with words.
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Will I be learning American Sign Language
or invented signs?
Sign With Me is a strong advocate for using standardized American Sign Language (ASL) for the following reasons: ASL is the third most commonly used language in the United States and is the formal means of communication used by the deaf community. ASL offers consistency across educational and childcare settings in diverse geographic regions. ASL fosters social inclusion. ASL signs are easy to learn and teach, and for babies to understand as the signs often gesture the intending meaning.
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Is there an ideal age to start signing
with my little one?
It is never too early or too late to communicate. Communication is a cultivated, life-long process, starting from in-the-belly. A few “signs” that an infant is ready to learn sign language are that he/she is beginning to sit up, attending to his/her surroundings inquisitively, and starting to learn how to clap or wave. This shows that a little one is developing the memory and fine motor skills to learn and produce sign language. It is also important that parents/caregivers feel comfortable producing the basic signs in a fluent and consistent manner before introducing them to their infants. Typically, families take a Sign With Me class when their little ones are between five and eight months of age, and their little ones start signing back between nine and twelve months of age.
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Does signing delay speech?
No. In fact, a National Institute of Health study recently showed that children who sign as infants tend to speak sooner and more precisely than their non-signing peers.
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Should I take a Sign With Me class?
Anyone who interacts with infants and toddlers is an ideal person to learn and use sign language…parents, expectant parents, family members, childcare providers, educators, families of children with special needs, pediatric staff, and parent groups.
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