Baby Signing Does Not Hurt Speech Development

One of the best things about this trend being embraced by parents of non-deaf children is that research has clearly demonstrated that using sign language does not mean that a child will not learn to talk. For years, the deaf community's ASL advocates had to face the argument that if parents used sign language with their deaf children, the children would not learn to talk. Even today, some parents of deaf children with cochlear implants are told not to use sign language so that their children will maximize the use of sound for communication.

Baby Signing Does Have Educational Benefits

Several articles have been published on the use of sign language with babies. For example, there was a study involving two groups of children -- one group that was taught baby signing and another group that was not. The researchers found that eight-year-olds who had learned a simple form of baby sign language using invented signs did better on IQ tests than comparable children who had not learned baby sign language.

Babies Can Use Real American Sign Language

Some parents have objected to the use of "made-up" signs instead of using the more official American Sign Language. Either will be useful, and anything that encourages the acceptance of sign language for communication is welcome. But keep in mind there is no need for parents to rely on a different form of sign language when there is plenty of video and book material available for learning American Sign Language.

"I have long had an interest in sign language and decided early on that I would attempt to teach sign to my babies. I began signing milk to my infant daughter when she was about four months and by the age of six months, it was the source of much amusement in our family to see her response when I would sign milk. She would bounce up and down in the arms of whoever held her and generally act excited.

However, she learned to talk at a very early age, and since I had no deaf friends or family I quickly focused on other things and signing was relegated to the back shelf.

When my next child was born, I began signing to him, again right from birth. I noticed with him that he was tracking people visually from a very early age. At five and a half months, I was watching him while he was lying on the bed on his back. He was making a repetitive motion with his hands, squeezing his fists.

I brought this to my husband's attention, because babies at this age don't normally do that. He became excited and said, "You taught him that! He's signing milk!" I was floored, (my receptive skills have never been very good). He has had the largest English vocabulary of all of my children and the daughter who I taught beginning at four months has been told by many deaf people that she is a "born natural signer." Not having constant exposure to deaf friends has been a drawback, but overall the experience of teaching sign language has been a very positive one."
-CF

Education - Bilingual Bicultural Education

ASL Plus English By Jamie Berke, About.com

For many years now, it was thought that total communication would meet the needs of deaf children who need sign language and voice. Now, as scientific evidence continues to pile up that sign language is the natural language of deaf children, and even that their brains function differently, the pendulum is swinging again in another direction -- towards bilingual-bicultural.

What is bilingual-bicultural education?

As best as I can understand it - never having experienced it myself - is that it means that ASL is used to teach deaf children, with English taught as a second language. For as long as anyone can remember, the average deaf high school graduate's reading level remained stubbornly low. Many deaf children did succeed but overall, it still remained low. No one knew what would work. Then the evidence of research began to come in: Deaf children of deaf parents tended to do better. More recently, study after study has been released showing that sign language is the default language of deaf children, who ARE visual learners. In Nicaragua, deaf children developed an entire new language on their own.

Independent bilingual-bicultural charter schools began to spring up. Now more schools are beginning to recognize it as well. New York City's JHS 47, a public school for the deaf, announced it would drop total communication in favor of bilingual bicultural. This was big news and even was reported on in the New York Times. This quoted sentence from the article says it all: "Deaf children could not understand their hearing teachers, which has produced failure after failure." [Even if the teachers are deaf, they may not be using ASL].

What does all this mean?

It means that we need a fourth educational option. For years the only options were oral, cued speech, or total communication. Now we must add a fourth option, the bilingual-bicultural option. The other options should not be dropped - there are many deaf children who thrive with the other options.

Note from Lora/Baby Fingers: Bilingual-bicultural education is finding it's way into oral education as well (ESL/TESOL), where the cultural language is used for one purpose and English for another. At Baby Fingers we keep an open mind into all forms of education and communication, yet we advocate the use of sign language both pre-verbally and down the road. Whether Deaf (culturally), deaf, or hearing, the benefits are endless.

Following is "Sound Off," in the May 2007 issue of Parents magazine.

This story cites hearing loss as the country's leading birth defect, and tells the story of Luca Trama, who received a cochlear implant from Dr. Ronald Hoffman of The Beth Israel/New York Eye and Ear Cochlear Implant Center. It quotes Children's Hearing Institute founder Dr. Simon Parisier on the importance of infant screening. Parents also cites our award-winning website as a superb educational resource for families facing the challenges of hearing loss.

Hearing loss is surprisingly common in babies—but a shocking number of children aren't diagnosed or treated until much too late.

By Ilisa Cohen

Beth Trama, of Smithtown, New York, was watching her son, Luca, sleep peacefully in the hospital nursery, when the newborn next to him let out a loud, high-pitched scream. Luca didn't wake up. Trama couldn't believe that the noise didn't startle him, but she assumed he'd just gotten used to being with all those crying babies—until he failed his hearing screening the next day. You're probably surprised to find out that hearing loss is the most common birth defect. Every day, about 33 babies are born in the U.S. with a hearing impairment. But the news hasn't gotten through to parents—in fact, only 1 percent of new and expectant moms ranked hearing loss as their top concern about their child's health, according to a survey by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in Washington, D.C.

Many parents figure their baby isn't at risk if they don't have a history of deafness in their family. However, about 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Deafness can be caused by a dominant gene—meaning one or both parents are deaf—or by a recessive gene, so a child can inherit the trait even if no family members are hearing-impaired. That's what happened to Luca. After his diagnosis, doctors discovered that both of his parents had a recessive gene for a genetic disorder that damages the hair cells in the inner ear so they can't carry sound to the auditory nerve. As a result, Luca is severely deaf in both ears.

Hearing loss can also be caused by many nonhereditary factors, including infections, prematurity, severe jaundice, or a lack of oxygen during delivery, says Ellen M. Friedman, MD, chief of pediatric otolaryngology at Texas Children's Hospital, in Houston. Unfortunately, most of theses causes aren't preventable.

Testing 1, 2, 3

You can't count on your baby's doctor to identify a problem—most pediatricians don't have the proper equipment to do infant hearing tests in their offices.

Before you give birth, check with your hospital to make sure that hearing testing is part of their newborn screening process. If it's not, or if you give birth somewhere other than a hospital, ask your pediatrician to recommend a pediatric audiologist or otologist to screen your baby within her first three weeks. Hearing tests for newborns are mandatory in 42 states and in Washington, D.C. (although small hospitals may be exempt). "However, every baby's hearing should be tested at birth so that parents can get help quickly if there's a problem," says Simon C. Parisier, MD, cofounder of the Children's Hearing Institute, in New York City. Testing is especially crucial because research has shown that parents' impressions about their infant's hearing are often wrong. Even deaf babies can coo and make gurgling sounds. If you're not sure whether your baby has been tested, contact your hospital to check her records.

How it works

A hearing test is easy and painless. Doctors use one of two measures: an otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test, which measures the response by the hair cells inside the ear when they're stimulated by sound, or an auditory brain-stem response (ABR) test, which measures brain-wave activity in response to sound. Both of these tests are given while the baby is asleep, and for babies, they're both pass-or-fail: They only tell doctors if a baby can hear 30 decibels (the sound of a whisper), which is the definition of normal hearing. If your baby fails the initial screening test, you need to make an appointment with an audiologist for more comprehensive testing in order to confirm the results, determine the severity of the loss, and get proper treatment. Treatment

"I wish I'd pushed the doctors to treat my baby's hearing loss sooner," says Heather Conar, of Nashville. Her son, Jacob, failed his hearing screening at birth, but he wasn't officially diagnosed with hearing loss and fitted for a hearing aid until he was more than a year old. "They thought the trouble was caused by fluid in his ears that would drain, but it turns out his hearing loss was permanent from the beginning," she says.

Doctors initially thought that Jacob had conductive hearing loss, which is caused by a blockage in the middle ear that makes sounds muffled. Babies who've had frequent ear infections can experience this type of mild, temporary loss due to fluid buildup in the ear. It can usually be corrected by putting tubes in the ears to drain the liquid. Sensorineural hearing loss, the kind that Jacob actually has, is more serious -- and usually permanent—because it's caused by a problem with the child's auditory nerve. A child will need a hearing aid, which Jacob now has, or a cochlear implant (an electronic device that is surgically implanted behind the ear to stimulate the auditory nerve) in order to hear normally.

Even if your baby passes her infant screening test, it's important to continually pay attention to her behavior and reactions to sound, says Dr. Friedman. Hearing loss can be progressive or can occur as your child gets older. Risk factors for delayed-onset hearing loss include a family history of childhood hearing loss, recurring or persistent ear infections for at least three months, head trauma, and serious infections like bacterial meningitis. If you're ever concerned, take your child to get a hearing test.

Don't Delay

Sadly, many kids aren't diagnosed with hearing loss until age 2—which is way beyond the critical window for developing speech and language skills. Your child learns to speak correctly by hearing sounds around him and listening to your voice. If he can't hear during his first six months, he's missing an important opportunity. Children with a hearing impairment often learn new words more slowly than other children, understand and produce shorter sentences, have trouble with quiet speech sounds like the "s," "sh," "f," "t," and "k," and don't do well academically.

While it's never too late to get help, experts say that it's ideal to start early intervention—including speech and listening training— before 6 months of age. With an early diagnosis and hearing aids or other interventions, most kids who are deaf or hard-of-hearing will develop language skills comparable with their peers by first grade. Children as young as 3 months can be fitted with hearing aids, and those with profound hearing loss can get a cochlear implant at age 1. Cochlear implants have been controversial within the deaf community because they try to "fix" the trait that's central to deaf culture. "Having known many deaf people, I used to be more wary of implants, but now I've seen how fantastic they can be for kids," says Dr. Friedman. Children who have hearing aids or cochlear implants usually go to mainstream schools, can speak relatively clearly, and are less isolated than those who rely only on sign language.

To make the best decision for your child, it's important to speak to doctors, audiologists, and other parents. "We have a whole 'new family' of people who've helped keep us informed, find schools, interview surgeons, and do anything necessary to help our son," says Beth Trama. Luca got a cochlear implant just a few months before his first birthday. Now 3½, he's communicating well, attending nursery school, and, most important, says Trama, "He's a happy, spunky little kid."

Can You Hear Me Now?

Even babies who pass the newborn hearing screening can develop hearing loss later on. If your baby doesn't reach these milestones, it's a good idea to have her hearing retested.

• At 3 months
• Turns her eyes or head toward loud sounds
• Begins to imitate some sounds
• Smiles at the sound of your voice

• At 7 months
• Looks at you when you call her name
• Responds to sound by making sounds
• Babbles chains of sounds like "ba-ba-ba-ba"

• At 12 months
• Responds to "no" and simple requests
• Says words like "dada" and "mama"
• Understands common phrases like "bye-bye"

• At 24 months
• Says at least 15 words
• Uses two-to four-word phrases
• Repeats words overheard in conversation

• Good Morning America article
  http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=521213&page=1
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• MSNBC Newsweek Society, August 2005
  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8852928/site/newsweek/
  This link will open in a new window
• The Journal Science, October 14, 2005: Did our language stem from gesture or sound? "A Rough Grunt Dictionary" by Carl Zimmer.
  http://www.corante.com/loom/archives/2005/10/26/a_rough_grunt_dictionary.php#45728
  This link will open in a new window

Baby signs, baby gets
Honolulu Advertiser.com 7/16/04
By Noelle Chun; Advertiser Staff Writer
From http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jul/16/il/il01a.html

Remle Winand squeezes her fist, looking expectantly down at her 2 1/2-month old son, Levi, as she peels back his blankets to feed him his milk. Levi returns his mother's gaze with a blank look, amused but still oblivious to his mother's sign-language attempts to communicate the concept "milk." But Winand has faith.

Next to her sits her 2-year-old daughter, Mia, who understands the signs for "eat," "drink," "help" and many others. Mia is a veteran signer. She has been communicating with her parents since she started signing at 6 months. She learned the same way Levi is learning today - with her mother gesturing and rewarding her months before she was able to say verbally what she needed. The Winands, who live in Hawai'i Kai, are part of a growing trend - baby signing for infants. Neither child is deaf. Signing, the Winands and other parents have found, gives infants a way to communicate long before they are able to talk or walk.

Remle Winand of Hawai'i Kai taught Mia (below), now 2, to use a simplified form of American Sign Language at 6 months.
Eat (Mia Winand also uses it to say “hungry”): Fingers come together toward the lips.	Help: Tap an open palm with a fist.	Help: Tap an open palm with a fist.	Please: Move hand on chest in a circular motion.	Thank you: Move hand down from mouth.

"Signing is really a normal part of language development that parents often overlook," said Linda Acredolo, co-author of the book "Baby Signs: How to Talk with You Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk." "It's an absolutely normal way for babies to deal with the frustration of not being able to say words."

Gross motor skills for signing develop before the fine motor control needed for speech, Acredolo said earlier this week by phone from the University of California-Davis. Babies can use signing as a temporary form of expression. Once they are able to use words, their understanding of signs can aid speech development.

Acredolo's book, written with fellow developmental psychologist Susan Goodwyn, has sold an estimated 500 million copies in the United States since its first publication in 1996. It has been published in 14 languages, with large followings in places such as Japan, Korea and Israel.

"We get requests for them quite frequently," said Chris Tu, a manager at Barnes & Noble Booksellers store in Kahala. Although he lacked specific numbers, Tu said baby-signing books are "up there" with the popular "What to Expect When You're Expecting" series of parenting books.

Early Intelligence

Acredolo and Goodwyn undertook the research for "Baby Signs" after Acredolo noticed her daughter making up signs for things herself. The writers found four benefits to developing an infant's ability to use signs:

• It makes life easier and decreases tears. Many parents are familiar with this situation: The baby is red-faced and crying, and nobody knows what to do. Signing helps frustrated babies tell their parents what they want.
• It allows you to appreciate your baby's intelligence. "Babies are very smart," said Connie Markum Wong of Kapolei, who taught her three children to sign. "People just don't understand that (babies) can't communicate because they aren't able to speak. If they could speak, they'd have a very large vocabulary."
• It helps your baby speak sooner. Although many believed until the 1980s that teaching sign language would delay speaking, baby signs actually increase children's verbal skills, the writers say.

  One of Acredolo and Goodwyn's studies of 43 kids demonstrated that by age 2, babies who signed knew about 50 more spoken words on average than babies who didn't sign.

  In a different study, at age 3, children who signed had a vocabulary comparable to a 4-year-old's.

  "Baby signs is to talking as crawling is to walking," Acredolo said. "When babies learn to crawl, it doesn't make them less interested in walking - it makes them more interested. Baby signing does the same thing. It makes them want to talk, it makes them excited to talk, and as soon as they can they'll move over to words."

• It is believed to jump-start intellectual growth. In a study paid for by the National Institutes of Heath, Acredolo and Goodwyn found that at age 8, children who had signed as infants scored an average of 12 points higher on IQ tests than nonsigning children.

Developing Speech

Some parents don't need to hear the statistics. They've tried baby signs and swear by its effectiveness.

Belle Murashige of Manoa started signing with her daughter Jolie when she was 6 months old. Jolie started signing back about three months later. "If she didn't have things in her field of vision - like milk or cup or juice - she was able to sign for them without having to see them," Murashige said. "She could tell us that she was all done instead of throwing her plate down."

Later, Jolie used signs to talk with her cousins Ashley Murashige of St. Louis Heights and Owen Gonzales from Oakland, Calif. Even though some of their signs were different, they learned each other's variations. As Ashley let a toy race car barrel down the track, Jolie was able to cheer, "More! More!" using her hands. They weren't signing for long. Jolie, now 22 months, soon found her way into words.

"I think she had a smooth transition (into talking) because of her understanding of symbols," Murashige said. "She could understand the signing as a symbol, and its relation to words." The same was true for Ashley. "From the signs we did know," said her mother, Lana Murashige, "it went straight to talking, saying words and pointing."

Response Varies

After too many signs of no interest from their children, some parents assume baby signing is not for them. Acredolo says that's not so. "There's no reason that a baby shouldn't learn baby signs," she said. "Don't compare your children to other children. Every baby is unique, with a unique time line." Some experts say most babies will start responding to signs at around 9 to 12 months. But the range of understanding is vast. "It's smart to start modeling around 6 or 7 months," Acredolo said, "but babies vary enormously as to when they start signing back." She says people-oriented babies might pick up signing more quickly, while physically active or object-oriented babies might take their time.

Acredolo's son didn't start signing until he was a year old. But he became a "super signer," she said. Parents should be persistent, Acredelo says. They should use a sign every time they say a word, if they know it. "Repetition," she said, "is the key to success."

Yet some parents say their children were so verbal that the need for baby signs disappeared quickly. "In our case (baby signing) wasn't a huge emphasis," said Lynn Segawa of Hawai'i Kai, who did some baby signs with her daughter, now 2. "My daughter, Caitlin, just talked so early that we didn't have a need for something like that." Moreover, as the Murashige family found, communicating can be a lot of fun. After learning baby signs, Ashley Murashige started talking around age 1. One of her first words emerged while sitting with the family as watching

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If your child is ready to learn to read, using American Sign Language to help teach your child learn to read may be one of the best things you can do. And it has a long history of success.

In the early 19th century, educators realized that sign language helped the hearing siblings of deaf students learn to read. Due to political reasons, the findings were not studied further. Then, in the 1970�s, other researchers found that hearing children with average or above intelligence whose parents were deaf parents actually learned to read before they began school if their parents signed and fingerspelled to them. Researchers surmised that this was due to the fact that these children made the connection between manual letters (fingerspelling) and printed letters.

But such results are not unique to the hearing children of deaf parents.

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PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 5 - When Jacqueline Turner's daughter Riley was only 8 months old, she could let her mother know she was thirsty for milk by pumping her fingers against her palm. Or that she wanted more cereal by touching her fingertips together. Or ask for a ball, or her stuffed dog, or a book - all without saying a word. She used hand gestures taught to her by her mother.

Why teach signs to a baby who is not deaf? Mrs. Turner, a Spanish-language interpreter from Beaverton, said she bought a book and video about teaching signs to babies to help eliminate the frustration Riley had in not being able to communicate, as well as Mrs. Turner's own frustration in not understanding her.

"It makes her feel that she's more in control of a situation and has choices," Mrs. Turner said.

For hearing and deaf children, the ability to gesture tends to develop ahead of words. Babies can wave bye-bye to Grandma months before they can talk, for instance.

In interviews last fall, Dr. Elizabeth Bates, one of the leading researchers in the field and the director of the Center for Research in Language at the University of California at San Diego, talked about the development of this type of communication. (Dr. Bates died in mid-December.)

"It has to do with how easily one can imitate and reproduce something with a great big fat hand as opposed to the mini, delicate hundreds of muscles that control the tongue," Dr.Bates said in the interview. "You can also see somebody using a hand, which you can't do with a tongue."

Recent work in neuroscience has shown that the areas in the brain that control the mouth and speech and the areas that control the hands and gestures overlap a great deal and develop together, Dr. Bates added.

Teaching simple gestures, or signs, to babies before they can talk is a way to jump-start the language and communication process, and stimulate intellectual development. It can also confer a host of related benefits, including increased vocabulary, a deeper parent-child bond, enhanced self-esteem and decreased tantrums during the "Terrible 2's," proponents say.

Research by two child development experts in California has perhaps drawn the most interest. Dr. Linda Acredolo of the University of California at Davis, and Dr. Susan W. Goodwyn of the California State University at Stanislaus used their own set of signs for a study, in July 2000, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. They presented their findings at the International Conference on Infant Studies in Brighton, England.

They found that second graders who had been encouraged to use their signing system during the second year of life had an advantage of 12 I.Q. points over children who did not use any such system.

Also intriguing has been the work of Joseph Garcia, the author of the best-selling book and video series "Sign With Your Baby: How to Communicate With Infants Before They Can Speak."

Mr. Garcia, an American Sign Language and early child development researcher, noticed that the hearing babies of deaf parents could communicate their needs and desires at a much earlier age than children of hearing parents. His research found that through signs, parent-infant communication could begin at 8 months, rather than waiting for comprehensible speech to develop at 16 to 18 months.

In an era of competitive preschool admissions tests, not surprisingly, this research has set off a boom in demand for classes, books and videos. "Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk," a book based on Dr. Acredolo and Dr. Goodwyn's signing system, has been a best seller and has spawned a spinoff company that trains teachers.

But giving a baby an edge is not the reason to sign, Dr. Acredolo cautioned. "It's not a `better baby' gimmick," she said. "We really feel the gift is to the parent-infant relationship. The main reason to do it is to enable the baby to communicate what they need and see, to share their world with you."

Whether it is an organized effort to improve a baby's communication skills or a marketing technique to captivate anxious parents and capitalize on something instinctively known by parents for generations remains a matter of debate. Even the terminology used to describe the hand movements for babies has been questioned.

Dr. Bates said last year that calling this "signing" was misleading because that referred to a conventional sign language; instead she contended these movements should be referred to as gestures.

Dr. Acredolo defended her system of simple hand movements. "They should really be called signs in my opinion because they are symbols - they stand for a concept," she said. "Gestures are a much larger category that includes almost any body movement that we use during speech."

Mr. Garcia's system is based on a subset of American Sign Language, using simple signs to reinforce single words.

Not everybody in the field believes a special system is required. "Gesturing when you are talking to babies will certainly enhance communication, and it doesn't require buying anybody's product," Dr. Bates said. She said that early gesturing could enhance a child's I.Q. by helping to improve language skills.

"It is well established that the more you talk to babies -and you gesture naturally as you do that - the higher their vocabularies," Dr. Bates said. "Something that can increase your child's vocabulary will increase I.Q."

Parents who sign with their babies may be learning as much about communicating as their children. "Research shows huge individual differences in how much adults communicate with children," Dr. Bates said. "The studies out there show significant effects probably because a subset of the parents in the studies were not communicating with their kids as much as they start to when they enter these programs."

Many parents wonder whether signing will get in the way of their babies' learning how to talk. According to Mrs. Turner, who continued to sign with Riley for several months after she began speaking, what happened was just the opposite. "Once she started saying her first words, the more I used signs, the more she answered back with words," she said. Riley, now 20 months old, is very verbal and says cogent three-word sentences.

Signing can also ease a toddler's transition to speaking by reducing the frustration of trying to pronounce words like "toothbrush," or to express concepts like needing a diaper changed.

For instance, even before Riley could speak, she was able to show her mother that something hurt by making the sign for pain and pointing to a part of her body. And according to Mrs. Turner, Riley understood that the word "please" would get her a favorite toy or a drink of milk more quickly but it was difficult for her to say because of the l's. Instead she did the sign for "please."

For Mrs. Turner, signing with a child is as much about empowerment as about communication. It provided Riley, and would provide other children, with another tool to get their needs met.

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Why sign with your child? Imagine waking from a sound sleep. Walking into your childıs room as she stands in her crib crying. Is she hungry? Wet? In pain? You quickly evaluate her needs to no avail. She is unable to express her concerns to you. You feel helpless.

Now imagine for a moment as you walk through the door and sweep your child into your arms, she signs ³juice². You give her a cup of juice as she smiles at you in appreciation. You kiss her and put her back to bed. What a success! She was able to communicate her needs to you and you were able to satisfy them.

FOR MORE OF THIS ARTICLE AND OTHER INFO, GO TO: http://www.signwithme.com/001_infant_signing.asp

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ALYSSA Pubentz has been telling her parents what she needs and thinks since she was a year old.

Alyssa's mother, Kathy, introduced her to American Sign Language at birth. At 6 months, she signed consistently through normal activities with Alyssa. By 10 months, Alyssa signed back her first word -- milk -- a one-handed gesture that mimics milking a cow.

By her first birthday, Alyssa could use 70 signs and when she awoke in the middle of the night, she could tell her mother, "My teeth hurt. I need medicine." When she was hungry, Alyssa signed exactly what she wanted to eat. Strawberries and bread was one favorite request. Alyssa, now 3, is one of a growing number of hearing tots with sign language skills. Though she can now talk, the benefits of signing live on through Alyssa's expanded vocabulary and ability to think conceptually, Pubentz said.

Fueled by promising research and a growing array of books, videos and CDs, baby sign language is the activity du jour of ambitious parents and caregivers who believe in its potential to enhance communication and even raise a child's IQ. The benefits of signing are well known in communities serving children with autism, Down syndrome, language and developmental delays. But only in recent years has word spread about the benefits of signing to all babies. The trendy movement began, like most, on the West Coast.

California psychologists Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn have studied the impact of symbolic gesturing on early development since the early 1980s. Much of their research and benefits was published in a 1996 best-seller "Baby Signs" that advised parents how to use made-up signs with their children. The book was updated last year to include more American Sign Language signs. Acredolo and Goodwyn found that baby signing gave hearing children an advantage in speech development, including a larger vocabulary and earlier ability to speak in simple sentences. In follow-up studies, the researchers found that 8-year-old children who had been taught signs in infancy scored on average 12 points higher on IQ tests than children who had no sign training.

Washington researcher and educator Joseph Garcia did his own studies proving the benefits of signing. More than 250,000 copies of Garcia's learning kits and books, "Toddler Talks" (published in 1994 and now out of print) and "Sign With Your Baby" (Northlight Communications, $49.95) have been sold. This year, Garcia added "Pick Me Up" (Northlight Communications, $36.95), which combines sign language lessons with music through an activity guide and CD.

Inspired by what was happening at home, Pubentz, a former teacher of deaf children, began teaching sign language for hearing parents and babies a couple of years ago. Her six-week workshops, using Garcia's materials as well as her own experiences, are weekly, one-hour classes split between teaching parents and signing with babies.

At 3, Alyssa knows hundreds of signs but no longer uses them to get her needs met -- though the skill comes in handy during quiet times at church when she wants to express a feeling or a need. She's also looking forward to teaching ASL to her 5-month-old brother.

The best way to teach hearing babies sign language is to weave simple lessons into everyday life, whether it's talking and signing about fruit at the grocery store or identifying toys in a baby's room. Experts say caregivers should be as consistent as possible with signing, but they say the skill doesn't require a huge time commitment because adults are learning and passing on just a few words and signs at a time. Signing lessons have spread to Houston child-care facilities and preschools as they have in other parts of the country. Some experts, however, say old-fashioned activities such as reading books, playing music and simply talking to babies is more meaningful than learning sign language.

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