People may think that signing with babies is mainly useful for teaching a baby to communicate when they can't yet talk and have no other way to express their needs. This is certainly the primary purpose, but there may be other positive effects of teaching baby signing. Babies of course are not able to grasp abstract concepts of gratitude or politeness, yet they are still able to learn that a word like "please" should precede a request, and the sign for "thank you" should come after it is granted.
The [http://www.smartyparents.com] website suggests this very thing; that signing with babies is a precursor to learning real manners. Lindy Bartell, the president of Smarty Parents Inc., suggests teaching certain basic words first, until the baby understands them. These would be things like "more," "eat," and "all done." Once those ideas are grasped, that would be when you add symbols for "please," "thank you," and "share." The http://www.signbabies.com website elaborates on the idea, admitting that baby sign language learning, when it comes to those words, will just be by memorization at first. Yet you can teach these signs to the baby, as a prelude to and follow up of requests they make, and using them will eventually become automatic.
This means that signing with babies might actually be a means of instilling the habits of courtesy even before a child understands what they mean. Of course this same thing happens even when a child is taught to speak, if the parent teaches them to get into the habit of using "please" and "thank you." They don't understand the underlying concepts then either, needing to learn them later. But using sign languages, this habit-forming can occur even earlier, instilling a practice of being mannerly at a very young age.
What may also happen is that even the concepts of manners might be understood earlier by babies who learn to sign. If it's true that intellectual development occurs more rapidly in these children, then perhaps they may learn to understand abstract concepts more quickly as well. Whatever the case, signing with babies may at least contribute to a child developing courteous habits, even if their understanding of the reasons comes later. And that can only be a good thing.
The [http://www.smartyparents.com] website suggests this very thing; that signing with babies is a precursor to learning real manners. Lindy Bartell, the president of Smarty Parents Inc., suggests teaching certain basic words first, until the baby understands them. These would be things like "more," "eat," and "all done." Once those ideas are grasped, that would be when you add symbols for "please," "thank you," and "share." The http://www.signbabies.com website elaborates on the idea, admitting that baby sign language learning, when it comes to those words, will just be by memorization at first. Yet you can teach these signs to the baby, as a prelude to and follow up of requests they make, and using them will eventually become automatic.
This means that signing with babies might actually be a means of instilling the habits of courtesy even before a child understands what they mean. Of course this same thing happens even when a child is taught to speak, if the parent teaches them to get into the habit of using "please" and "thank you." They don't understand the underlying concepts then either, needing to learn them later. But using sign languages, this habit-forming can occur even earlier, instilling a practice of being mannerly at a very young age.
What may also happen is that even the concepts of manners might be understood earlier by babies who learn to sign. If it's true that intellectual development occurs more rapidly in these children, then perhaps they may learn to understand abstract concepts more quickly as well. Whatever the case, signing with babies may at least contribute to a child developing courteous habits, even if their understanding of the reasons comes later. And that can only be a good thing.