There are many parents who think it trendy to get their children enrolled in the baby-signing program.
But in the back of the mind, they suffer from the insecurity; will baby sign language interfere with their child’s speech development?
Does baby sign language deter verbal language in many cases? To find out the answer to your queries, just read in the article below.
If you ask any sign language expert or any Pediatrician, whether training in sign language may become a stumbling block in the speech development of your child, the undisputed reply would be NO.
There are instances where the signing babies crosses almost eighteen months of their life but still doesn’t show any interest to start a verbal communication.
This leads some parents to believe that signing training may have acted as a barrier in their child’s speech development.
But these parents are wrong in their perception. How? Lets check!
What do the experts have to say about the case of those few toddlers who have almost reached their second year without bothering to speak out a word?
The experts emphasize on the point that it’s a good sign that these babies are communicating, only they have chosen the sign language as their mode of communication and not the verbal language.
So the real problem lies in the fact that their parents are worried because they thought by now their child would have learned to speak.
But renowned pediatricians are of the view, that there are many exceptions to the rule that a baby should be able to speak a certain number of words within a particular age.
Ask any pediatricians and they will tell you the huge number of variations in the rate of vocabulary and language development skills.
Just look around and you will get to see yourself the children of same age but with different skill level of spoken language.
While you will find one-year-old baby-talking endlessly, you will also get to find the children who never bothered to speak a word but suddenly starts to deliver full sentences when they finally decide to start talking.
So never conclude anything, if your signing child chooses to communicate with the help of signing language instead of verbal language even after a certain age.
Remember there is no scientifically proven correlation between late or early speaking with the child’s future capabilities.
Generally, the signing children make a quicker transition to vocal language than their non-signing counterparts.
But even if your child is among the exceptional few, who don’t start speaking as expected, you have to provide her some more stimulants to talk.
You have to talk more to her and ask her questions and make it clear to her that she is expected to make a reply.
Simply try to engage her in some kind of dialogue. The rule of the thumb is the more stimuli she receives the more likely she is to repeat it herself.
If you keep on talking and singing together with your child, it will— as famous writer Acredolo would like to put it— flood the baby with language.”
