The Brain and Sign Language

Why Use Sign Language With Young Children?

Did you know

Research has shown that signing babies and toddlers:

Understand more words

Have larger vocabularies
Engage in more sophisticated play and
Have an increased interest in books?
(Object naming is one of the most powerful predictors of future reading
ability.)

Sign language leads to:

Decreased frustration
Increased communication and
More enriching caregiver-infant bonding?
(Positive emotions lead to faster and easier learning.)
Many of the tantrums and meltdowns that children experience between 9
and 30 months are because of the frustration of not being able to
communicate their wants and needs?
With regular and consistent signing, starting at 6-7 months, babies can
begin signing by 8-9 months old?
Many experts believe that introducing children to a second language as
early as possible fosters healthy brain development, encourages positive
social skills, and lays a solid foundation for effective communication skills
that will last a lifetime?
Science suggests that when it comes to ease of learning and proficiency in
a foreign language, earlier is better?
Early exposure to a second language actually causes more connections to
grow in a child's brain, and those connections, in turn, allow for easier
additional learning in the second and first languages?

Rebecca Putman 2015