Many people ask me if they should teach their child baby sign language if they have a hearing child.  I always answer with a resounding “YES”.

If you are considering teaching your baby sign language even though you know that your child does not have a hearing problem, your hearing child will have the best of both worlds because you can teach your child signs and words at the same time.  When I did this with my hearing babies, their vocabulary doubled in size.  At the peak of our baby sign language experience, our children knew about 30-40 signs and about 30 spoken words.  Not many of the signs and words were duplicated, so they really had a vocabulary of about 60 words, which is phenomenal for 18-24 months of age.

I recommend that you say the word and make the sign at the same time the item is introduced to the child – and every time thereafter.  This way, the child will attribute the item with the work as well as the sign.

Once your baby is able to make the necessary hand gesture, you will see that your reinforcement has paid off.  You may even find that your baby makes the sign and tries to sound out the word in “baby babble” too.  It is truly a wonder to see how quickly our children learn.  They really are sponges just waiting to soak up as much knowledge as possible.

But baby sign language is not only for hearing babies and deaf babies.  Many other babies and children have been identified as benefiting from using baby sign language.  These include:

• Down syndrome babies

• babies with learning disabilities

The bottom line is that anyway you can facilitate communication between your baby and his or her caregivers, embrace it!