Well, no one says you have to sign with your hearing infant. Signing is not for every family … just coping with everyday life is challenge enough, isn’t it?
Research has shown that using signs for the concepts or words spoken allows the child to "see" the meaning of the concept. The highly visual reinforcment for a concept e.g.: milk (for offering bottle or for nursing) enhances the meaning for the child. Once a child's motor skills allows him to raise a hand and "open & close" their little fist - the best they can - then the child is starting to communicate back to you what they are thinking! This will occur many weeks and often months before they can form all the correct sounds with their voice box, tongue and breath to actually say the word "milk".
Contrary to what many people will tell you, use of signs (while speaking words or concepts) will usually enhance spoken language development. It is clear from interviewing parents who have signed with their infants that language development (ie: vocabulary understood and ultimately used in spoken conversation) is usually enhanced compared to that of the child's peers who have not been signed-to as infants and toddlers.
L. Acredelo and S. Goodwyn showed in their studies that on-average, signed-to children had a receptive vocabulary (words they could understand)about a full-year ahead of their non-signed-to peers. This was measured when the children were 3 years of age (receptive vocabulary scores where equivalent to vocabulary of "normal children" at 4 years of age!)
The first few signs will take a while to emerge but once 5-15 signs are established you may see your child's sign vocabulary start to explode. The age at which your child will sign their first concept will depend on a number of factors:
a) how frequently adults, caregivers and other children who are around the infant during the day actually sign. The more frequent the sign exposure, the sooner the sign concepts are grasped and the sooner the infant will attempt to "say something back" in sign.
b) how long the child has been signed to: you have to allow the infant time to pair the meaning of the sign with the spoken word or concept. This will take anywhere from weeks to months.
c) language stimulation in general: parents and children should talk to, sing to, read to, and generally interact socially with an infant as much as possible. This interaction is important to any language development - including the signs that the infant will eventually use to communicate with the persons around him.
d) a parent has to be "watching" their infant for their first attempts at signing back. Often parents miss or doubt that their child is making a sign the first few times. If the parent is not in the same room as the child, or not watching at the precise moment when the child signs, attempts to sign will be missed.
e) how responsive adults are to an infant's attempt to communicate with gestures or approximation of the signs that have been used with the child. Reward infants purposeful movements of their arms or fingers, or even their clapping of hands to get attention or imitating someone else. Smile, nod and talk to them when they are making gestures and trying to sign. It IS communication!
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