By Monica Beyer

There is a great debate going on in the “signing with babies” community. You may or may not know about it. One side of the debate prefers to use only American Sign Language (ASL) and the other side is more relaxed about the actual signs they use with their babies. Of course, there are those who fall somewhere in the middle.

Baby Signs (a book written by Acredolo and Goowdyn) originally recommended making up your own signs instead of using a formal sign language vocabulary. The idea being, of course, that unless you plan to teach your child the ASL grammar and sentence structure then there is no reason to use a formal sign language. Now, however, they’ve changed their recommendation and their newest edition of their book contains 90% ASL signs as well as other, parent-created signs.

The SIGN with your BABY program created by Garcia is the one which has always advocated using all (or mostly) ASL. Most other baby signing programs out there are based upon ASL as well.

There is some concern that even amongst ASL signers that there is a certain lack of consistency – one of the major reasons for using it. For example, ASL is drastically different from BSL (British Sign Language), and it doesn’t stop there – signs from the northwest US can be different from the midwest. That said, signs are generally consistent within a given community, and you can make greater use out of your vocabulary if you do consult a local interpreter or a deaf friend or relative. Many of the signs that small children will use are typically pretty standardized – for example, “eat” will almost always be the same gesture no matter where in the US you are.

I have chosen to use ASL signs with my children for many reasons … one is that it encourages communication with deaf people – an entire segment of society we weren’t able to communicate with at all before. I also hope that as my older children see me signing with my newest baby it helps keep their mind open. Even though the signs aren’t consistent throughout even one country it helps to have somewhat of a standard to draw upon – and I really like being able to consult a dictionary for a sign.

Most of the materials out there that you can use to learn signs from for your baby are ASL based. Almost everything in our store is ASL based – mainly for the reasons of consitency – you wouldn’t want to show your child a DVD with signs that are not the signs that you have learned from looking at books or looking online! How confusing would that be?

There are several arguments against the use of ASL that are not vaild. Some say that ASL signs are “too difficult” for small hands to create. This actually makes some sense until you think about how small children learn spoken language. Parents are NOT advised to speak “down” to their children simply because they are not immediately capable of saying the word. You talk with them about their milk and their blanket, yet they may make sounds such as “ma” and “ba.” You are fully aware that, over time, they will refine their speech as their muscles grow more mature and they will say the word correctly.

The same exact sequence happens for babies who are exposed to sign language. They don’t need you to dummy down ASL signs because they will understand you and they will eventually gain the precision needed to create the signs you’ve shown them.

I have also heard that using ASL is far too complicated for the parent – perhaps the naysayer envisions long nights of ASL classroom instruction? I’m happy to report that I didn’t know a lick of ASL besides the alphabet when I started on my signing quest with Corbin in the year 2000 – and both he and his baby sister wound up knowing well over 100 signs before they gave them up. Parents generally learn right along with their children, sign by sign. No mandatory classes, no late night studying, no quizzes … just access to resources and the internet when your child needs a new sign and you are good to go.

That being said, I have had to create some signs for my children that I never found in any dictionary – Teletubbies, anyone? However, most agree that the key factor in signing with babies is to facilitate communication prior to the ability to speak.

Regardless of which method you choose, which book you work with or what signs you learn or make up, the most important thing is to open those lines of communication with your baby. And what is more important than that?

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About the Author: Monica Beyer, creator of the highly trafficked website signingbaby.com, gained firsthand knowledge of the benefits of using baby sign language from teaching her own three children. Author of Baby Talk (Tarcher, 2006) and Teach Your Baby to Sign (Fair Winds Press, 2007), she lives in Missouri with her husband and children.

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