More Parents Teaching Children How To Use Sign Language
WRAL.com

A child can wave bye-bye before saying bye-bye. The ability to gesture comes before the ability to speak. Toddlers cannot always tell you what they want or need, which can be frustrating. More parents of children who can hear are using sign language to communicate.

At 22 months old, Emma Grace can say a lot of words, but she can also sign them.

“I started signing to her early on when she was like 3 months old,” said Deanna Dannels, Emma’s mother. “My husband actually thought I was a little crazy because I’m signing to this baby. She signed back at 8 months old.” [Text continued at site.]

Many of my friends and acquaintances are using sign language with their children, although in most cases it’s home sign (scroll to the bottom of the page for a definition) instead of American Sign Language. The children seem to thrive on it, and not one of them developed problems with language later on. It would be interesting to do a longitudinal study and compare both the verbal and emotional development of sign language children with that of non-sign language children.