Babies Signs: Communication With Deaf Children

Babies Signs When a mother is having a child, she and the father are always expecting a perfect and healthy baby. They do not realize their child could have any complications. When the doctor comes back and tells the mother and father their child is deaf, they have a lot to think about: Should we get an implant for them? Or should we just live on with it and have the child sign? Most of the time, the parents choose living with it and having their child sign. Not only do parents teach their deaf children to sign, but also children that have full hearing capabilities too. Teaching children sign language has gotten very popular over the past 10 years. Parents find it very helpful with communicating with a child who is not able to speak or
William Dwight Whitney made this observation that children with deaf parents pick up communication almost a year before children with hearing parents. At just six months old, these children with deaf parents are able to communicate through signs and symbols. Children with hearing parents are able to communicate at a year and a half. Whitney did not really look into it and he just let it go. It was then rediscovered in the 1980s and Dr. Joseph Garcia noticed the same thing as Whitney. Garcia started teaching children with hearing parents sign and then later created a company to teach sign to the parents of babies. Then in the 1990s, the NIH (National Institute of Health) created a study studying the comparison between 2 groups of 11-month olds. The two that did this study, Professor Linda Acredolo and Professor Susan Goodwyn, have won and received a series of grants from the NIH to study more about baby sign language. Over the past twenty years, they have been researching and finding out all new kinds of information about baby sign language. Now in the current twenty first century, baby sign language has grown all around the world. Millions of families have started to do this and is incorporated into childcare centers for young aged
Kids are not skilled enough at a very young age to process what they want or need to say through talking. It is especially hard for children the ages of eight months through two years old to communicate. Teaching children sign language at a young age makes it a lot easier to parent. By saying this, it means it is a lot less of a hassle to try and understand what the child is trying to communicate with you if they know how to sign, if they do not know how, the parent is left struggling to figure out what their child is trying to say. The fact that a parent could not figure out what their child wants leads to frustration from both the parent and the child. The parent may not be giving the child what they want or need leading to upsetting their child or even leading to a temper tantrum. The psychological impact the children receive from learning baby sign language is high too. The child’s feelings of frustration and irritation are little to none there because it is extremely easy to communicate with their