Baby Signing Controversy

There's actually a lot of controversy about baby signing in the academic community, not about whether or not it should be done, just about whether or not it speeds things up, or delays talking. “Learning to speak is usually accelerated by teaching sign language and speech at the same time. One possible reason is that both forms of communication stimulate the same area of the brain” (Edelson). While the brain is constantly measuring the amount of activity occurring in the brain at any given time, studies show that the same part of the brain is activated when a person talks or uses signs. Thus, when utilizing the signed speech method, the area of the brain involved in speech production is receiving stimulation from two sources (signing and speech)