If you鈥檙e a new parent trying to communicate with your infant, you may have tried baby sign language: specialized gestures babies can learn to communicate words like 鈥渉ungry,鈥� 鈥渢hirsty鈥� and 鈥渕ore.鈥�
There鈥檚 a huge market for books, classes and smartphone apps that teach baby sign language and claim that it can speed up spoken language development 鈥� and even boost a baby鈥檚 IQ. But there鈥檚 .
鈥淚 think that it鈥檚 possible to teach babies to sign, and it can be a valuable activity for parents to engage in with their babies. They can tune into them and have fun just like any kind of activity that鈥檚 a learning activity that you can do with your child,鈥� says , an evolutionary anthropologist and author of the website Parenting Science. 鈥淭he question is, is this going to make your baby a better language expert? And on that score, actually, there鈥檚 really no evidence that it鈥檚 going to help.鈥�
Ultimately, the value of spending money on these types of tools in the hopes they will boost language skills is a matter parents can weigh depending on their goals for their child, Dewar ( ) tells Here & Now鈥榮 Jeremy Hobson.
鈥淚 think gesturing is very good and very effective, it鈥檚 just the question is, do you need to do 鈥� a formal program that teaches babies abstract signs, which are harder to learn?鈥� she says.
Interview Highlights
On whether babies can understand the concepts needed to sign specific phrases like, 鈥淚 want more milk,鈥� even if they can鈥檛 say them verbally yet
鈥淲ell yes they can. But I should point out that babies are already engaging in spontaneous gestures. You don鈥檛 necessarily need to teach your baby an abstract sign in order to communicate about things like that. That鈥檚 the thing I want to get across, is I think, if we鈥檙e talking about baby sign language and we think it鈥檚 a program where they import a bunch of official signs where there鈥檚 an arbitrary connection between the sign and the meaning, that could be a fun thing to do. But [it鈥檚] not is if that鈥檚 going to be something that鈥檚 going to allow the babies to learn especially fast. Whereas if you focus on those transparent signs and the ones that your baby already uses, that could be really valuable.鈥�
On whether she agrees with the Mayo Clinic, which says there is limited research to suggest baby sign language might give a typically developing child a way to communicate several months earlier than those who only use verbal communication
鈥淚 would have to say that is very limited, and it鈥檚 better to just say we don鈥檛 know. The kind of research that we have on that are small studies of infants who are being taught to sign by parents who are deaf, and use sign language as their regular language, and then they would look at the babies and at what point did they start babbling with their hands, and when they start saying their first words. If you look at research like that, those studies really fall within the bounds of what we see with verbal studies of when babies first start babbling verbally and speaking their first words.鈥�
On what parents must weigh when deciding whether to investing in apps, classes or other tools to teach them and their babies sign language
鈥淚 think it depends on your goals. To me, what鈥檚 really interesting about the research is other research that鈥檚 not about teaching baby sign language, but about observing real parents who use gestures in a really effective way. They look at what babies are pointing at, they use pantomime. Parents who do that have what is called referential transparency, meaning that you are easy to decipher.
鈥淚f you think about it, if you were a person who went off to some country where you didn鈥檛 happen to speak the language, and they didn鈥檛 speak your language, you would really want to talk to people who are very good at miming and reading natural gestures. There have been studies done showing that parents who have that quality actually have babies that do acquire language faster and do seem to have advantages.鈥�
On the best ways for people to communicate with babies
鈥淚 think actually we know a lot about the best ways to communicate with babies: You need to make eye contact with your baby when you鈥檙e talking, studies show that when you do that, part of the brain that tunes in with communication is more likely to turn on. Engage in conversations with your baby. Even though your baby can鈥檛 speak, you communicate as if your baby is able to do that and you interpret her looks and her gestures, and when parents do that, when they tune into the mind of the baby and really try to imagine themselves in the baby鈥檚 perspective, research shows that when you do that, babies learn things really fast.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something called mind-minded parenting, and that simply realizing from the very beginning when your baby is born that this is an autonomous being who has a mind, and is intelligent and not just an object that needs care. And so when parents start out with just assuming that their babies have independent minds, that鈥檚 really the key 鈥� it鈥檚 really pretty simple.鈥�
produced and edited this interview for broadcast. adapted it for the web.
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