The purpose of this blog is to serve as a discussion forum on general Montessori philosophy and practice for Montessori parents and teachers. It will not be used for announcements, messages, or schedules particular to my classroom. Nor will it be used as a parent conference tool regarding progress of individual students. Please refer to specific students by age and gender only (no names). Looking forward to a lively exchange of questions and ideas!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
SIGN LANGUAGE WITH BABIES
I am not too fmailiar with this topic. Does anyone have experience with babies they know? In particular, how does use of sign language as an infant affect subsequent acquisition of oral language, or does it?
I have not done baby sign with my children, but several of my close friends have (I can think of 5 in particular). In each case, I would say that signing seemed to help their babies communicate particular things ("more," "milk" and "all done" were the main ones), but none turned out to be ahead of their peers in oral language. Purely anecdotal, of course, and I have not read up on any of the actual studies...
Two of them may have been slightly behind in talking, but only marginally. Those two also happened to be boys, and one was growing up bilingual, so it's tough to tell. The others struck me as average in their oral language development.
I have not done baby sign with my children, but several of my close friends have (I can think of 5 in particular). In each case, I would say that signing seemed to help their babies communicate particular things ("more," "milk" and "all done" were the main ones), but none turned out to be ahead of their peers in oral language. Purely anecdotal, of course, and I have not read up on any of the actual studies...
ReplyDeleteWas there any delay in acquisition of oral language?
ReplyDeleteTwo of them may have been slightly behind in talking, but only marginally. Those two also happened to be boys, and one was growing up bilingual, so it's tough to tell. The others struck me as average in their oral language development.
ReplyDelete