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Over two decades of Baby
Signs® research has shown that these proven benefits
affect different areas of a child’s development. Using
the Baby Signs® Program stimulates:
Benefits for Cognitive
Development:
Using the Baby Signs® Program Stimulates Intellectual
Development!
Baby Signs® babies are busily using their signs to learn about the world
while children scored well above their non-signing peers are
still waiting for the words they need to do the same. For
example, a Baby Signs® baby may label a piece of broccoli with a sign for "flower"
while smiling quizzically, essentially asking, "It looks
like a flower, but what is it really?" We now know that
all this early learning pays off down the road. When Linda
and Susan revisited the children from their government-funded
study of the Baby Signs® Program after the children had finished in cognitive tests
well into the second grade , they found that those who had
used signs when they were babies had higher IQs than those
who had not.
Benefits for Language
Development:
Using the Baby Signs® Program Makes Learning To Talk Easier!
Some parents worry that encouraging their child to use signs
might slow down learning to talk. Actually, the opposite is
true! With the help of a large grant from the federal government,
Linda and Susan were able to show that using the Baby Signs® Program actually helps babies learn to talk. Just as a child
who learns to crawl is more, rather than less motivated to
learn to walk, so also a child who learns to sign more, rather
than less motivated to learn to talk!
The groundbreaking research completed by Baby Signs® authors Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn showed extensive
benefits for language development including:
By the time they were 2 years-old, Baby Signs® babies had significantly larger vocabularies than their non-signing
peers.
By the time they were three years old, their language skills
were more like that of their four year-old peers.
Baby Signs® Benefits
for Social-Emotional development:
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Reduces
tears, tantrums, and frustration. |
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By the time babies are 9 to 10 months old, they are
quite capable of knowing what it is they need or want.
What they don't know is how to tell us with words
- which leads directly to frustration for baby and
parent alike. All this changes when a baby is able
to use signs. With signs like "thirsty,"
"hungry," "hot," and "cold"
– and many, many others- at their disposal,
babies can make their needs known quickly and quietly
without resorting to tantrums and tears. No wonder
"Decreased frustration!" is the answer we
most frequently get when we ask how using the Baby
Signs® Program has changed daily life.
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Allows babies to share their worlds. |
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Just because babies don't talk doesn't mean they aren't
paying attention to the world around them. Babies
are seeing things, thinking things, even remembering
things -- and with signs at their command, all this
needn't remain their secret.
Parents
of Baby Signs® babies quickly learn to see the world through their
baby's eyes and appreciate in a whole new way what
an amazing world it is! |
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Using
the Baby Signs®
Program boosts self-esteem and self-confidence. |
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What good self-esteem boils down to for any of us
is the sense that we are perceived as competent and
praiseworthy in both our own eyes and in the eyes
of those we love. And that's just what the ability
to use signs yields. Because they can communicate
effectively with their caregivers, and because their
caregivers respond so positively to these communications,
Baby Signs® babies develop a sense of pride in
their accomplishments that is wonderful to see.
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Using
the Baby Signs®
Program strengthens the parent-child bond. |
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Because Baby Signs® babies are able to communicate effectively with their
caregivers, the number of negative interactions goes
down and the number of positive interactions goes
up. In other words, being together is a lot more fun
when baby and caregiver can truly understand each
other.
With
signs, even very young children can "tell"
their caregivers that they just saw a caterpillar,
that they hear a dog barking, or that a bird just
flew away.
They
can let their caregivers know whether they are happy,
sad, or even afraid.
In
other words, life with a Baby Signs® baby becomes a shared life --and with greater sharing
comes a stronger, sweeter caregiver-infant bond. |

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