Baby Sign Language - Behavioral Research

Behavioral Research

In an article in the British Psychological Society's The Psychologist Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon has considered in detail the theoretical bases behind the growth of this phenomenon and some of the claims made by its supporters.

As Doherty-Sneddon points out, so-called "baby signing" is not entirely new. Variants have been used by speech and language therapists for decades with children who have impairments to their speech, their cognitive abilities, or both. It is widely recognized that communication is at the heart of child development, be it cognitive, social, emotional or behavioral.

While baby signing promoters claim various benefits verified in experimental research, there is in fact a dearth of research. An American team led by Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn has been responsible for driving research into the effects of baby signing on child development. Their extensive research in determining the benefits of baby sign language and determining if its use would delay speech development in children, has opened many doors in this field as well as provided answers to many questions. Their study involving 11-month-old children was the key to these answers. The children were assigned into two groups in this study; the first group consisted of children that used Baby Sign Language and the second group consisted of children that did not use Baby Sign Language. Up until the age of three, the children’s speech and language development was monitored. Results showed that the average scores of children in the study that were in the group that used Baby Sign Language were found to be higher than the control group who did not use Baby Sign Language. By the age of twenty-four months, the signing children had a developmental advantage of three months over the non-signing children. By the time these signing children reached the age of thirty-six months, this advantage had increased dramatically. The advantage had now increased from a three-month developmental advantage to an equivalent twelve-month advantage in their overall language skills and comprehension by the age of thirty-six months.

They also propose that those taught to sign reap such rewards as:

• larger expressive and receptive oral-language vocabularies
• more advanced mental development
• a reduction in problematic behavior like tantrums resulting from frustration
• improved parent–child relationships.

The mechanisms underlying these benefits are proposed to include:

• an increased number of episodes of joint visual attention during interactions between parents and toddlers, known to be associated with improved language skills
• empowering the infant to focus the topic and context of conversation
• the discussion and clarification of concepts
• added practice with the symbolic function.

Doherty-Sneddon claims a key issue is ensuring that sufficient and appropriately designed research is available to back the claims made in relation to baby signing. A literature review concluded that although benefits were reported in 13 of 17 studies, various methodological weaknesses leave the evidence unconfirmed. Certainly, research into the effects of baby signing needs better control groups, such as children who are involved in equally interesting and fun activities based around adult and child language interaction, but not baby signing.

Volterra et al. (2006) conclude enhanced gesture input for hearing children is a catalyst for gesture acquisition, and especially the use of representational form and hence symbolic communicative function. They add that this enhancement is short-lived (to between 12 and 15 months of age). Doherty-Sneddon argues, however, that this timescale represents only a general norm. The enhancement and advantage is far more extended in the many toddlers who do not speak until well after their second birthdays.

Doherty-Sneddon concludes by arguing there are three different levels of support for the benefits of baby signing:

• indicative, if not evidentially strong, evidence from baby signing research;
• related evidence from deaf sign and hearing gesture/language research;
• compelling anecdotal support from families who have embraced the approach.