My Smart Hands: Using Sign Language is An Effective Tool for Baby Communication

It’s every parent’s nightmare when they can’t figure out what their baby wants. In the middle of the night, many couples wake up to a disgruntled baby, and there are times that even after giving seemingly everything that the child could possibly need, he’s still not satisfied. How, then, could parents possibly understand what their baby wants or needs?

Alaine Antonio, a graduate student of Special Education from the University of the Philippines, is all too familiar with these parenting concerns. That’s why when she stumbled across a video of a 12-month-old baby using the American Sign Language for 20 words and 30 signs (a total vocabulary of 50 words!), she was amazed at the potential of sign language for baby communication.

Here’s the video that Alaine saw on the Internet:

The video that Alaine saw online was from Laura Berg, the founder of My Smart Hands. Berg was inspired with how sign language boosts literacy and researched further about its benefits, eventually founding My Smart Hands in 2005.

Click here to read more about the benefits of sign language on baby communication.

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Read on for more benefits of sign language on baby communication.

Did you know that as young as 3 months, a baby’s brain can already process language? (Dehaene-Lambert)

Using sign language also “gives two places to recall language in their brains-in the left side of the brain as language, and in the right side of the brain as image and movement.”

Given these benefits, Alaine has brought My Smart Hands to the Philippines, sharing to parents the wonders of sign language.

Short-term benefits:

• - Decreases frustration in babies
• - Stronger parent and child bonding
• - Boosts self-confidence
• - Allows parents to know their child’s thoughts and personality even before they start talking
• - Personality even before they start talking
• - Accelerates language development

Long-term benefits:

• - Develops reading comprehension


• - Increases IQ

While sign language has definite benefits for babies and communication, research has also shown that as these babies grow older, up to 17% scored higher on tests, signifying a higher IQ. (Daniels)

Despite all these advantages to teaching your baby sign language, many parents, of course, are still skeptical. Won’t sign language delay your child’s speech?

No, it won’t, said Berg in their video. As you may have already observed, there is constant verbalization when Berg was teaching sign language to her baby daughter Fireese, and at that tender age of 12 months, Fireese was already able to say certain words.

Check out this video of Fireese, already successfully spelling a variety of simple words at just 2 ½ years old.

“It’s having the words and pictures in your hand,” says Alaine.

Sign language is just one of the many methods parents can resort to in order to help boost their child’s early development. What’s great about it is that it provides an option that helps your baby express himself and communicate needs, while also promoting parent-child bonding and long-term development.

Fore more information, contact Alaine Antonio:
E-mail: alaineantonio@mysmarthands.com
Address: 9F Trafalgar Plaza, H.V. Dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati Philippines
Landline: (02) 996-2393
Mobile: (0928) 552-1071

You can also visit the My Smart Hands website at http://www.mysmarthands.com/Site/Baby_Sign_Language.html

Photo from flickr.com