In 1982, Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn discovered that newborn babies to 24 months were spontaneously using simple gestures to represent words they weren’t yet able to speak the english language. Thus began a major breakthrough in infant-parent communication.

In our 6 week classes babies and their parents will be able to use simple signs to communicate important things like being hungry or thirsty, hot or cold, happy or sad often a full year before babies can otherwise speak. This workshop will demonstrate that our program will dramatic benefits for the parents and their babies.

Testimonial

Victoria’s first grandchild, Nissa was born in 1998. She signed daily and interacted with her in sign language. This created an amazing bond with Nissa.  She states, “I watched Nissa track my hands with her eyes, watch me intensely, study my facial expressions, you could see that she was absorbing everything I was saying and it was as if you could see her mind literally processing the language!”

By the time Nissa was 8 months old, she was signing. She was fluent by 18 months old and carried on conversations and her comprehension, receptive and expressive skills were fully mastered by 2 years of age. Her deaf great grandparents made several trips to visit her in Washington since they loved having a meaningful conversation with her and this was such a delightful experience.

Nissa is in the 6th grade now. Academically she is a very high achiever. She excels in math and competes in state school promoted competitions in both math and spelling.  Nissa is extremely athletic and is on a basketball team, team captain, and is one the team’s highest scorers. She leads and excels in everything she does. We truly believe this is due to her early acquisition of ASL from birth.

Research

Studies show  there is the division of visual-spatial abilities between the two hemispheres—a local level in the left hemisphere dominant for producing and comprehending signs and signed sentences, and a global level in the right hemisphere dominant for establishing and maintaining a coherent discourse in sign language.  There is a lot of research out there that shows that signing with HEARING babies advances spoken language development and even IQ scores.  Sign language  has dramatic benefits, including decreasing frustration for babies and parents, enriching the parent-child and/or grandparent bond, boosting emotional development, helping babies talk sooner-even raising IQ.

In addition; sign language benefits both hearing and deaf children, particularly when they are babies. Using sign language with babies and toddlers has been shown to reduce frustration at a time when babies are old enough to know what they want but still unable to talk. Early exposure to a visual language also pays off later on in school.