Teach sign language in addition to Chinese language and English?
Posted by gsetio on July 18, 2007
Should we teach sign language to our baby or toddler? I believe we should.
I don’t mean teaching them to be proficient in sign language as those who can’t speak. But I believe baby sign language is important skill to teach babies for the following reasons.
- It make your baby and toddler LESS WHINY.
- RICHER VOCABULARY by 2 year of age.
- It is FUN TO LEARN.
- Happy kid!
If they can sign to us when they want more milk or more cookies, it definitely reduce the amount of whining and screaming.
Remember the myth that teaching more than one language to your child could cause delay in language development? It’s NOT TRUE at all.
My daughter is learning three languages (mandarin Chinese, English, Indonesian) and basic sign language (milk, more, all gone, etc) and she started talking quite early. At 18 months, she could speak 25 words with correct pronunciation, 50 words (more like consistent sound associated with specific meaning), and understood many more words. This is more than the expected normal speech development standard.
We don’t teach our daughter any more sign language since she started talking. But when Sesame Street show sign language and I teach my daughter to do them again at later time, we always have good time trying to get the sign right (26 month old, still having little problem with complicated finger signs)
She is having fun communicating with her parents and being able to communicate reduce her frustration level.
So if you’re thinking about teaching sign language in addition to raising bilingual or trilingual children, by all means GO AHEAD and HAVE FUN.
Posted by: Grace
www.earlylearning-chinese.com
