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Actions speak louder than words for babies

By Gene Schabath / The Detroit News

The Detroit News, Detroit, Michigan

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Forget about goo-goo and da-da.

Parents who want to teach their babies how to communicate should consider using a language they understand -- "baby signs," child development experts say.

What was once a little-known communication technique taught by well-read parents has gone mainstream, with free classes being offered to couples who want to start interacting with their children before toddlers can make sounds critical to talking.

"For us, it meant less frustration," said Aaron Erkkinen, 26, of Clinton Township, who went through the baby signs classes with his wife, Katie, and their son, Ethan, now 20 months. They started teaching Ethan the signs when he was 7 months old.

"With signs, he can express his need instead of us guessing what he wanted," Erkkinen said.

Studies have shown that children who learn signing have a larger
 vocabulary and learn to talk faster, said Burton White, a retired child development specialist known for his work at Harvard University.

What is a "critical period" in brain development?

Pruning or selection of active neural circuits takes place throughout life, but is far more common in early childhood. Animal studies have shown that there are certain windows of time during which the young are especially sensitive to their environment: newborn mice must experience normal whisker sensation in the first few days of life or they will develop abnormal tactile sensitivity in the face region; cats must be allowed normal visual input during the first three months or their vision will be permanently impaired; and monkeys need consistent social contact during the first six months or they will end up extremely emotionally disturbed. Many of the same critical periods appear to hold for human development, although we are less certain about their exact length. Thus, babies also require normal visual input or they may suffer permanent impairment; children born with crossed or "lazy" eyes will fail to develop full acuity and depth perception if the problem is not promptly corrected. Language skills depend critically on verbal input (or sign language, for babies with hearing impairments) in the first few years or certain skills, particularly grammar and pronunciation, may be permanently impacted. The critical period for language-learning begins to close around five years of age and ends around puberty. This is why individuals who learn a new language after puberty almost always speak it with a foreign accent.

Photo courtesy of Baby Signs.

The Parents Magazine, May 2009 issue quoted on page 32, “Deaf kids who receive cochlear implants report an improved quality of life- and the younger the age at which they receive them, the better, finds a new study in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.”

Read on...

Meeting a Mom at the ASDC Conference….

I went to my first American Society for Deaf Children’s Biennial Conference on June 24 – 28th.  During one of the workshops, I was seated next to a young mother.  I asked her the typical questions…Is your child Deaf?....Where do you live?...How old is your daughter?....Where does she go to school?  The last question brought tears to her eyes.  She said my daughter is 9 years old and goes to a mainstreamed school about 90 minutes from the Oklahoma School for the Deaf.  She said this was their first time on campus.  Then she said that the minute they arrived at OSD, she saw an immediate change in her daughter.  Suddenly she was happy and social….she saw her daughter “fitting in”.  With tears Mom said, “I realize now that this is the place where my daughter needs to be and go to school.”

 Like all moms and parents that face this realization, the emotions are a mixture of relief and sadness.  Relief in that they finally see the resources, peers, role models available to them and their child that they didn’t know existed.  Sadness in “How will I send my child to school everyday when we live so far away”….”How can I separate from child if he/she needs to live in the dorm?” And these were the exact questions this mom posed to me while we sat waiting for the workshop to begin. 

All of these emotions came rolling back to me.   Years ago, I was faced with the same decision.  After my first visit to the Indiana School for the Deaf, I knew immediately that my daughter had to attend this school.  I finally saw a school where she could grow up socially, have access to communication, and simply be a kid.  Yet in my joy,  I cried just like this mom did.    The decisions are not easy for parents.  Many times we have to either to move closer to the Deaf school or decide to send our child to live in the dorm.