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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.

He also has authored two books about raising children, "The First Three Years of Life" and "Raising a Happy and Unspoiled Child." He also wrote the forward of the bestselling book "Sign With Your Baby" by Joseph Garcia.

White said that children taught sign language had learned about 75 signs by the time they were 9 months old, compared to 10 words or less learned by nonsigning children, his research has shown.

"Because children can't speak, they can't tell you what's on their mind, and that leads to frustration," White said. "But children can tell you what's on your mind through sign language."

White said studies have shown that in multilingual homes, children who are taught sign language become bilingual by the time they reach their second birthday. Children pick up the second language more slowly in homes without the signing, he said.

Su Porter, who teaches a class called "Baby Signs" through the Macomb Michigan State University Extension in Clinton Township, said the big advantage with signing is that toddlers can "tell" their parents many things that normally would be a guessing game.

Instead of grunting, fussing or crying to talk to their parents, infants can learn to show through their fingers, hands or gestures that they want to eat, sleep, have their diaper changed or express pain, Porter said.

"I just want to tell parents that they can get closer to their children through signing because they will be less angry trying to communicate with their children, and the children are less frustrated" because parents don't understand what they want, said Porter, a family programs educator for the extension service.

Aaron Erkkinen said a good example of the benefits of signing came when Ethan fell and hurt his knee. Rather than guessing why he was crying, the Erkkinens knew what was wrong when Ethan made the sign for pain -- putting two index fingers together -- and pointed to his knee.

"It's been an incredible way to connect to him in his world," Erkkinen said. "For Ethan, it's a door into the world of grown-ups."

Ethan started slowly because of his age and learned only a few signs in the first few months. But he now knows 55 signs, and "he's definitely talking more now," Erkkinen said.

When Michelle Moten of Detroit started teaching 8-month-old Mackenzie sign language four months ago, the infant did mostly verbal "babbling."

"Then she started to pick up the signs for diaper change, milk and eat," said Moten, 32, a former child care worker. Mackenzie now knows about 10 words in sign language.

"I found working with small infants when I was in child care that we saw a lot of tantrums," Moten said. "That had a lot to do with frustration, not being able to communicate. But sign language makes you concentrate on communicating with your child.

"Our daughter doesn't have tantrums, and making sign language is part of her everyday life," Moten said.

Moten said she had a pleasant surprise about Mackenzie's development with signing. Moten had occasionally taught her daughter the sign for a car -- a motion that simulates moving a steering wheel.

"Last week we were outside and a car went by and she made the sign all by herself," Moten said. Mackenzie also knows the signs for various animals, such as a cat and lion.

"And she knows the sounds they make," Moten said.

Porter said that some parents are worried their children will not learn to talk if they take up sign language.

"But once they learn the sound of the word they learned through signing, they drop the sign," Porter said.

Signing also can be helpful in preventing infant biting. Porter recalled an instance four years ago when she worked at the child development laboratory at Merrill Palmer Institute in Detroit when a young girl was bitten by a boy.

"She turned to him and gave him the sign to stop," a demonstrative gesture where one hand is slammed into the other, Porter said.

"The biter never did it again," Porter said. She doubted the girl would have had the same success if she just told the boy to stop.

Myron Emerick, 36, of Clinton Township was skeptical when his wife, Rachelle, 36, started teaching baby signs, first to daughter Emily, now, 3 1/2.

But once Emily started to sign and then talk, he was a believer. The Emericks also are teaching their 1-year-old daughter, Anna, to sign.

"What impressed me was being able to communicate (with my daughters) instead of the kids just crying and screaming," Emerick said.

White, the child development expert, said he does have one word of caution for parents about to teach their child sign language.

"It takes time," White said. "You have to put in a fair amount of time in teaching the sign language. There is work involved."

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Baby signs


Here are examples of some baby signs:

• Eat: With fingers closed, the hand is brought to the mouth and tapped several times to the lips.

• Drink: Hand is shaped like the letter C as if holding a cup and then brought to the mouth as if drinking.

• Cry: The index fingers of both hands are slid down the cheeks, showing the path of tears.

• Bath: Both hands are rubbed against the body in a circular, washing motion.