How Does Teaching Babies Sign Language Really Work?
It is clear that signing with babies is easy for both parents and babies, and that the benefits are astounding, but why exactly does this work? Why do babies and children who sign experience such great benefits? In her 2001 book, Dancing with Words: Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy, Marilynn Daniel attempts to answer that question. She suggests that learning sign language gives babies and children access to a separate memory storage location. Since sign language is a physical activity it is remembered in a separate location than English, or another spoken language. This gives children a separate place to look for answers and communication. Signing Enhances Brain Development and Communication Daniel also explains that the brain actually grows larger in response to language stimulation, and that using sign language along with English, “provides a much richer language base for brain activity and brain growth and development.” The action of signing itself, she maintains, increases t
