Why sign with hearing babies and toddlers?
While all hearing children begin the journey toward spoken language development at birth, it takes children between 12 to 24 months to begin “mastering” the sound and intonation patterns of English, and then to begin applying this mastery to the production of basic words and sentences. In contrast, Signing Smart gives you the resources and knowledge to take advantage of natural movements that all children make. And because the gross motor abilities required for signing develop months, sometimes years, earlier than the equivalent fine motor skills required for speech, children can begin to sign very early in development. Therefore, at the same time that infants and toddlers are learning and practicing the sound patterns for English, they can use linguistic hand and body movements to communicate needs, ideas, and thoughts from as early as five months. Older infants and toddlers who have “mastered” early words will still benefit from seeing and using signs, and their parents or caregivers
