Just like a baby will choose which signs they learn to sign based on their interests, a toddler will decide which signs they continue signing as their verbal language develops.

Every baby is different. Some babies will speak very early and very clearly and so signs will quickly take a backseat to spoken words. Other babies will take up talking at a slower rate and will rely more on signs to get them by. By in large, most babies will show a mix. However, it would be a mistake to think that signs prohibit spoken language development and this myth has been dispelled previously. What will happen with babies who talk later is that they will use signs to help get them by on the words they find difficult to say. Babies find making certain sounds easier than others.

My son, for example, had trouble saying certain sounds while others came easily. Trough trial and error, he corrected this. But he figured out which sounds he couldn’t make and would use signs to clarify what he meant. When we told him we didn’t know what he meant, he would do the sign to accompany his best attempt at a sign. Sometimes his signs were also approximated and so he’d have a verbal and sign approximation going at the same time. By coupling both of them, we figured out what he meant. As your child develops verbally, signs will be a great tool they can use to help convey their thoughts with more clarity. Once it’s clearly understood what is meant, the signs will be stripped away. That is unless your family continues to sign into toddler years. In this case, your child will simply fall in line with what’s normal for the house. Toddlers are excellent imitators and are easily let by example.

The following are common myths associated with baby sign language:

1. Baby sign language is a new and passing fad for “power moms.”
2. By teaching baby sign, your baby will become a super genius.
3. Baby sign language will use up many hours of your day and require hours of study.
4. Baby sign language will cause speech delays.

Each of these listed above are totally false. Baby sign language has been around for decades and regular everyday mom’s and dad’s have been teaching it to make their lives easier. Baby signing has been shown to help a baby with their language development and has even been shown through research to add up to 12 IQ points, but baby signing will not produce geniuses. Baby signing is just an easy and convenient way to talk with your pre-verbal baby. In fact, baby sign language only takes a primer to set out the rules and from there a few minutes each day to look up additional signs and commit them to memory. The rest of baby sign language involves things you do every day anyway – converse with your baby about your routine and their interests.

Finally, baby sign language has been misconstrued as the cause for speech delays. However, many speech pathologists now recommend it as a way to advance children who already suffer from speech delays. Less than 10% of children will suffer from any significant speech delay and naturally, since there are so many baby signers today, some babies taught to sign will be afflicted with language abnormalities. However, correlation does not equal causation. A baby with a speech delay will in fact benefit greatly from having been taught to sign as it has been shown to improve vocabulary and language.