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USA-L News: The New Scientist, London, July 14, 2004
"Babies exposed to sign language babble with their hands, even if they are not deaf. The finding supports the idea that human infants have an innate sensitivity to the rhythm of language and engage it however they can, the researchers who made the discovery claim." -Alison Motluk

Read about Baby Fingers in the Media. Scroll down for more articles.

The Benefits of Music & Sign in Language Development. By Lora Heller, MS, MT-BC, LCAT, Baby Fingers LLC.

As a music therapist, I knew that my graduate degree in Deaf education would have to be put to work that included music.  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work in a therapeutic preschool where I had a class of deaf children whose parents were hearing, together with hearing children whose parents were Deaf.  Many of the deaf children with hearing parents who didn't sign, did not have access to language until they began school while their hearing counter parts with deaf, signing parents, were much further along.  So learning Sign in the classroom opened many doors for these 3 and 4 year olds.  Finally they knew what to call a table, a book, an apple, a friend; and signing while singing songs helped to solidify their new language.  Seeing the sign for "stop" while watching hearing classmates stop marching, and noticing the vibrations of the drum diminishing, helped them to understand the meaning of stop---both for their movement and for sound. 

In the same school, I had a class of children whose primary/home language was Spanish, and a class of children that had significant behavior issues.  While ASL was essential for the children in the "deaf" class, it was equally beneficial in these other classes.  The children whose home language was Spanish were learning English in school; most of their parents and older family members spoke only Spanish.  Using the same signs with the different words had a profound effect on their learning process.  Adding songs and musical play again solidified their new vocabulary.  Singing a song in English about the snack they were eating was more effective when it included sign--- the children were able to easily remember the gestures they had previously learned through song for the Spanish words, and then draw a conclusion about the meaning of the English word.  Since the sign for Milk and the sign for Leche are the same, the children were able to make connections.

The class of children with significant behavior issues benefitted in different ways from the sign.  While many of these students had solid language, they lacked the ability to express themselves in times of distress.  That's where the signs played the largest role.  Through songs about feelings, new situations, asking for help, and other such things, the children were taught signs for key vocabulary.  That way when they were acting out, given a simple visual reminder, many of the children were able to calm down and express themselves with a sign.

Aside from my own experience, research does support the benefits of music and sign; An article by Patricia Ivankovic and Ingrid Gilpatric in a 1994 issue of Perspectives in Education and Deafness includes a table of songs that teach parts of speech.  For example, Where is Thumbkin teaches verbs, nouns, pronouns, and sequencing; coupled with ASL, deaf students can fully participate in the learning process.  An article by Heather A. Schunk in a 1999 issue of the Journal of Music Therapy focuses on the receptive language benefits of singing & signing for ESL students.  Steve Kokette, the producer of award winning signed song videos featuring Deaf performers, wrote in 1995 on the benefits of sign paired with music--for the level of sign learned when presented through songs, and the memory of rhythms when presented with sign.  Also in 1995, Buday wrote an article for the Journal of Music Therapy highlighting the benefits of signed songs on sign and speech imitation by children with autism. 

The work of Joseph Garcia of Sign with Your Baby, throughout the '80s and '90s, chronicles the delight of parents around the world who have found signing to decrease behavior issues and communication related frustration, while jumpstarting language development.  In my classes at Baby Fingers, music is a key component in teaching the signs.  Babies focus for longer periods of time during songs, allowing more eye contact with the teacher or parents.  During these moments of eye contact, a great deal of learning can take place.  The songs also act as a memory aid for the grown-ups, so they can go home and practice with their child.  Bilingual families in our program have found that translating songs from class into their home language, coupled with the signs also learned in class, appears to "bridge the gap" between English and the family's primary language.  This process of signing and singing together provides overall growth in communication and strengthens the bond between parent and child.

Click to read about Benefits of Music in Early Childhood

Click to read about Bilingualism

Click on the links below to read these Baby Sign Language articles:

Signing with your baby or toddler:
How to communicate before your child can talk
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/babydevelopment/1449533.html?scid=momstodd:20060821:2931:19293:8763
This link will open in a new window

Spotlight: A Quarterly Newsletter from the Presenters' Network of Sign2Me®
Summer 2008
Notes from the Producer

Summertime means school's out, the days are longer, and there are more opportunities for play! Play is such an important part of our children's development and as busy parents it is easy to overlook the benefits during the hustle and bustle of the day to day. With all sorts of organized sports, classes and activities, before you know it, our children's time is so structured and scheduled that there is no room for self-initiated and spontaneous play. As a result, our children slowly forget how to explore new ideas and use their imagination, critical components to playing.

  • Some benefits of play:
  • Children learn to socialize during play.
  • Children build self-confidence in themselves through play.
  • Children exercise their motor skills during play.
  • Children learn how to problem solve during play.

It is not that organized sports, classes and activities are not beneficial; it is more a matter of how much we allow that activity to dominate our children's lives. Typically, the more time spent on an activity, the more it becomes work and the less fun it becomes. The best thing we can do as parents is to make time for and model play with our children. Take 30 minutes out of your day, every day, to play with your children. It can be as simple as telling a funny story or joke, listening to music together, dancing around the living room or throwing the ball around a bit outdoors. Not only will this build strong parent-child bonds, but it will create a more happy, creative, and self-confident child. So, take my advice this summer and with a smile on your face... "Get out and play!"

Melissa 'echo' Greenlee
Presenters' Network Coordinator


Sign With Your Grandma

A growing number of grandparents, especially grandmothers, have discovered a window into the mind of a baby. They are signing with their grandchildren, and they're proud to talk about it!

Involving family members in addition to parents and siblings can truly accelerate a child's signing success. Grandma Elsie of Carlsbad, California, agrees that "all family members within the realm of the infant's daily life activities should be taught the basics so that signing becomes a 'two-way street'." When this happens, the child feels more empowered and less frustrated with the world outside the home.

By slowing down to look into a baby's eyes while signing, we increase our bond with that child. Canyon Anderson, Grandmother of Sirena and Aiden, feels an incredibly strong bond as a result of signing with her two grandchildren: "When I look into their eyes, there is so much beauty and vulnerability. It's like looking into heaven. I feel transported." Beyond the benefits to the babies, the grandmothers I interviewed have been tickled to talk to their grandbabies long before the age they spoke to their own children.

Kathy Peterson lives in Minnesota and signs via video conference with her California grandson, Alexander, between visits. She says, "His ability staggers the mind. Babies are far more capable than I have ever given them credit for..."

For Michelle Jenson of La Mesa, California, signing does not stop when her grandchildren learn to speak in complete sentences. "It's like a secret language," she says about communicating otherwise embarrassing subjects with her eight-year-old granddaughters.

While many grandmothers wish they had signed with their own children, they realize how easy it is to get caught up in the stresses of parenting, leaving no time for the extras. They are especially proud of their daughters and sons for taking the time to give the gift of American Sign Language and early communication to the next generation.

Lonna Leghart, a Sign2Me® Certified Presenter, signs with babies, toddlers, parents, and grandparents in North San Diego County. For more information, contact Lonna at: 760.277.5202


Signing Stars

By Deidre McLaughlin

"At the time, Baby Signing hadn't caught on in Northern Ireland. When I started signing with my daughter, my family was not only unsupportive, but hostile. My husband was told by his father to 'have a word' and tell me to stop! My husband himself was cynical. However, he soon came round.

The defining moment was when Cara was almost 9 months. I was breastfeeding at bedtime as normal, but had brought extra milk in her cup, as I was weaning her. She was becoming increasingly upset while feeding. I signed "MILK" and she lifted her head and signed "NO MILK"! I thought I was mistaken and tried again, with the same result. I pointed to the cup and she signed "MILK" and smiled. I repeated this several times with the same result! That night she drank a full cup of milk and never breastfed again, as I had indeed "no milk".

After that night, my husband was fully supportive. As Cara started signing more, family members came round. My parents began to ask signs and introduced Cara to their friends, to show off her communication skills. I knew I had 'cracked it' when my father-in-law started signing with Cara.

Deirdre McLaughlin is a signing mom and Sign2Me® Presenter


Following is "Sound Off," in the May 2007 issue of Parents magazine.

This story cites hearing loss as the country's leading birth defect, and tells the story of Luca Trama, who received a cochlear implant from Dr. Ronald Hoffman of The Beth Israel/New York Eye and Ear Cochlear Implant Center. It quotes Children's Hearing Institute founder Dr. Simon Parisier on the importance of infant screening. Parents also cites our award-winning website as a superb educational resource for families facing the challenges of hearing loss.

Sound Off on Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is surprisingly common in babies—but a shocking number of children aren't diagnosed or treated until much too late.

By Ilisa Cohen

The Most Common Birth Defect

Beth Trama, of Smithtown, New York, was watching her son, Luca, sleep peacefully in the hospital nursery, when the newborn next to him let out a loud, high-pitched scream. Luca didn't wake up. Trama couldn't believe that the noise didn't startle him, but she assumed he'd just gotten used to being with all those crying babies—until he failed his hearing screening the next day. You're probably surprised to find out that hearing loss is the most common birth defect. Every day, about 33 babies are born in the U.S. with a hearing impairment. But the news hasn't gotten through to parents—in fact, only 1 percent of new and expectant moms ranked hearing loss as their top concern about their child's health, according to a survey by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in Washington, D.C.

A Recessive Gene

Many parents figure their baby isn't at risk if they don't have a history of deafness in their family. However, about 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Deafness can be caused by a dominant gene—meaning one or both parents are deaf—or by a recessive gene, so a child can inherit the trait even if no family members are hearing-impaired. That's what happened to Luca. After his diagnosis, doctors discovered that both of his parents had a recessive gene for a genetic disorder that damages the hair cells in the inner ear so they can't carry sound to the auditory nerve. As a result, Luca is severely deaf in both ears.

Hearing loss can also be caused by many nonhereditary factors, including infections, prematurity, severe jaundice, or a lack of oxygen during delivery, says Ellen M. Friedman, MD, chief of pediatric otolaryngology at Texas Children's Hospital, in Houston. Unfortunately, most of theses causes aren't preventable.

Testing 1, 2, 3

You can't count on your baby's doctor to identify a problem—most pediatricians don't have the proper equipment to do infant hearing tests in their offices.

Before you give birth, check with your hospital to make sure that hearing testing is part of their newborn screening process. If it's not, or if you give birth somewhere other than a hospital, ask your pediatrician to recommend a pediatric audiologist or otologist to screen your baby within her first three weeks. Hearing tests for newborns are mandatory in 42 states and in Washington, D.C. (although small hospitals may be exempt). "However, every baby's hearing should be tested at birth so that parents can get help quickly if there's a problem," says Simon C. Parisier, MD, cofounder of the Children's Hearing Institute, in New York City. Testing is especially crucial because research has shown that parents' impressions about their infant's hearing are often wrong. Even deaf babies can coo and make gurgling sounds. If you're not sure whether your baby has been tested, contact your hospital to check her records.

How it works

A hearing test is easy and painless. Doctors use one of two measures: an otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test, which measures the response by the hair cells inside the ear when they're stimulated by sound, or an auditory brain-stem response (ABR) test, which measures brain-wave activity in response to sound. Both of these tests are given while the baby is asleep, and for babies, they're both pass-or-fail: They only tell doctors if a baby can hear 30 decibels (the sound of a whisper), which is the definition of normal hearing. If your baby fails the initial screening test, you need to make an appointment with an audiologist for more comprehensive testing in order to confirm the results, determine the severity of the loss, and get proper treatment. Treatment

"I wish I'd pushed the doctors to treat my baby's hearing loss sooner," says Heather Conar, of Nashville. Her son, Jacob, failed his hearing screening at birth, but he wasn't officially diagnosed with hearing loss and fitted for a hearing aid until he was more than a year old. "They thought the trouble was caused by fluid in his ears that would drain, but it turns out his hearing loss was permanent from the beginning," she says.

Doctors initially thought that Jacob had conductive hearing loss, which is caused by a blockage in the middle ear that makes sounds muffled. Babies who've had frequent ear infections can experience this type of mild, temporary loss due to fluid buildup in the ear. It can usually be corrected by putting tubes in the ears to drain the liquid. Sensorineural hearing loss, the kind that Jacob actually has, is more serious -- and usually permanent—because it's caused by a problem with the child's auditory nerve. A child will need a hearing aid, which Jacob now has, or a cochlear implant (an electronic device that is surgically implanted behind the ear to stimulate the auditory nerve) in order to hear normally.

Even if your baby passes her infant screening test, it's important to continually pay attention to her behavior and reactions to sound, says Dr. Friedman. Hearing loss can be progressive or can occur as your child gets older. Risk factors for delayed-onset hearing loss include a family history of childhood hearing loss, recurring or persistent ear infections for at least three months, head trauma, and serious infections like bacterial meningitis. If you're ever concerned, take your child to get a hearing test.

Don't Delay

Sadly, many kids aren't diagnosed with hearing loss until age 2—which is way beyond the critical window for developing speech and language skills. Your child learns to speak correctly by hearing sounds around him and listening to your voice. If he can't hear during his first six months, he's missing an important opportunity. Children with a hearing impairment often learn new words more slowly than other children, understand and produce shorter sentences, have trouble with quiet speech sounds like the "s," "sh," "f," "t," and "k," and don't do well academically.

While it's never too late to get help, experts say that it's ideal to start early intervention—including speech and listening training— before 6 months of age. With an early diagnosis and hearing aids or other interventions, most kids who are deaf or hard-of-hearing will develop language skills comparable with their peers by first grade. Children as young as 3 months can be fitted with hearing aids, and those with profound hearing loss can get a cochlear implant at age 1. Cochlear implants have been controversial within the deaf community because they try to "fix" the trait that's central to deaf culture. "Having known many deaf people, I used to be more wary of implants, but now I've seen how fantastic they can be for kids," says Dr. Friedman. Children who have hearing aids or cochlear implants usually go to mainstream schools, can speak relatively clearly, and are less isolated than those who rely only on sign language.

To make the best decision for your child, it's important to speak to doctors, audiologists, and other parents. "We have a whole 'new family' of people who've helped keep us informed, find schools, interview surgeons, and do anything necessary to help our son," says Beth Trama. Luca got a cochlear implant just a few months before his first birthday. Now 3½, he's communicating well, attending nursery school, and, most important, says Trama, "He's a happy, spunky little kid."

Can You Hear Me Now?

Even babies who pass the newborn hearing screening can develop hearing loss later on. If your baby doesn't reach these milestones, it's a good idea to have her hearing retested.

  • At 3 months
  • Turns her eyes or head toward loud sounds
  • Begins to imitate some sounds
  • Smiles at the sound of your voice
  • At 7 months
  • Looks at you when you call her name
  • Responds to sound by making sounds
  • Babbles chains of sounds like "ba-ba-ba-ba"
  • At 12 months
  • Responds to "no" and simple requests
  • Says words like "dada" and "mama"
  • Understands common phrases like "bye-bye"
  • At 24 months
  • Says at least 15 words
  • Uses two-to four-word phrases
  • Repeats words overheard in conversation

Graduating from Baby Signing
By Nancy Cadjan
From http://deafness.about.com/od/babysigning/a/toddlersign.htm

If your child is ready to learn to read, using American Sign Language to help teach your child learn to read may be one of the best things you can do. And it has a long history of success.

In the early 19th century, educators realized that sign language helped the hearing siblings of deaf students learn to read. Due to political reasons, the findings were not studied further. Then, in the 1970s, other researchers found that hearing children with average or above intelligence whose parents were deaf parents actually learned to read before they began school if their parents signed and fingerspelled to them. Researchers surmised that this was due to the fact that these children made the connection between manual letters (fingerspelling) and printed letters.

But such results are not unique to the hearing children of deaf parents.

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Before Baby Talk, Signs and Signals
New York Times, Science Times
January 6, 2004
By JUDITH BERCK
From http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/health/06BABY.html?ex=1074429178&ei=1&en=e3c3dd80cb864e6c

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 5 - When Jacqueline Turner's daughter Riley was only 8 months old, she could let her mother know she was thirsty for milk by pumping her fingers against her palm. Or that she wanted more cereal by touching her fingertips together. Or ask for a ball, or her stuffed dog, or a book - all without saying a word. She used hand gestures taught to her by her mother.

Why teach signs to a baby who is not deaf? Mrs. Turner, a Spanish-language interpreter from Beaverton, said she bought a book and video about teaching signs to babies to help eliminate the frustration Riley had in not being able to communicate, as well as Mrs. Turner's own frustration in not understanding her.

"It makes her feel that she's more in control of a situation and has choices," Mrs. Turner said.

For hearing and deaf children, the ability to gesture tends to develop ahead of words. Babies can wave bye-bye to Grandma months before they can talk, for instance.

In interviews last fall, Dr. Elizabeth Bates, one of the leading researchers in the field and the director of the Center for Research in Language at the University of California at San Diego, talked about the development of this type of communication. (Dr. Bates died in mid-December.)

"It has to do with how easily one can imitate and reproduce something with a great big fat hand as opposed to the mini, delicate hundreds of muscles that control the tongue," Dr.Bates said in the interview. "You can also see somebody using a hand, which you can't do with a tongue."

Recent work in neuroscience has shown that the areas in the brain that control the mouth and speech and the areas that control the hands and gestures overlap a great deal and develop together, Dr. Bates added.

Teaching simple gestures, or signs, to babies before they can talk is a way to jump-start the language and communication process, and stimulate intellectual development. It can also confer a host of related benefits, including increased vocabulary, a deeper parent-child bond, enhanced self-esteem and decreased tantrums during the "Terrible 2's," proponents say.

Research by two child development experts in California has perhaps drawn the most interest. Dr. Linda Acredolo of the University of California at Davis, and Dr. Susan W. Goodwyn of the California State University at Stanislaus used their own set of signs for a study, in July 2000, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. They presented their findings at the International Conference on Infant Studies in Brighton, England.

They found that second graders who had been encouraged to use their signing system during the second year of life had an advantage of 12 I.Q. points over children who did not use any such system.

Also intriguing has been the work of Joseph Garcia, the author of the best-selling book and video series "Sign With Your Baby: How to Communicate With Infants Before They Can Speak."

Mr. Garcia, an American Sign Language and early child development researcher, noticed that the hearing babies of deaf parents could communicate their needs and desires at a much earlier age than children of hearing parents. His research found that through signs, parent-infant communication could begin at 8 months, rather than waiting for comprehensible speech to develop at 16 to 18 months.

In an era of competitive preschool admissions tests, not surprisingly, this research has set off a boom in demand for classes, books and videos. "Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk," a book based on Dr. Acredolo and Dr. Goodwyn's signing system, has been a best seller and has spawned a spinoff company that trains teachers.

But giving a baby an edge is not the reason to sign, Dr. Acredolo cautioned. "It's not a `better baby' gimmick," she said. "We really feel the gift is to the parent-infant relationship. The main reason to do it is to enable the baby to communicate what they need and see, to share their world with you."

Whether it is an organized effort to improve a baby's communication skills or a marketing technique to captivate anxious parents and capitalize on something instinctively known by parents for generations remains a matter of debate. Even the terminology used to describe the hand movements for babies has been questioned.

Dr. Bates said last year that calling this "signing" was misleading because that referred to a conventional sign language; instead she contended these movements should be referred to as gestures.

Dr. Acredolo defended her system of simple hand movements. "They should really be called signs in my opinion because they are symbols - they stand for a concept," she said. "Gestures are a much larger category that includes almost any body movement that we use during speech."

Mr. Garcia's system is based on a subset of American Sign Language, using simple signs to reinforce single words.

Not everybody in the field believes a special system is required. "Gesturing when you are talking to babies will certainly enhance communication, and it doesn't require buying anybody's product," Dr. Bates said. She said that early gesturing could enhance a child's I.Q. by helping to improve language skills.

"It is well established that the more you talk to babies -and you gesture naturally as you do that - the higher their vocabularies," Dr. Bates said. "Something that can increase your child's vocabulary will increase I.Q."

Parents who sign with their babies may be learning as much about communicating as their children. "Research shows huge individual differences in how much adults communicate with children," Dr. Bates said. "The studies out there show significant effects probably because a subset of the parents in the studies were not communicating with their kids as much as they start to when they enter these programs."

Many parents wonder whether signing will get in the way of their babies' learning how to talk. According to Mrs. Turner, who continued to sign with Riley for several months after she began speaking, what happened was just the opposite. "Once she started saying her first words, the more I used signs, the more she answered back with words," she said. Riley, now 20 months old, is very verbal and says cogent three-word sentences.

Signing can also ease a toddler's transition to speaking by reducing the frustration of trying to pronounce words like "toothbrush," or to express concepts like needing a diaper changed.

For instance, even before Riley could speak, she was able to show her mother that something hurt by making the sign for pain and pointing to a part of her body. And according to Mrs. Turner, Riley understood that the word "please" would get her a favorite toy or a drink of milk more quickly but it was difficult for her to say because of the l's. Instead she did the sign for "please."

For Mrs. Turner, signing with a child is as much about empowerment as about communication. It provided Riley, and would provide other children, with another tool to get their needs met.

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Why Sign With Your Child?
By: Lisa Hopen, CEO of Baby Steps Video

Why sign with your child? Imagine waking from a sound sleep. Walking into your child¹s room as she stands in her crib crying. Is she hungry? Wet? In pain? You quickly evaluate her needs to no avail. She is unable to express her concerns to you. You feel helpless.

Now imagine for a moment as you walk through the door and sweep your child into your arms, she signs ³juice². You give her a cup of juice as she smiles at you in appreciation. You kiss her and put her back to bed. What a success! She was able to communicate her needs to you and you were able to satisfy them.

FOR MORE OF THIS ARTICLE AND OTHER INFO, GO TO: http://www.signwithme.com/001_infant_signing.asp

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American sign language lets babies, toddlers communicate better
By Mary Ann Fergus - HOUSTON CHRONICLE

ALYSSA Pubentz has been telling her parents what she needs and thinks since she was a year old.

Alyssa's mother, Kathy, introduced her to American Sign Language at birth. At 6 months, she signed consistently through normal activities with Alyssa. By 10 months, Alyssa signed back her first word—milk—a one-handed gesture that mimics milking a cow.

By her first birthday, Alyssa could use 70 signs and when she awoke in the middle of the night, she could tell her mother, "My teeth hurt. I need medicine." When she was hungry, Alyssa signed exactly what she wanted to eat. Strawberries and bread was one favorite request. Alyssa, now 3, is one of a growing number of hearing tots with sign language skills. Though she can now talk, the benefits of signing live on through Alyssa's expanded vocabulary and ability to think conceptually, Pubentz said.

Fueled by promising research and a growing array of books, videos and CDs, baby sign language is the activity du jour of ambitious parents and caregivers who believe in its potential to enhance communication and even raise a child's IQ. The benefits of signing are well known in communities serving children with autism, Down syndrome, language and developmental delays. But only in recent years has word spread about the benefits of signing to all babies. The trendy movement began, like most, on the West Coast.

California psychologists Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn have studied the impact of symbolic gesturing on early development since the early 1980s. Much of their research and benefits was published in a 1996 best-seller "Baby Signs" that advised parents how to use made-up signs with their children. The book was updated last year to include more American Sign Language signs. Acredolo and Goodwyn found that baby signing gave hearing children an advantage in speech development, including a larger vocabulary and earlier ability to speak in simple sentences. In follow-up studies, the researchers found that 8-year-old children who had been taught signs in infancy scored on average 12 points higher on IQ tests than children who had no sign training.

Washington researcher and educator Joseph Garcia did his own studies proving the benefits of signing. More than 250,000 copies of Garcia's learning kits and books, "Toddler Talks" (published in 1994 and now out of print) and "Sign With Your Baby" (Northlight Communications, $49.95) have been sold. This year, Garcia added "Pick Me Up" (Northlight Communications, $36.95), which combines sign language lessons with music through an activity guide and CD.

Inspired by what was happening at home, Pubentz, a former teacher of deaf children, began teaching sign language for hearing parents and babies a couple of years ago. Her six-week workshops, using Garcia's materials as well as her own experiences, are weekly, one-hour classes split between teaching parents and signing with babies.

At 3, Alyssa knows hundreds of signs but no longer uses them to get her needs met -- though the skill comes in handy during quiet times at church when she wants to express a feeling or a need. She's also looking forward to teaching ASL to her 5-month-old brother.

The best way to teach hearing babies sign language is to weave simple lessons into everyday life, whether it's talking and signing about fruit at the grocery store or identifying toys in a baby's room. Experts say caregivers should be as consistent as possible with signing, but they say the skill doesn't require a huge time commitment because adults are learning and passing on just a few words and signs at a time. Signing lessons have spread to Houston child-care facilities and preschools as they have in other parts of the country. Some experts, however, say old-fashioned activities such as reading books, playing music and simply talking to babies is more meaningful than learning sign language.

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