Does sign language replace speaking to my baby?

Heather Ellington, Baby Sign Language Instructor, shares how sign language works in tandem with spoken language to teach your child how to communicate.
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Does sign language replace speaking to my baby?

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When you're teaching your baby sign language, you're teaching verbal communication with signs on top of that. So you're not replacing spoken language with the sign language, you're using both of those tools together. So when you're signing with your baby you want to make sure you're saying and signing the words every time so they're not missing out on that spoken language development. When you're transitioning with your baby from using the signs to communicate their wants and needs to using signs for fun, you can start introducing letters and the sounds of letters to promote phonics development. So you can teach the sign "A" , "A" sounds like " ah" , "B", "B" sounds like "buh" and teach your baby different literacy skills that way.

Heather Ellington, Baby Sign Language Instructor, shares how sign language works in tandem with spoken language to teach your child how to communicate.

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Heather Ellington

Baby Sign Language Instructor

Heather graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Special Education in 2007 and is currently pursuing her Masters of Science in Communicative Disorders and Sciences at California State University, Northridge. Heather began learning ASL in college, and has volunteered for an inclusion class for Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Multiple Disabilities at the elementary school level, where she also worked as an interpreter. Heather marvels at the way sign language has helped children, babies, and parents get their needs met effectively and in a fun way, while promoting literacy, speech, and language development.

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Transcription: 
When you're teaching your baby sign language, you're teaching verbal communication with signs on top of that. So you're not replacing spoken language with the sign language, you're using both of those tools together. So when you're signing with your baby you want to make sure you're saying and signing the words every time so they're not missing out on that spoken language development. When you're transitioning with your baby from using the signs to communicate their wants and needs to using signs for fun, you can start introducing letters and the sounds of letters to promote phonics development. So you can teach the sign "A" , "A" sounds like " ah" , "B", "B" sounds like "buh" and teach your baby different literacy skills that way.