23: Baby Sign Language

At one time in our history, children were admonished to be seen and not heard. Today, children have been elevated in our society to the point where we not only want to see and hear them, but we also want to communicate with them and have insight into what they are thinking and feeling as early as infancy. Hence the birth of a new literacy called baby sign language. Seemingly, in this age of speed and impatience, we have become weary of waiting two years for babies to acquire language. Goodwyn, Acredolo, and Brown (2000) said that between ten months and two years of age, children and parents become frustrated with the slowness of the process of language acquisition. Based on their gesturing and whining, children have the desire to speak to us, but lack the fine motor coordination to do so. As a result, many parents are using a baby sign language to communicate with their babies.