I'd like to start this off by saying that this is in no way a rant about parents who teach "baby sign language" (BSL? Wait, no, that's British Sign Language) to their babies. It is purely a rant about the creation and marketing of "baby sign language" to parents, as opposed to American Sign Language (ASL).
So, why would hearing parents want to teach sign language to their hearing babies? Well, being one of those parents, I can try to answer that. Many toddler tantrums arise from frustration with not being able to communicate what the baby wants. Babies are typically able to sign much earlier than they can speak, so many of these tantrums may be avoided if the baby is able to use sign language as a communication tool. This is probably the basic reason for most parents, though there is also evidence that signing with your baby helps with their brain development as well. I had an additional reason. Since taking numerous ASL and Deaf Culture classes in college, I always dreamed of being able to teach a second language to my children. In my fantasy, I would speak only in ASL and my partner would speak in English--One Parent One Language (OPOL).
And yes, ASL is a language, and it is not universal. Though it wasn't officially "recognized" as a language until around 1960, it was certainly a language far before that! Also, different countries have different sign languages, so you can't necessarily use ASL to communicate with someone in another country--in even the UK. I just wanted to clear those two things up, since even today they seem to be common misconceptions.
While in college, I met some Deaf friends in a karate class, and started hanging out with them and getting involved with the Deaf Community in the San Jose area. My ASL wasn't perfect, but I very quickly developed a passion for the language that I found to be so creative and expressive. Some of the best comedy routines I've seen were signed (though I'm sure I missed some of the jokes) and if you've never seen a theatrical play in ASL, you're really missing out on something spectacular! Stories really come to life when told in ASL. When I moved away from the San Jose area, I stopped signing as often and rapidly started losing my ASL. When I encounter Deaf people today, I am pretty shy, though I do still try to chat a little.
So, what's my beef with "baby sign language", then? My beef is, why not just encourage parents to teach babies ASL? Teaching a baby modified signs or made-up signs is basically speaking in baby-talk. Sure, there is always a word here or there that we make up (Zora calls nursing and my boobs "bubba"), but we primarily speak real languages to our children so that they may grow up and speak those languages, and be able to communicate with others who speak those languages. ASL is no different. If we use ASL words with our babies, then they may grow up being able to communicate with other ASL speakers. I've also read in some "baby sign language" books to not start using the signs until around 6 months, since they won't be able to sign until then. This seems like a silly "rule", since many babies don't talk until around 12 months or later, but we wouldn't dream about waiting until they are ready to talk before we start speaking to them!
So, if you are a parent wanting to sign with your baby, please consider ASL. The signs are easy to learn (though your baby might not sign them the same way you do--just like in English), and unless you already have a made up sign language that you know, you will need to memorize signs--made-up, modified "baby sign language" signs, or ASL.
My sign language journey with Zora doesn't have a happy ending--though I'm hoping it's not over yet. I used many ASL signs with Zora from the beginning. I did not speak in ASL sentences with her though, since my ASL is no longer very good. Zora started signing back at around 10 months, and by 12 months, she had a large ASL vocabulary. By 18 months her verbal language skills started to explode in both English (which I mostly speak with her) and French (which Alex speaks with her). I got lazy with ASL, and stopped using it. She quickly stopped as well. Parenting fail #... oh, I've lost count! Definitely not the dream I had in college. We're not certain, but Alex and I are leaning heavily toward homeschooling Zora, so I'm hoping there will be opportunities there for both her and I to learn ASL again.
I'm interested to hear what others think about this--deaf, hearing, parents or not! Also, if you know of any good ASL-based resources for parents, please list them below in the comments! I never used any resources (other than occasionally looking in an ASL-English dictionary), and the only "baby sign language" books I've seen were not completely ASL.
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