There are several researches showing benefits of teaching signs to hearing kids.
A research released in 1998 showed one of the benefits of baby sign language. Based on the study, hearing children exposed to sign language have improved “more rapidly on tests of visual-spatial cognition and spatial memory than their schoolmates not attending a sign language course.”
The study entitled Teaching Sign Language to Hearing Children as a Possible Factor in Cognitive Enhancement was conducted by Italian Psychologists: O. Capirci, A. Cattani, P. Rossini, and V. Volterra.
The first study showed 2 groups of six year old Italian children (average age): one group participated in music or gymnastics; the other group were exposed to a 2-year sign language course being conducted one hour a week.
Gab doing Baby sign for Daddy
The second study compared a group first-grade children who grew up in a monolingual Italian-speaking families. One group took sign language while the other group took English classes.
In both studies, those who attended the sign language classes have improved their scores on the Raven PM 47 Test by as much as 8 points compared to the other groups. The Raven PM 47 Test measures visual perception and level of mental development. You can read the details of the study here.
You can teach sign language to your babies as young as 6 months like how we taught Gab. Sign language is one of the first homeschool lessons Gab learned.
This article first appeared in DaddyAndTheCity.com.
