Sign language can be a great communication tool for parents and their babies. In this episode of The Lab, DadLabs asks a few teachers if dads and moms should be teaching a baby sign language. Will sign language delay speech or can it enhance language development? If you've got thoughts or stories about sign language for kids, share them with us. Do your children use signs? Do your infants attend a day care that teaches sign language? Drop a comment on this video or visit our forums on DadLabs.com. DadLabs Ep. 685 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Daddy Clay: Sign language has long been used as a way to communicate with pre-verbal babies. But will it work with teenagers? More on sign language and your kids today in The Lab.
Daddy Brad: Today's episode is brought to you by BabyBjorn. You know, if you carry your baby in one of these front facing carriers like this BabyBjorn Synergy, they'll have their hands free to tell you they want more. More of what? You'll just have to guess.
Daddy Clay: Should you be teaching sign language to your baby? To find out, we spoke to the master teachers at the Priscilla Pond Plawn Child and Family Laboratory at the University of Texas.
Rachel Saunders: There's a period of time where their cognition and their gross motor abilities, their ability to make big movements, are much further ahead than their fine motor skills. The vocal chords that they would use to produce sound require that fine motor ability. So they're able to understand things that people are saying to them and they can make big movements, but they can't yet produce the speech.
Jennifer Bryce: Sign language isn't only for deaf kids. Hearing kids can benefit from using it as well. Signs that come in handy with hearing kids are those that can reduce some of the frustration around episodes of communication.
Saunders: I think that one fear that parents have is that using signs with their child will delay their speech. Because they have the ability to produce the signs with their motor skills. And if they can do that and communicate their needs, then why would they make the effort to speak. Using signs to support language learning has been shown to enhance language development. So children are understanding language earlier even though we might say well we don't use signs with our children, typically, the average American. But really we do when we say "Yes", we shake our head yes. Or we say no. We say well I don't know and we shrug. Intuitively, it makes sense that this wouldn't hinder language development because we use our body to support language all the time. We often have milk and water here. So we'll tell them do you want milk or would you like water?
Bryce: This is the American Sign Language for more. But a 12 month old won't sign this. They'll do some approximation just like if they were just like babbling and instead of saying "mommy", they say "ma". It's their approximation until they improve. So sometimes it's more, sometimes it's more. But it's important to know that these signs that we're using are borrowed from American Sign Language. And that language is the language of the deaf community and they have a culture. And we're just taking one portion of that and supporting our English. What I knew of language development is from the very beginning, we're language models to our children. So, I knew that if they could see me using the signs, eventually when they were able to, they could use the signs. And by the time he was 12 months old, he had about 20 signs. And the most impressive to me was he would sign strawberry at 12 months. What one year old can ask for strawberries?
Saunders: We have four cats at home. So the cats are really important to my son. And before he had even uttered a word, so he had zero words at this point. He had about four or five signs. But one of them was the sign for cat. And so one morning he woke up crying and we didn't know why, so we asked, knowing that he couldn't tell us why. But he signed for cat, because he was looking for the cats. And so we said, "Oh the cat. Great, we can get you the cat." And he was immediately satisfied.
Daddy Clay: Well our daycare taught our babies to sign and we really liked it. We thought it reduced frustration plus it was super cute.
Daddy Brad: Yeah, you know what this is?
Daddy Clay: More.
Daddy Brad: More freaking Cheerios baby. More.
Daddy Clay: So yours was a little demanding?
Daddy Brad: Yes, Yes.
Daddy Clay: Well we want to hear your sign language with babies stories. Talk to us about how you managed to teach the baby sign. Was is successful? What effects did it have? You can drop a comment on this video or join us on DadLabs.com. There's a forum conversation on this topic taking place there. We want to hear from you. You'll hear from us.
Daddy Brad: We'd like to thank our sponsors BabyBjorn. Oexo-Tek certified, safe for your baby, BabyBjorn. You know, if your baby is forward facing, they're ready to sign.