Answers to Go with Susan Smith

Q. My daughter is using some sign language with her baby. I’d enjoy learning more about that. Does the library have books on sign language for infants?

A . We have five books (and a DVD) on this subject. The information below comes from “Sign Language for Babies and Toddlers” by Christopher Brown and John Clements. They offer this background information: “Early sign language skills have actually been proven to increase the speed at which a young child acquires verbal skills. When using sign language with a baby, the word should always be verbalized as well. The end result of this is that once the child is able to verbalize, he or she has already acquired a great deal of vocabulary.

“Apart from the joy of being able to communicate with your child at a much earlier age than if you had to wait for spoken communication to begin, there are many other advantages. The obvious one is the way that it enables many potential frustrating situations — for both babies and parents — to be resolved.

“As parents, you will know when it is time for your baby to start getting familiar with some basic signs. It is said that this should usually occur between 9 and 12 months of age. There will be no harm done should you decide to sign as you speak to your baby soon after birth.”

They suggest: “It will be much easier for a child to remember and learn a sign that he has invented to represent a particular object in the way the that the child perceives it himself, rather than trying to impose a sign for him to learn.

“You may wonder which would be the first signs to try to teach your child. A baby’s inherent needs are along the lines of comfort. Initially addressing hunger and thirst are of primal importance. It also helps if the first signs are easy to form.”

Here are a few of the signs the authors suggest babies learn: eat, milk, drink, yes, no, you, hot, hurt, help, sleep, bye-bye, and of, course, mommy and daddy.

We offer language classes each January. At this time, we don’t have a volunteer to teach baby sign language. We do have volunteers to teach adult sign language, German Spanish, French and Arabic. Call the library at 512-393-8200 for more information.