Benefits of Signing with Infants and Toddlers and School Age Children.

Over the past 20 years there has been a vast amount of research conducted in the area of sign language for young children. There are so many benefits to name a few:

Empowering Your Infant and Toddler

Irish Sign language can facilitate communication before a child can speak. Infants are able to communicate more than just their basic needs. They can influence others by using sign and change a topic of conversation. This sense of empowerment contributes to the happiness of the child also enhancing your infants confidence, self esteem and self expression can help reduce frustration.

As parents you spend less time at the guessing game and can identify your child's needs as your child is able to communicate what she wants and if she is hungry or hurt by using Irish Sign language. Signing can direct parent's attention toward potential dangers and can reduce tantrums, leading to a more peaceful environment. By responding to your child's needs you are also building on the already powerful bond between you and your infant.
Research in America has shown that using Sign Language with your infant can help children acquire spoken language faster than non- signing children.

Introducing your child to a Second Language

By introducing your child to signs from Simply Signing you are introducing your child to a second language.
Research suggests that language skills are acquired best in the first years of a child’s life. Also, by introducing ISL to your child and continuing to use this beautiful language after they can speak, you are giving your child the gift to communicate with the Irish Deaf community in Irish Sign language and laying down the foundations for your child to learn ISL in the future.

Reinforcing important motor skills

During infancy and the toddler years, the developments of fine and gross motor skills are critical for language and cognition. Irish Sign language can help reinforce important motor skills and strengthen sensory integration.

A Boost for Early Literacy Skills

Research shows that adding a movement element to verbal and written language learning will positively impact early literacy skills. Young children can learn to spell manually using the ISL alphabet before they can write. Sign language across the world is becoming an integral part of pre school curricula.ISL can be an incredible bridge between receptive language and verbal language. It is also a wonderful tool for children learning English as a second language.

Sign Language and school age children

By introducing Irish Sign Language to school age children it helps to support hearing children’s literacy. Supporting children learning there spelling homework by using the manual sign language alphabet helps increase memory and positively impacting early literacy skills.