Do you know more than one language? Do you live in a bilingual household? Is your baby exposed to more than two languages? This multi cultural generation is more exposed, not only to different cultures, but to more than one language. Language is a form of communication, and as you all know, communication is a lifeline skill. Mastering more than one language is a great asset for one’s life.
I personally can assure you that because I myself knew 4 language, each language has different alphabet (English, Hebrew, Arabic, Sign Language and some Spanish). In this article I would like to walk you through on how signing can be a big helping hand for babies from a bilingual family.
A Healthy Communication Tool
The sign language is a wonderful and a healthy communication tool, which is a highly visual and physically expressive way of communication.
In sign language, we use our facial and body expressions in the same way in which other languages uses vocal intonation to express a meaning. Let us see how a baby/child uses signing to interact or understand and tries to connect between objects and words of bilingual language environment.
Signing helps baby of Bilingual Environment
When a child learns his/her first language, they usually try to correlate between the words and object they relate to. And when a second language comes into play, the child very easily gets confused and the baby /parent communication starts to get complicated, just because the baby starts to hear two different words for a single object that they try to label on.
Effort on bilingual babies compared to monolingual babies
Even though researches shows us that bilingual babies are more smarter than monolingual babies , we should know that the amount of effort a bilingual baby puts into while learning the languages in their initial stage is far more than the monolingual baby.
Every time when a baby from bilingual environment learn two different words which represents same object or action, the bilingual baby has to do a lot of thinking and linking between the words and its respective meaning, for each language sets they are into even before the baby starts to talk!
Gesture or Sign for two different Languages
It is at this point of stage where sign language comes into the rescue for both the baby and the parents!
As we know sign language is more about gestures or signs, signing will let the baby use the same sign/gesture for two different words to represent the same object/action, which will make it easier for the baby/child to understand and correlate!
Let’s see for an example, a Spanish parent teaching their baby the word “I want” and “Quiero” to the baby, can use the sign for “Want”, because the gesture itself is an indication for the word “I want” or “Give me”. So now when the baby hears the words “I want” or “Quiero” signed with the same gesture/sign, there is no confusion for the baby and it will be very clear about both the words, which represents the same action or meaning “I want”. This will make the baby minimize its confusion and to communicate more comfortably in a bilingual environment.
Teaching baby sign language to our child benefits both the baby and the parents in many ways. Especially in a bilingual family, it makes the baby/child to communicate easily to the parents or others and smoothens up the road to understanding and speaking of both languages.
Let the SignShine® in!