Actually, the sign language for babies had already reached daycare centers, but designed for children with hearing problems. What seems to be novel is that a nursery school includes sign language for all babies in an attempt to improve his experience in school.
On other occasions I have commented that I am somewhat skeptical about the usefulness of speaking in sign language with small babies without hearing problems, but this seems to be a practice that is spreading and arrives strongly from countries such as Canada or states United.
It is in two nursery schools in Vigo (Spain) where this project has been launched, in collaboration with a psychological cabinet and the Signatured Language Research Group (Griles) of the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation of the University of Vigo.
What they intend is that children even from six to nine months can communicate without complex codes their basic needs: hunger, thirst, sleep.
According to experts, children between six and 18 months have the capacity and desire to communicate but their physical development does not allow it, and these sign codes are compatible with their motor skills.
Those who have tried and promoted this system point out that it does not delay the appearance of the language of the children, it seems that they could “accommodate” to be understood. In fact, you have probably witnessed children who took time to speak because they were already understood "everything" with their own signs (even if it were simply pointed out) and their own sounds or words.
On the contrary, the specialists who promote this tendency affirm that sign language not only serves to improve the relationship between parents and children, but prepares the ground for speech and even favors intellectual development. Learning to communicate with signs from babies will make the little ones better structure their oral language, even before other children, they say.
In Vigo schools, caregivers introduce the sign next to the spoken word, more signs are gradually introduced, and parents are also taught so that communication is also effective at home.
Do you think that simple signs of words like "eat", "wait", "more", "hug", "play", "cookie", "teddy bear" can make your life easier or easier? Do not children develop their own mechanisms to tell us all this before speaking?
Perhaps what bothers me most about the way to promote these methods is that they talk about frustrations and tantrums as if they were something unassuming, it gives me the impression that you want to “erase” babies and children from something that is their own and that It helps them to develop.
Or to talk about the "best intellectual development", it seems that if our children are not the smartest in the class or the building they will no longer be worth anything ...
In any case, if you want Learn more about how to teach sign language to the baby, the methods or techniques, do not miss the links below.
