When the baby sign craze took the world by storm in the early 2000s, parents leaped at the opportunity to expand their child's communication, enticed by the promise of reduced tantrums and higher IQ scores. But despite claims that this was a tool to bridge the gap between hearing and d/Deaf communities, some feel it has the reverse effect, going as far as calling it cultural appropriation.
What is Baby Sign?
Baby sign language claims to be founded on the observations of Dr. Joseph Garcia in the 1980s when he noticed that babies as young as 6 months old were able to communicate in sign language with their deaf parents and had substantial vocabularies by 9 months, which was considerably earlier in comparison to babies brought up with hearing parents. In the 20 years following, Professor Linda Acredolo and Professor Susan Goodwyn became the first to carry out comprehensive baby sign language research, thus pushing it into the mainstream, and by the middle 2000s baby sign learning kits, groups and tv series grew in popularity.
Despite being called a language, baby sign has no syntax or grammatical structure and instead uses simple signs to communicate everyday vocabulary, which may or may not resemble signs used in ASL or BSL, but are not inherently based on signed languages. Parents make hand gestures corresponding to specific words, such as 'food', 'thirsty', 'teddy', which babies then begin to mimic, enabling them with a means of communication before typical speaking age.
The movement claims to promote a closer child-parent bond, reduced frustration-induced tantrums (due to the child having a means of expression), the development of a wider vocabulary, and even a higher IQ by an average of 12 points. As most of the studies were conducted with small sample sizes, the research doesn't allow us to completely confirm these conclusions, however, there is a suggestion that parents are more attuned to babies who use baby sign.
Concerns within the d/Deaf community
One initial concern regarding baby sign language is its conflation with actual signed languages. As stated it doesn't have a syntax or grammatical structure, and it doesn't use mouth morphemes, which are expressions integral to adding meaning in signed languages (for example tight lips for 'sorry'). Additionally, the signs used aren't based on BSL or ASL, although occasionally some signs are borrowed, for example, the ASL sign for 'drink'. This gives the impression that baby sign is the same as other signed languages, and might mislead people into thinking they can communicate with d/Deaf people who sign. Although some argue this could be seen as increased exposure for the d/Deaf community, others fear it is actually harmful, as if the wrong signs are being confused for BSL or ASL it could affect access to communication further down the line. Ultimately, if people are mistaking baby sign for ASL/BSL, it is the d/Deaf community who suffers.
Another common issue taken with baby sign is how it can be perceived to exclude d/Deaf parents and children from spaces they should feel welcome in. For the most part, baby sign classes are taught by hearing teachers for hearing parents and babies, with group activities such as "song sign alongs" unintentionally excluding d/Deaf parents who struggle to follow the necessary musical audio cues. Baby sign videos on YouTube also often have no captions and are framed with spoken English, making many feel the intended audience does not include the d/Deaf community.
The preferential treatment baby sign has been seen as receiving in contrast to BSL or other signed languages is also a huge point of contention for many in the d/Deaf community. Whilst the 2000s craze led to a surge of baby sign classes, comparatively, access for actual BSL sessions for d/Deaf families is few and far between. As 90% of d/Deaf children are born to hearing parents this means a majority of families have no prior knowledge of BSL, yet access to this education remains scarce. This is possibly further reflected in the fact that 70% of parents with d/Deaf children choose not to learn sign language, meaning their children are forced to rely on hearing aids and lip-reading. As is commonly understood, for a child to fully absorb a language, the earlier the exposure, the better, and thus the lack of BSL education for d/Deaf parents and children means that those who most need it miss out on a crucial opportunity in their self-development. Currently, BSL is not even accessible as a GCSE in the UK, yet thanks to its popularity, there is an abundance of online resources and community groups for baby sign.
Not only do many feel that the baby sign craze highlights society's differing prioritization of the needs of d/Deaf parents and children, but some also feel the phenomenon profits off the back of the d/Deaf community, despite largely excluding it. Its growing popularity has created a lucrative business, with some even able to become certified baby sign teachers by participating in just a 2-day course, or by purchasing a teaching kit. Furthermore, the signing is often discarded soon after the child begins speaking, with parents simply using it as a temporary means of communicating with their baby that has little use beyond the development of speech.
So we shouldn't teach babies to sign?
Quite the opposite. The general feeling among the d/Deaf community is that the more people who learn BSL the better - as long as that is British Sign Language, and not Baby Sign Language.
The term "Deaf Gain" (which Sophie mentioned in her blog last week), refers to the idea that humanity can benefit from d/Deaf contributions, and that there are things about being d/Deaf, (such as an increased capacity for muscle memory, improved visual abilities), that could be advantageous to society as a whole. Learning sign language at a young age is also an example of deaf gain. Studies have shown that children who have learnt sign (hearing or d/Deaf), have improved memory and focus, are more confident and expressive and have increased capacity for learning other languages. Importantly, these children can also communicate with other people who sign and make d/Deaf friends.
What many in the community would like to see is sign language classes for parents and babies - for both hearing and d/Deaf. Classes that are accessible and that ultimately lead to increased awareness and use of actual signed languages, such as BSL. In this way, not only does the individual child benefit, but so does the d/Deaf community as a whole, as it increases the number of people who are able to communicate in sign, and therefore further promotes inclusivity.
Resources
If you would like to find out more about baby sign from two d/Deaf influencers who are currently teaching their children to sign, I highly recommend following Jessica Kellgren-Fozard (@jessicaoutofthecloset) and Ashton Jean-Pierre (@whatdaddid) on Instagram. Jessica's recent YouTube video "How Do I Teach my Baby Sign Language?" is also really informative and shed a lot of light for me on the topic:
For further information regarding the science behind baby sign, I also found this article from Parenting Science which goes more in-depth into the methodology of baby sign rather than the impact on the d/Deaf community:
And finally, as BSL isn't just for babies... if you are looking for resources to learn BSL yourself I would really recommend British-Sign, their online CPD accredited course is perfect for beginners and can be accessed for as little as £3 for students:
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