Blowing bubbles brings such excitement to babies and toddlers. They reach up in the air, grasping with tiny hands at the sinking bubbles.
But the excitement is fleeting, and sooner or later each bubble bursts. Without being able to talk, the babies can’t verbally ask for more.
They can communicate, though, through sign language, but only if they’re taught.
Sheryl White, a baby sign language specialist, has taught lessons in sign language to babies through her company, Baby Kneads, since 1999. She travels the state, holding lessons at libraries and schools.
In June — thanks in part to grants from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education, the Northfield and Bernardston cultural councils, and the two involved libraries — White visited Cushman Library in Bernardston and Northfield’s Dickinson Memorial Library twice each to teach babies and toddlers different American Sign Language gestures. The bubbles proved critical to teaching her young pupils the gesture for “more.”
White blew the bubbles, and the babies and toddlers gleefully reached up. But when the bubbles popped, and their smiles turned to frowns, White had the answer.
“More, more, more,” White said to three young toddlers at her feet.
While she said it, she touched the tips of the fingers on her left and right hands together several times.
After a few minutes, the children were mimicking her, asking for more every time the last bubble was gone.
Incredibly, they understood the meaning of the sign, and weren’t just copying their teacher.
White put the bubbles away and took out an electric toy train. The train rolled forward — White signing for “go” — and then stopped, prompting the toddlers to again sign for “more.”
Three-year-old Izzy Fiorey and her 18-month-old brother, Dexter, of Bernardston gleefully put their hands together, and White rewarded them by letting the train roll on.
“For this one, he does everything,” said Dexter’s grandmother, Martha Fiorey. “It really is amazing.”
The signs White teaches are all from American Sign Language. Some are modified very slightly to be suitable for teaching babies. For example, White signs “more” almost in front of her face when teaching babies — rather than in front of her torso — because babies naturally look at people’s faces during communication.
White explained the signs might not be done perfectly by a young child, but it’s usually close enough to understand what they are communicating.
“Some babies make up their own signs entirely,” White explained. “But it shows they’re communicating.”
The idea behind baby sign language, according to White, is that babies are developing cognitive abilities — deciding what they want or need — before they develop the ability to speak.
It also fosters creativity, White said, as the children associate different shapes or movements with different things. She recalled one child who made up a sign for their favorite toy — a character from the TV show “Sesame Street.”
“(One baby), kept pulling their ears out with their hands, but it turns out they were doing it to see Ernie,” White said.
According to White, baby sign language lessons are beneficial to both children and their parents, because babies can learn to ask for specific things when at the dinner table or at bedtime — making things easier on mom and dad, while at the same time developing the family relationship.
White herself started her business after successful signing with her own three children.
White’s father-in-law, Dr. Burton White, was an early childhood researcher who wrote a foreword for a 1999 book, “Sign With Your Baby: How to Communicate With Infants,” by Dr. Joseph Garcia, a “pioneer” in the field of baby sign language.
White decided to try it out.
“My son was signing to me and I found that it really reduced frustration,” White said. “They can learn all sorts of things, ‘big,’ ‘small,’ ‘please,’ ‘more’ — practical things — but also directions, so ‘up,’ ‘down.’”
White has always believed babies have an innate ability to communicate and recognize their surroundings. In one instance, her 1-day-old daughter, Rachel, seemed to recognize a song White would often sing while pregnant.
Teaching baby sign language to her children has been a natural extension of that belief, and White wants other parents to reap the benefits of teaching signs to their infants.
“Now it’s teaching the parents as well as the babies,” White added. “It really reduces frustration, and stimulates the brain in a different way.”
With bright eyes, 17-month-old Calvin Burnap darted around White, trying to grab the ball she had used earlier in the lesson. Looking down at him, White rubbed her right fist against her chest, demonstrating the sign for “please.”
He didn’t follow perfectly, but responded with two touches of his fingertips together, signing “more.”
Those in the medical field are split in their opinions about the effectiveness of baby sign language.
According to the Mayo Clinic, little research on the effects of baby sign language has been done, and more is needed to confirm whether it has a positive effect on infants’ learning abilities.
Dr. Jay L. Hoecker, writing for the Mayo Clinic’s Healthy Lifestyle blog in 2016, said that baby sign language can be an “effective communication tool,” and added, “Limited research suggests that baby sign language might give a typically developing child a way to communicate several months earlier than those who only use vocal communication.”
Hoecker also suggests the possibility that baby sign language can help children with developmental delays to express themselves, but, again, more research is needed to confirm this.
White, however, is more certain of the benefits of teaching infants and toddlers sign language. In her experience, bringing baby sign language into a household is definitely worthwhile.
During her travels to more than 50 libraries throughout Massachusetts, White said, she has met parents who have successfully taught their babies more than 80 signs by the time they were 14 months old.
Reporter Michael Alison Chandler in a 2013 Washington Post article asserts that baby sign language is growing as a phenomenon, partly because of a “booming cottage industry of mostly mom-run businesses,” with lessons offered in places like yoga studios and community centers.
Chandler also cites a 2000 study funded by the National Institutes of Health, which showed children exposed to sign language as babies scored better on “multiple measures of language acquisition” by age 2 compared to children who had only been spoken to.
However, the research also showed the advantage started to “level off” around age 3.
But the progress of children in White’s programs is noticeable, and seems to suggest there is something to teaching sign language to babies and toddlers.
On June 12, a week after her first visit to the Northfield library, White, who is based out of Boston, showed up for a second lesson.
Izzy, who had gone to the previous lesson and learned to sign for “more” and “go,” actively asked for “more” during the second lesson, and did not need White’s prompting.
White’s method of teaching baby sign language involves songs and toys — things that will make babies want to engage. When she teaches the sign for “hat,” she walks around the room singing “Who wears a hat,” and gently places a plush cap on each child’s head.
At the end of each lesson, White gives parents “homework,” a list of signs to practice with the children. The children are usually exhausted by the time they go home, White said.
“It is very, very stimulating, and sign language is a very tiring stimulus,” White said. “But it works.”
To learn more about White’s baby sign language programs or to contact her, visit www.babykneads.com. White also offers private lessons.
Staff reporter David McLellan joined the Greenfield Recorder this year. He covers Orange, New Salem and Wendell. He can be reached at: dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.