Sign language doesn't delay speech and can actually support word learning. Gestures help convey meaning, and keeping communication intent alive matters more than which method you use. Using signs early reduces frustration and can motivate speech development.
Hey, guys, this is Ming here from Agents of Speech. I'm a speech therapist. Today we want to talk about if sign language actually causes speech delay, okay? And obviously the short answer is no. You can stop this video. Well, I'm going to explain myself if you want to stay. Basically, the answer is no, because, number one, sign language doesn't replace speech, okay? It really doesn't. When we talk a lot, when we explain ourselves, our hands start moving and we start gesturing and we point there, point there. That in itself is kind of a sign language, right? But sign language in itself is a whole different language system, okay? People who are having hearing. Hearing impairments, they will use it a lot. And it's not exclusive. It's obviously a different type of language, and the grammar is different and so on. If you're talking about full on sign Language, but if you're talking about baby sign language or the use of gestures, which we wholeheartedly recommend at Agents of Speech. And the reason is because it helps with learning to communicate and learning the meaning of a word. Okay? So for instance, if we say eat like that, right? It gives the act out, the acting out of which actually signifies to us that the kid actually understands what eating is about. It's about putting stuff in your mouth and swallowing it, right? So that's why we do sign language, just to help them acquire the content of a word, the meaning behind the word. Okay? Second of all, communication, intention is king, okay? Is the most important thing you need to care about why when a child doesn't know how to use speech sounds correctly, what happens is that the intention for communication goes down. What it means is that they don't really want to talk to you, right? Because talking is hard. They don't know how to communicate with you. They get frustrated, they. They lash out and so on. So, so therefore, if they have a way of talking to you, whether or not it's through, like sign language or using like communication boards or like AAC, as they call it, then that will keep their communication intention up, okay? When their communication intention is up, then you can use that to teach speech, okay? Because if they don't want to talk to you, then if you want to teach them to talk, it's very difficult. So I heard from a parent who consulted me who said, hey, I have a child who was like 13, and he actually can type on WhatsApp on using his phone or text. If you're in the USA, you don't use WhatsApp. And then like, he can. She can say like, mommy, I'M hungry, come back soon. But she's non verbal, right? And then when we asked her, actually not me, but the mom asked her, why don't you talk? And then she texted, well, I don't see a reason to talk. It's so difficult. Right? Something like that. So you see, communication intention is high. It needs to be high. If you get to a point where the kid doesn't want to talk to you, then teaching speech will not make sense to them because they're like, I don't want to talk to you already. And talking is so hard, why should I? And plus, I can just type to you, why does it even matter? And this is the whole notion of this video, right? Will sign language or in other ways, alternate ways of communication, will it diminish speech production? I don't think so. It actually will help as long as you keep the communication intention up by using such sign language. Okay, the last point I want to talk about is sign language is very communicative, but it's not as efficient if we're in the library. And then we cannot really talk to each other by like signaling with our eyes or like, like that. Usually we get our messages across, right? So that's number one. But it's not that effective, like going back and forth if we're not good at it. So. So let's talk about someone who is like hearing impaired and can use sign language very well. You can see that if you see two people who are masters of sign language, when they talk, they can like just go on and on forever, like, like that. Like they can just talk and just ignore everyone. Okay, well, the thing is they don't know how to talk. That's why this is. They're using this and they crave for communication and they're both having the same problem. That's why they're having such a good chat. Right? But it's not as effective. It really isn't as efficient as talking with words. Okay, if using sign language was more effective or efficient, whichever word you like to use. The thing is, we won't be talking. We'd be signing all our lives. Right? If talking wasn't as efficient, then why would we have like voice assistants, like, I don't know, like Google, you know, like Siri, Alexa, that kind of stuff. It's because talking is intuitive. It's easier than typing. All right, number one, why don't we sign to our, our phones? Because it's not as effective, man. It's not efficient. It's not as easy. Talking will be easy once you master it. Okay, so that's the long way of answering a question. I would always, always, always recommend a child to learn to use some sign language and gestures in the beginning. There are studies, research shows that baby sign language does help to a certain extent. And having it is better than not having it. Because at the end of the day, when your child is, have. Is flipping out because they don't understand how to get their message across to you or you don't understand them, it's making them frustrated. Then sign language is your savior, because then you can say, okay, sign it out for me. I don't get it. Or draw it out to me. I don't get it. Like, let me guess. Okay, let me help you out. That's you have a. A step down from talking, and that makes it so much easier to communicate. Okay, so that's it for today. I'll see you in the next one. If you haven't, go to agentsofspeech.com checklist to grab a free list of tools and toys that I recommend if you're starting therapy right now at home. Okay, so see you. Bye. Bye.
