Reasons I did not teach Zane to sign...

Lately, it seems that teaching babies to sign is becoming quite popular!! It could be that I am recently hearing about it because I am a mom now? I do believe there are many great benefits to signing, apparently it raises IQ points and it makes communicating with a baby (who cannot speak) much easier. Good reasons! Except for us, I know my son better than anyone and given that he is already pretty shy, I chose not to teach him, right now. Zane took his time when it came to speaking, he was over a year old when he said his first word. Our highly trusted pediatrician was not worried in the least, because Zane could ALWAYS understand what we were saying! As long as he understood us, Dr. Foster was not worried. And Zane could understand us very well!! We'd ask Zane to throw something away-he would, we'd ask him to lay down, to give us kisses, hugs, high-fives, etc. You name it, he'd understand long sentences. When he wanted something, he knew exactly what it was! Zane would "point and grunt" as the Dr put it. After a while that "pointing and grunting" got really obnoxious bless his heart! But when I got him what he wanted, which I knew anyway (all mom's do, and that was the biggest problem) he would giggle as if saying, "yep that's what I wanted and you got it for me, how easy!" Well the fact that I knew, instead of asking him to actually tell me part of it.

The fact that my son was taking a bit longer (in my opinion) to speak, it was one of my leading reasons not to teach him how to sign. 1). I wanted him to speak out loud and use words, I knew he was capable, he just wasn't doing it. 2). Not everyone in my family knows sign language, that would be a major communication barrier. Not to mention, frustrating when they would babysit. 3). I did not want him to be 3 years old and still refusing to speak and resorting to sign language as his primary form of communication. 4). I know my baby! He is SHY!! If he knew sign language he would really not want to talk.

Now of course, he speaks, several words and sentences. People who meet him at first, wouldn't know this (he's shy remember). Everyone may not understand everything he says, which is normal for a 22 month old, but mom's always usually know what their baby is saying.

I know many mother's will disagree with me here, and that's ok. But we all know what is best for our children. While I do think knowing sign language is great and wonderful, it's not for us, right now. I think it'd be a great thing to teach him later on, once he is full on talking. Why not? He may have a hearing impaired friend, future sibling or cousin. I hope one day I can learn and therefore teach him too!