Premature Babies & Baby Sign
While baby sign language is a fun and useful tool just to help bridge the communication gap with your child it can also have very real advantages when used with children who may be at risk from some sort of developmental delay such as premature babies.
While many premature babies grow develop extremely well as they grow they are in a category that can be considered higher for having speech delays.
Premature babies are generally assessed developmentally against an adjusted age for important milestones but when compared to other babies by their chronological age, they may be slightly disadvantaged with their speech improvement.
The main question this really raises though is “When should I start signing with my baby?”
Now usually you should start to sign with your baby once they can hold a rattle or other toy and they start to have some movement and dexterity with their hands, which is around 5 – 6 months.
In a premature baby this may be 7 – 9 months depending on how early your child was born.
The interesting thing is that the reason to generally wait to start signing to your baby only when they can begin to sign back is because most parents need to see results or they will not continue with baby sign. The fact is your baby is taking in everything and even though they may not be physically capable of signing their ability to understand signs develops much earlier.
It’s the same with talking. Even though babies cannot talk for around the first 18 months of their life most parents will happily chat away to their baby, this is how they learn and baby sign is no different.
So if your baby is premature you may want to begin your signing a little bit earlier to allow them to start absorbing the signs.
Remember to be patient and always say the spoken word with the sign and in context, follow our signing steps to success for more information.
While baby sign has been shown in many studies to have benefits including accelerated speech and advanced IQ levels this cannot be expected of every child. If your baby is premature then baby sign may be just the thing for you to help them catch up with their chronological age group and provide a great foundation for early learning.
Tags: baby sign, premature babies, premature baby
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:19 am
I think my prem baby is trying to comunicate with me now. Can I send you some photos for discussion? He was born 5 Dec 2009 – due 18 Feb 2010 – arrived 11 weeks early – now almost 37 weeks gestation
February 19th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Hi Monique
Can I ask have you begun introducing some baby signs to your baby?
I am happy for you to send through your photos but it will be difficult for me to know what she is signing unless you tell me what signs you have introduced to him.
The earliest age I have heard a baby sign back is at 4 months of age and that is after their parents have been signing to their child from day one.
It takes some time for babies so young to sign as there are physical constraints.
What signs do you think your baby is signing?
I look forward to hearing from you
Happy Signing!
Jackie
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:59 am
hi i am 21 years old and had my baby boy at 26 weeks. i dont quite understand theb aby signing. could u please explain this to me. thanx.
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Hi Zaira
Do you have a specific question related to the article?
If you do please post it here and I will respond to any direct questions you have.
For more information on Baby Sign please review the Baby Sign Language Articles and Baby Sign Blog posts for details.
Happy Signing
Jackie
May 4th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Hi I was a premature baby I was very small and I wouldn’t grow but that didn’t stop my mom from communicating with me since it wasn’t a long time ago I still remember this because my mother made sure I knew about this stuff I’m only 10 going on 11 in 15 more days so its hasn’t been a long time and Monique and Zaira your sons are going to be very smart they are going to teach you things that you never even knew about so if you try to communicate a lot they will start to understand what you are doing
Thank You for taking your time to listen
Nakija
May 22nd, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Nakija,
I am the mother of a premature baby, born at 23 weeks 4 days, who is now nearly 4 years old and I want to say that you are right….he is very smart and has taught me lots of wonderful things. I sign a few words to him, such as ‘more’, ‘thank you’, ‘sorry’ and ‘milk’ and just yesterday he signed ‘help’ at the same time as saying the word. He was very pleased with himself. Thank YOU for taking the time to tell everyone what wonderful children prem babies become….you are living proof!
Natasha
January 7th, 2011 at 10:58 am
Hello Everyone!
I am the mother of 3 wonderful children. My oldest born on her due date, my middle child was born @ 20 weeks, and my youngest was born @ 32 weeks. All very smart beautiful children (if I do say so myself). When my middle child was born I knew nothing of signing with premature babies. However, I did attempt to do certain things to see if and how she could understand and reply. Just as an example, every time I would approach her bed in the NICU, I would stick my tongue out at her. It wasn’t long when I walked in and walked to her bed with the nurse and my beautiful baby girl greeted me before I had a chance to greet her by sticking her tongue out at me. The nurse seen what she did and knew that I had been doing that to greet her. The nurse was amazed and said she had never seen a child in a situation remotely like hers pick up and reply as well or as quick as she did.
All of the nurses started sticking their tongues out when they got near her bed too. It was so cute! I was able to teach my baby how to say hello even though she couldn’t really move her arms, talk, or communicate like others.
Thanks,
Amanda