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.