Sign language - yay or nay?

I'm an involved parent. I enjoy teaching my children. I admit, I find a great deal of satisfaction as each one meets certain milestones - especially if they are early in doing so. And yet, until my fourth child, I never understood the whole fascination with teaching babies sign language. I'd done a bit of research, only to conclude that some babies who learn sign language speak earlier... and some speak later. The research was less than convincing. And since I'm not really (okay, maybe a little) concerned at how early my child speaks, teaching a baby sign language seemed more work than it was worth, especially since all of my children were early talkers to begin with.

And then I met Jane. She's my niece. Her mother taught her sign language, and indeed, she is way more verbose than her almost 3 years would suggest. But that's not why I decided to teach Eve sign language. Here's why:

1. It's so darn cute. Watch any pre-one-year-old sign "more" or "milk" and I dare you to disagree.

2. Whether they speak earlier or later than the norm, they are communicating earlier. And honestly, isn't that the whole point of talking? Even when most kids begin speaking, their speech is barely intelligible, rendering a caregiver helpless at guessing what it is they are trying to communicate. With just a few simple signs such as "eat", "drink", "more", "outside", and "sleep", Eve could forego the crying and give me an idea of exactly what she wanted. Nice.

3. When kids who learn sign language do begin to speak, they combine the speech with signs. So, when Eve says "abay", instead of me being utterly confused, she sends her hand flying over her head and I know she's saying "airplane" and can reinforce her by repeating it. Minimizes frustration from a fourth child who's just trying to get a word in edgewise. Let's face it, if I have to ask her to repeat something several times, I'm just going to give up amid the clamor of the other three.

4. Being the fourth child, with one-on-one time at a minimum, Eve really benefited from having a bit of focused time with mom other than the obligatory two or three books before nap and bedtime.

5. The older kids picked up on sign language and enjoyed being able to communicate with their youngest sibling. Rather than just being the "baby" they viewed her as more of an equal when they realized just how much she understood.

So, while I don't regret not teaching sign language to my other kids because they really didn't need it, I am SO glad I taught it to Eve. She's dropped all but a few signs in favor of spoken language now, so I wanted to record the experience before it vanished completely. And thanks, Jane, for being the adorable bit of inspiration that made me a convert.