Proven Benefits from Two Decades of Scientific Research
For
those interested in reading more about the background research
concerning Baby Signs (known in scholarly journals as "symbolic
gesturing"), the following articles are recommended, starting from the
earliest published paper in 1985.
For
those interested in reading more about the background research
concerning Baby Signs (known in scholarly journals as "symbolic
gesturing"), the following articles are recommended, starting from the
earliest published paper in 1985.
Papers Online
Brie Moore, Linda Acredolo, &
Susan Goodwyn (April 2001). Symbolic gesturing and joint attention:
Partners in facilitating verbal development. Paper presented at
the Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Susan Goodwyn, Linda Acredolo, and
Catherine Brown (in press). Impact of symbolic gesturing on early
language development. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior .
Acredolo,
L. P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (July 2000). The long-term impact of
symbolic gesturing during infancy on IQ at age 8. Paper presented at
the meetings of the International Society for Infant Studies, Brighton,
UK.
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Baby Signs ® Bibliography
Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn (1985).
Symbolic gesturing in language development: A case study. Human
Development, 28, 40-49.
This article presents the story of
our first "Baby Signer," Linda’s daughter Kate who began to spontaneously
create symbolic gestures when she was about 12 months old. These were
"sensible" gestures (like sniffing for "flower" and arms-up for "big").
We then made it easy for her by modeling other simple gestures for
things in which she was interested and followed her progress in terms
of both gestural and verbal development.
Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn (1988).
Symbolic gesturing in normal infants. Child Development, 59,
450-466.
Readily Available in Libraries
Our goal in the two separate
studies described in this article was to learn more about the spontaneous
development of symbolic gestures by infants. Was Linda’s daughter alone
in doing so (see Acredolo & Goodwyn, 1985) or were other babies as
creative as Kate? The answer was extremely clear. Although Linda was a
bit disappointed to learn that Kate was not totally unique, she quickly
became excited to see that most babies create at least one or
two such symbolic gestures and that some children, like Kate, create
many. The article also describes (a) relations with verbal development,
(b) the sources of the gestures in the babies’ everyday lives, (c) and
gender and birth order differences.
Linda
Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn (1990). The significance of symbolic
gesturing for understanding language development. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals
of Child Development (Vol. 7, pp. 1-42). London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.Readily Available in Libraries
This
invited chapter provided an opportunity for us to review the role that
symbolic gestures, including formal sign language systems such as ASL,
seem to play in the development of verbal language in hearing children.
We describe many classic case studies (e.g., Holmes & Holmes, 1980
and Prinz & Prinz, 1979) in addition to our own work and identify
common denominators among them. The final discussion addresses the
question of whether certain early milestones of language development
(e.g., first true symbol, first two symbol combinations) are more
easily achieved in the gestural than in the verbal modality.
Susan Goodwyn and Linda Acredolo, (1993).
Symbolic gesture versus word: Is there a modality advantage for onset
of symbol use? Child Development, 64, 688-701.
The
results reported in this article represent some of the earliest
findings from our NIH-sponsored longitudinal study of the impact of purposefully
encouraging
babies to use symbolic gestures. The goal was to shed light on a hotly
debated topic: the degree to which gestural symbols represent an easier
entrée into symbolic communication.
Linda Acredolo, L. P., & Goodwyn,
S.W. (1997). Furthering our understanding of what humans understand, Human
Development, 40, 25-31.
Readily Available in Libraries.
Because
we had done so much work in the area of children and symbolic
gesturing, we were asked by the editor of this prestigious journal to
write an article commenting on the other work presented in the issue –
wonderful research done at Emory University on the use of gestures by
chimpanzees. We were particularly thrilled when a picture of one of our
own "Baby Signers" was used for the cover of the issue.
Susan
Goodwyn and Linda Acredolo (1998). Encouraging symbolic gestures:
Effects on the relationship between gesture and speech. In J. Iverson
& S. Goldin-Meadows (Eds.) The nature and functions of gesture
in children’s communication (pp. 61-73). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass. Readily Available in Libraries.
This
invited chapter provided an opportunity for us to summarize our program
of research on symbolic gesturing, from the earliest work with Kate to
the results of our NIH-sponsored longitudinal study of the impact of
gesturing on verbal development.
Linda
Acredolo, Susan Goodwyn, Karen Horobin, and Yvonne Emmons (1999). The
signs and sounds of early language development. In L. Balter & C.
Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Child Psychology: A Handbook of Contemporary
Issues (pp. 116 – 139). New York: Psychology Press.
The
editors of this volume asked us to do more than simply summarize our
research findings. We were delighted to accept the challenge. Our goal
in the chapter was to show how the results of our studies of symbolic
gesturing shed light on important and still unresolved questions in
language development: Why does comprehension of language generally
precede production? Why is vocabulary growth so slow in the months
following the first word? What accounts for the frequently observed
phenomenon called the "vocabulary spurt?" What developments underlie
the beginning of the "two word" stage? In the final section of the
chapter we challenge researchers to begin using symbolic gesturing as a
tool to explore other important developmental issues, issues that have
traditionally had to await the onset of verbal language (e.g., longterm
memory for events, concept development, abstract thinking, emotional
knowledge). As an added bonus the chapter includes nearly a dozen
vignettes drawn from our data and chosen to illustrate the creative
ways babies use Baby Signs.
Susan Goodwyn, Linda Acredolo, and
Catherine Brown (in press). Impact of symbolic gesturing on early
language development. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior .
This
is the article in which we present the most important findings from our
NIH-sponsored longitudinal study of the impact on verbal development of
purposefully encouraging infants to use symbolic gestures. Standardized
tests of both receptive and expressive language development had been
administered at 11, 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36 months to both an
experimental group of babies (Baby Signers) and two control groups.
Results demonstrated a clear advantage for the Baby Signers, thereby
laying to rest the most frequently voiced concern of parents – that
Baby Signing might hamper learning to talk. In fact, the good news is
that Baby Signing actually facilitates verbal language development.
Acredolo,
L. P., & Goodwyn, S.W. (July 2000). The long-term impact of
symbolic gesturing during infancy on IQ at age 8. Paper presented at
the meetings of the International Society for Infant Studies, Brighton,
UK.
The
WISC-III was administered to subjects from our NIH-sponsored
longitudinal study during the summer following completion of second
grade. Much to our surprise and delight, the results indicated a
significant 12 point advantage for the children who had been encouraged
to use Baby Signs during their second year of life (Mean IQ = 114) over
the children who had been in the Non-Intervention Control Group (Mean
IQ= 102). The advantage held for both the Verbal and Performance
Sub-scales of the WISC-III.
Brie Moore, Linda Acredolo, & Susan
Goodwyn (April 2001). Symbolic gesturing and joint attention:
Partners in facilitating verbal development. Paper presented at
the Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Using video data collected in their
federally funded, longitudinal
study, the researchers looked to see whether the Baby Signing
experience stimulates development of the ability to actively direct an
adult's attention to something in which the baby is interested.
Called, "joint attention," this ability is known to be an important
contributor to learning to talk. Much to the researchers' delight, the
Baby Signing babies were indeed found to engage in more joint attention
episodes with their mothers than did non-Baby Signers during laboratory
play sessions at 19 and 24 months. Moreover, the effect held
independently of linguistic skill, indicating that Baby Signing itself
was a unique contributor to the joint attention scores. These data are
important because they help explain why Baby Signing babies tend to
learn to talk earlier than non-Baby Signers. The study may also help
explain why the Baby Signing experience has been found to have a
positive effect on IQ at age 8.
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