Susan and I are enormously proud of our book "Baby Signs," not only because it is making a difference in so many children's lives, but also because it is based on 17 years worth of careful research here at the University of California at Davis with hundreds of families. By comparing babies who were encouraged to use our specific "Baby Sign" system with "control" babies who were not, and then following all these children until age 8, we were able to prove that Baby Signs are really and truly GOOD for kids. They reduce frustration, strengthen the parent-infant bond, provide parents a wonderful window into the infant mind, and even help babies learn to talk SOONER. Most recently, our follow-up study at age 8 indicated a 12 point IQ advantage for the original Baby Signers!
But even though most of our insights about Baby Signs have come from the families in our laboratory studies, the original Baby Signer was a good deal closer to home. When my daughter, Kate (who's now 18), was 12 months old, she started to create Baby Signs all on her own! She borrowed the finger rubbing gesture from Eincy Weincy Spider to label real spiders, used a sniffing gesture to label flowers, and scratched under her arms for monkey. In fact, her Baby Sign for monkey came in handy one day when her dad took her to a class he was teaching in a huge lecture hall. As the students were filing in and taking their seats, Kate's eyes suddenly grew wide and she began to point up the stairs and frantically scratch under her arms. Why? One look at the very hairy young man coming down the stairs was enough for everyone in the hall to figure out the source of little Kate's concern. She was absolutely sure there was a monkey in the room!
Kate may have been our original inspiration for Baby Signs, but now that we are hearing from families all over the world, we are more inspired than ever. What's more, once you start seeing the magic of Baby Signs in your own home, we know you will be too.