{"id":78,"date":"2018-02-05T12:27:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/?p=78"},"modified":"2018-02-06T09:00:52","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T09:00:52","slug":"how-signing-helps-language-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/how-signing-helps-language-development\/","title":{"rendered":"How Signing Helps Language Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If I teach my child to use sign language, will their speech be delayed?&#8221;\u00a0The quick answer is no.\u00a0There is\u00a0no scientific research or evidence to suggest that using sign language has a negative impact on speech development.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, signing with your child can have a hugely positive influence on their language skills, and many families have reported accelerated speech due to signing first and here&#8217;s why&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When signing with hearing children, it is a springboard to spoken language. Our TinyTalk motto is, &#8220;See it, say it, sign it.&#8221; By repeating signs so often on a daily basis, and saying the word each time, you\u2019re increasing your baby\u2019s exposure to spoken language.<\/li>\n<li>Children who are signed to have the ability to communicate effectively many months before those who aren&#8217;t, which means they\u2019re far more used to <i>using<\/i> language, e.g. making connections between \u2018things\u2019 and their names, conveying their thoughts and feelings, and more importantly being understood. As a result they can be much calmer and happier which benefits their mental health and all-round wellbeing.<\/li>\n<li>The innate desire to speak, (in a hearing child with no known communication difficulties), cannot possibly be slowed down or held back; it\u2019s as inevitable as growing! As children begin to speak (at whatever age they are naturally &#8216;wired&#8217; to do so), they\u2019ll do so alongside their signing. This is enormously useful to clarify spoken words that are likely to be unclear at first. They usually drop the signs when they&#8217;re no longer needed to make themselves clear.<\/li>\n<li>Teaching signing in hearing children involves visual, auditory and more importantly kinaesthetic\u00a0(VAK) elements. Using VAK techniques, i.e. \u2018doing\u2019 something physical whilst learning, has been scientifically proven to help improve language retention and is used in the most effective educational environments. This is the exact reason why \u2018Jolly Phonics\u2019 is taught in the majority of schools today and each sound is given a corresponding action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To find your nearest class, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\">TinyTalk<\/a> today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If I teach my child to use sign language, will their speech be delayed?&#8221;\u00a0The quick answer is no.\u00a0There is\u00a0no scientific research or evidence to suggest that using sign language has a negative impact on speech development. &nbsp; In fact, signing with your child can have a hugely positive influence on their language skills, and many &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/how-signing-helps-language-development\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How Signing Helps Language Development&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/96"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tinytalk.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}