- guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 2 2003 00.09 GMT
- The Observer, Sunday March 2 2003
Six-month-old babies are being taught to signal when they are in pain by putting the tips of two chubby fingers together. The need for a nappy change is signalled by two cupped hands circling each other.
When a bottle is needed, the infant cups his or her hand, and brings it towards the palm of the right hand - as if smashing the bottle down on the table.
The practice is becoming popular among parents in America. In some states, such as Florida, it is commonplace.
Now it has come to Britain, with classes and seminars being held to teach the technique. Informal mothers' groups are meeting weekly to spread the message and practise the gestures, sometimes watching videos to perfect their technique.
Diane Ryan, an American speech therapist, held her first session in the UK last week, in Manchester. In a 90-minute session she taught 50 sets of parents how to make the signs and encourage their tiny offspring to learn them.
'Communicating with your baby before it can actually put words together is a very good thing,' Ryan said. 'It strengthens the bond between mother and child, and it allows children to express themselves in a basic way. That's very useful, particularly if they are in pain.'
Ryan, based in Kinsale, Ireland, believes signing can accelerate the child's progression towards speech. She said there had been studies in America suggesting the first words may come slightly earlier at 10 months, while most children master language nearer their first birthday.
'There is certainly no evidence it has any detrimental effects at all,' she said.
Her Kindersigns workshops teach parents some signs such as food, eating, milk, wet and pain, which can be incorporated into the daily activities.
'You start off with three signs - for more, eating and milk. Parents speak the word as they make the sign. For instance, you give your child a couple of teaspoons of cereal, and then stop. You ask them if they want more, and you make the association by doing the sign for more, which is holding both hands in front of you, and tapping your left hand twice with your right hand.
'Every time you ask "More?" you make this sign, and the child quickly learns to copy it. This works alongside speech, not against it.'
Ryan said the signing did not replace a parent's intuition about what their child wants but 'just gives you more specific information', for example when a child is in pain. She says babies can be taught how to communicate not only that they are in pain, but where they are feeling the pain.
'If babies hurt themselves, you cuddle them and then put the two fingers together on the site of the injury, and you say "Are you hurting here?" The next time, they may bump their knee and you do the same thing.'
For years, deaf children have been taught sign language by their parents. It was only when American educational psychologists noticed their superior early communication skills that the idea of teaching babies signing took hold.
Some proponents even say that the technique can help to alleviate bad behaviour, because it makes the child less frustrated, and therefore less likely to have temper tantrums.
The method also has its critics. Research psychologist Penelope Leach said: 'Have we stopped just watching babies and being tuned into them? Maybe I'm a bit off-message, but I think that if you are a sensitive carer, be it a mother, father or grandparent, you recognise the signs when your child is wet or hungry.'
She cast doubt on whether a baby's hand-eye co-ordination would be good enough to complete complicated gestures that could be understood properly by parents.
