"andrea" wrote in message ...


It's sounds like it's worth a try, as babies that can sign find speech comes
more easily. Some people believe signing delays speech, but i'm told this is
not the case.

I'm not sure what the exact research is on whether it delays speech,
but even if it does that's not necessarily a problem. Up to a certain
age (I think around when they start school) children growing up
bilingual are behind monolingual children in each language. But
eventually they catch up. And I think it's easy to see the benefit of
being able to sign if spoken language is limited (or have a second
spoken language) -- so even if they are a bit behind for a couple of
years, it's probably well worth the tradeoff.

Haven't done it yet, but I absolutely intend to sign with the Bug --
I've twice taken introductory American Sign Language classes, though
never gotten any further than that. I also fantasize about speaking
lots of Spanish or French around her so she grows up bilingual, but I
doubt that'll ever get past fantasy.

Good luck with Alden.

Kate
and Bug June 8 2003