A really neat recent study done by the University of Chicago showed that using gestures with your baby helps to increase their vocabulary.    Teaching Sign Language encourages babies to use gestures such as pointing. Parents who model signs also, almost automatically, point to the object.  In fact, our “10 Steps to Success” on the Quick Reference Guide includes advice to do so as tip #4. • Babies also often point at an object when they sign. • Signing increases a child’s tendency to watch his/her parent’s hands, thereby increasing the chance the child will notice the parent’s pointing and recognize its relevance. • The authors are interpreting pointing as conveying meaning (“e.g., pointing at a dog = dog)”).  Signs are even more sophisticated ways of conveying meaning and, therefore, even more closely linked to learning words. In fact, the authors seem to be, pardon the pun, “taking the words right out of our mouths” when they suggest that “Gesture could also play a more direct role in word learning by giving children an opportunity to practice generating particular meanings by hand, at a time when those meanings are difficult to produce by mouth. “ • They suggest that the positive relationship to verbal development may in part be due to the fact that parents respond to points with appropriate words and, since the child has chosen the topic, the child is more likely to listen and learn.  Well, as we all know, the same can be said of signing—in spades! In other words, the results of this study clearly support our contention that encouraging families to use signs is an easy and effective way to help foster verbal language development. Recent study shows that the more gestures a baby uses at 14 months the larger their vocabulary at 3 1/2 years! Portland Moms- Stores, Restaurants, Services, Products, Activities, Events