Infant Signs Reveal Infant Minds to Early Childhood Professionals

The idea that infants communicate prior to their first words is not new to anyone who has spent time with infants. However, the recognition that preverbal children can communicate both intentionally and symbolically prior to speech, through use of infant signs, also known as symbolic gestures or Baby Signs®, has opened a window into the mind of the infant for scientists, parents, and early childhood educators. For a parent, a child’s use of signs can reveal the mental contents—desires, needs, memories—of the individual infant whose mind they most want to know. For scientists, symbolic gestures can reveal the general capacities of the infant mind—what preverbal children are capable of thinking, feeling, remembering, and representing about their lived experiences. For early childhood educators, who are charged with caring for groups of young children, and with continually enhancing their own knowledge of child development to develop as professionals, infant signs are a tool to both understand individual children in their care, and learn about the often underestimated social, cognitive, and communicative capacities of preverbal children. In this chapter, we describe our theoretical frameworks for understanding the use of infant signs, summarize existing research on infant signs in early childhood settings, reflect on the effects it has on professional development, and describe the principles and practices for using signs effectively. Finally, we discuss our concerns and current questions about this practice.