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THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS an analysis of the functional roles of "baby signing" in three hearing families in the United States, as well as a discussion of the social and ideological implications of the practice. "Baby signing" refers to the use of visual-gestural signs between hearing parents and their young hearing children with the goal of earlier and clearer communication, often guided by parenting books, videos, and workshops that are available in the United States and other countries around the world. This practice has been adopted by many families who had no previous knowledge of a natural sign language and no contact with the Deaf community. Unlike previous research on baby signing, which has focused on determining its possible effects on linguistic and cognitive development (e.g., Goodwyn and Acredolo 1998; Goodwyn, Acredolo, and Brown 2000), this article addresses the ways in which three baby-signing families use signs in their daily lives. The discussion is based on the close analysis of family interaction, which the first author videotaped between the fall of 2000 and the spring of 2001. It also considers the motivations that these hearing parents had for signing with their hearing babies.
Parental decisions about baby signing are made in the context of socially prevalent ideologies about language and child rearing. Language ideologies have been defined as "beliefe, or feelings, about languages as used in their social worlds" (Kroskrity 2004, 498), including "their loading of moral and political interests" (Irvine 1989, 255). Evidence for language ideologies held by particular speakers/signers and their communities may sometimes be found in their explicit statements concerning the value of the languages in question but must more often be gleaned from the analysis of statements and behavior for the assumptions that underlie them. Given the power of language ideologies to influence language behavior and language choice, it is important to situate the practice of baby signing within the history of ideologies about sign language and child language acquisition.
The use of signed languages with deaf children has long been an issue of debate in the United States, and the assumed advantages of spoken over signed language have led many hearing parents of deaf children to decide not to expose their children to sign language in their early years (Baynton 1996)....