Talking with gestures is a natural part of everyday life. These signals are used worldwide, and yet most people fail to realize that they represent sign language in its simplest form. According to the United Nations, there are around 70 million deaf people worldwide. As the world progresses towards building inclusive communities that cater to everyone’s needs, being able to communicate in sign language is a skill everyone should possess. In this article, we’ll look at why you should consider learning sign language.
Stronger Relationships Between Parents and Infants
Teaching your infants and toddlers the act of signing essential words can help improve your communication with them. It can positively influence your child’s self-esteem and how confident they are in the long term. Since little children can’t correctly formulate sentences in the early stages of their life, they’re unable to relay their feelings which can anger and frustrate both parents and children.
If your child is upset about something, they can convey their dismay through hand or facial motions. Sign language prevents children’s tantrums and tears because they’re provided with a way to effectively express their needs, such as pangs of hunger or bouts of pain in any limb. It’s a good way for families to bond since it requires eye-to-eye and tangible contact between parents and kids.
Research shows that babies respond to sign language as early as eight months if provided with consistent and regular exposure. They can recognize and use gestures for familiar concepts or items, for example, ‘hot’ and ‘cold,’ or ‘tired’ and ‘play.’
Improves Response Time and Visibility
A Frontiers in Psychology study states that adults with hearing disabilities had reaction times significantly faster than sign-language interpreters and adults with good hearing. This indicates the wonders of how the human body adapts – the inability to use one of your senses, such as hearing, enhances other senses, like sight.
When we develop the ability to understand and use sign language, our peripheral vision and reaction time increase. Here, a better reaction time means that the time passed between the moment of perceiving something and responding to it has decreased. Improved peripheral vision refers to an enhanced ability to view things in your surroundings without having to move your head around. These skills are important not only when playing sports like basketball or football but also in other activities, including cycling or driving a vehicle.
Enhances Cognitive Abilities Over Time
Learning a second language has various advantages for your brain and thinking skills, making you more creative and decreasing your chances of developing Alzheimer’s. Though spoken and sign languages differ in numerous ways, it’s been proven that creating complex expressions using neural pathways for both has very similar underlying processes.
Many significant research contributions prove this theory. For example, a ten-year study conducted by Marilyn Daniels, a Pennsylvania University researcher, demonstrated that children whose educational institutions incorporated ASL sign language into the standard curriculum noticed better reading capabilities and vocabulary than those who weren’t taught ASL in their schools.
Better Understanding of Body Language
Sign language is an amalgamation of hand gestures, body movements, and facial expressions, and learning it helps you adopt a diverse set of skills. One of these is being able to interpret body language. Individuals use body language to convey their intentions and feelings through various nonverbal cues. Deaf people are generally better at picking up ASL signals and other sign language gestures. This shows that human communication doesn’t just consist of speech alone and can be stretched to different methods, such as signing.
By learning sign language, you’ll be more attuned to people’s actions than their words which is a valuable skill to possess, especially if you work in a public-facing role or have to interview potential candidates for jobs. Not only will you mostly succeed in hiring the right fit for your organization, but you will also be able to pick up on when your loved ones are in a gloomy mood and act accordingly.
Expands Spatial Vision
Sign language can improve your spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is how well you grasp visual information in your surroundings and whether you can perceive objects in three dimensions or more. Three-dimensional geometry is an essential concept in science and math subjects while also inducing more creativity in tasks like painting and drawing.
Individuals who use sign language are more likely to portray complex spatial understanding and are more intuitive in their observations than those who don’t use non-verbal communication. Spatial vision is a talent sign language can enhance and is an excellent practice if you want to pursue technical or creative outlets in the future.
Improved Spelling
It might be surprising to you, but learning sign language helps improve your spelling. While there’s a sign corresponding to almost every word available, a sign can be attached to a word that you don’t know. Suppose you’re conversing with your deaf friends and want to signal a term you’ve forgotten the gestures for. In this case, you’ll have to fingerspell it for the other person.
Even when you’re introduced to an unfamiliar name of a person, brand, location, or product, the same rule will apply if you want to interpret the word in sign language. Knowing the spelling of such words and writing them down is helpful. Over time, it will become a habit, and your spelling will be strong enough that words will be easy to piece together, whether in verbal or sign languages.
A Better Grasp on Deaf Culture
Sign language plays a vital role in the deaf community and culture everywhere. When you start learning and communicating, you’ll become more aware of the hardships that people with hearing disabilities overcome and how they navigate through everyday life. You’ll develop an appreciative outlook towards deaf culture, promoting acceptance and compassion for sign language to your peers and loved ones.
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Knowing how to use sign language can open up a breadth of opportunities for you both in your personal and professional life. You can utilize this skill for many things, such as meeting new people, exploring a unique language, or strengthening your brain’s functionality.
Whatever your reasons for interest in sign language, you’ll find that it’s a beautiful and immersive learning process. If you’re considering becoming fluent in one, you can enroll in courses online and notice how it enriches various aspects of your life and broadens your horizons.
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