© Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime.com

Q: My daughter and son-in-law are teaching their baby American Sign Language. No one in the family has hearing impairment. I applaud them for doing this, but could this interfere with my grandson’s learning to speak?

A: On the contrary, there is plenty of research to suggest that babies who learn to sign tend to develop speech and language skills at a faster rate than their peers. Signing has also been shown to enhance children’s cognitive development, particularly in areas of thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving. Another inter­esting benefit of learning to sign is that babies learn the meaning of certain words, such as “give” or “thanks,” well before they can speak