The trend for parents to use 'baby sign language' as a way of communicating with their very young children should not take the place of talking to them, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists has warned.
The college stressed that parents should not feel pressured into buying commercial baby signing programmes, or to learn formal systems such as British Sign Language, for children who had no identified risk of speech and language development problems.
The college's chief executive, Kamini Gadhok, said a crucial part of an infant's learning language was by watching and imitating sounds and words made by friends and family.
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