What was once primarily used as a means to communicate with the deaf and hard of hearing has now become a popular way to communicate with those who cannot speak yet.

Parents are using sign language to communicate with their babies, and it's proving to be a very effective method now and later in life.

Most of us have been there with a crying baby, and if you haven't, consider yourself lucky. He knows what he wants; you could probably give it to him if you only knew what it was.

Marge Liberski, the Regional Coordinator for the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, says, "So mom goes to the cupboard. (Pretends to pull out food and show it to the baby.)This? This? This? That's what you want! And she gives it to him."

Now, more and more parents are learning that using sign language to communicate with their babies relieves much of that frustration for both themselves and their baby.

Liberski says, "Gross motor coordination used to sign comes earlier for any child, so if I wait for a hearing baby to say ‘water,’ it may not happen until possibly 18 months, two years old versus if I sign to them, they can sign ‘water.’ It's baby sign, it's not perfect, but they'll show it and mom knows."

One local mother has now taught all three of her children sign language from the time they were six months old.

Charlotte Schumacher says, "We decided to start using signs, very basic, to help if they're hungry or thirsty or whatever. They'll want to tell you, but they don't have the words."

Schumacher may not be fluent at sign language, but she knows the essential words. She knows signs for 'all done' or 'more' or 'I'm sorry,’ and she never had any concerns her children may start speaking later than their peers. She actually says she really didn't consider how it would affect them later in life, but she was doing them a favor.

Studies are showing that she was helping their verbal skills, actually increasing their vocabulary and improving their test scores for the rest of their lives.

Liberski says, "All this has meaning and that relates to the development of reading ability and of English."

She says that it's a myth that signing would ever prevent the development of speech, a myth she'd like to see disappear.

The Pinsonneault family is living proof of that. With one deaf parent and one hard of hearing, their two girls basically learned two languages from the time they were infants.

Ten-year-old Wasana says, "My parents started teaching us sign language at six months, and once we knew the basics they started teaching us to speak."

Wasana and her sister Rana hear speech from their classmates at school. They have hearing relatives and their mother is able to speak somewhat, all factors in helping their speech.

The two girls do very well in school, and Wasana, though just 10 years old, was able to quite impressively interpret my questions to her father, and while Charlotte doesn't necessarily expect her kids to continue on learning sign language as they grow older, she's happy for the added communication it gives them right now.