Baby sign language is a growing movement. Pointing to a color1ful flower, Campbell lifts her baby's soft hand, and rapidly moves it from one side of his nose to the other as she sniffs  ."Flower!" she says loudly. Gregory smiles and looks carefully. It could be a year before Gregory, 4 months old, can speak, but now his mother hopes to communicate with her baby through sign language. Like others around the world, Campbell is part of a growing movement of parents teaching hearing babies simple signs to communicate before they can talk. The baby sign language has been more popular in recent years. The movie,"Meet the Fockers",where the main character teaches his young grandson to sign, makes it well developed. Babies generally begin to talk between 12 and 15 months, but babies can use sign language to communicate before they learn how to speak. "We know they are learning language faster than they are able to show you with their speech production because that system takes a long time to develop." says McRoberts, director of developmental research at the Haskins Laboratories. "They are understanding words before they are able to say them. From around 16 to 18 months, they might say 50 words but understand 200.They understand short sentences well." says McRoberts. Studies have shown deaf children learn to use sign language earlier than hearing children learn to speak meaningfully. As to whether hearing babies can communicate earlier with sign language, McRoberts says,"I think that's still unknown. It may not. I'm very interested in that very question." Many parents teach their babies sign language mainly to   _  .
communicate with their babies make their babies learn English fast make their babies clever make their babies interested in language