Yet after eating a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt she told her mom exactly what else she wanted -- water and an apple -- using a few simple gestures.

"She even uses it with other people, but they don't always know what she's doing," Weiner said as she watched her daughter with pride.

Sophie isn't deaf or hearing impaired -- her current vocabulary consists of "Mommy" and a few other basic words -- but by using American Sign Language, she's able to communicate about 45 signs with her parents. Her mom taught her after reading a book and watching a video about it.

Weiner is one of many parents teaching their babies sign language to help them gain early communication skills.

"I've read a lot about it and it just made sense. They understand so much but they just have a hard time conveying it verbally, so this is better," she said.

The growing interest on the subject has prompted the Betty and Leonard Phillips Deaf Action Center to offer a class for parents starting next week. At least 15 parents already have registered for the class.

"I have found that parents are interested in doing whatever they can to help their child prepare for school and develop and, right now, research has supported what we, people in the field of deafness, have always known -- that hearing children benefit greatly from learning sign language at a young age," said David Hylan, executive director of the center.

One of the first studies to highlight these benefits was conducted by researcher Joseph Garcia, who in 1987 found babies who are exposed to signs regularly and consistently at 6 to 7 months of age can begin to use expressive communication by the eighth or ninth month.

Studies also show children who are exposed to sign language at an early age typically have increased vocabulary and improved reading skills, according to SmallTalkLearning.com, an educational sign language Web site. And a groundbreaking study by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development found babies exposed to signs outperformed nonsigning babies in every comparison.

Kelly Gosslee's interest in teaching her 11-month-old son, Callaway, started with a segment she watched on television one morning. "It was on 'Good Morning America' a month ago and they were showing the results of this study they did with these children they'd followed from birth up to age 16. And the children who learned sign language had higher testing scores and communication skills compared to the group of children who hadn't learned sign language," she said.

Later that day, Gosslee ran into Weiner and her daughter while shopping and was impressed with Sophie's skills. That's when she began teaching her son.

"Right now, we've just been doing the basic words and phrases like 'milk,' 'book,' 'more' and 'all done.' He doesn't sign back to me yet, but when I sign to him he knows what I'm saying. Like if I sign 'ball' he goes and gets the ball," she said.

Like Weiner, Gosslee doesn't use a set routine. She teaches Callaway more signs as she learns them. "It's mainly just repetition and spending time with them. Every time I say 'ball' we do the sign, or every time I say 'Let's take a bath,' we do a sign," Gosslee said.

Hylan has seen firsthand the benefits of hearing children learning to sign at a young age. "Research recommends starting at 7 months, but with my own three children (who are nondeaf,) I've signed with them from the time they were born. It's never too early and never too late," he said.

In fact, his daughter, Kristi Hylan, will be the instructor for the new class.

For Weiner, Sophie's ability to sign gives her a better way to know what's going on in her daughter's mind. "When she's in pain she does the sign for medicine. Or when something is hot, she knows how to tell me, she lets me know. It's also a way for her to tell a story. Like now at night time when she sees the moon, she does the sign for banana, because to her, the moon looks like a banana shape," she said. "She's even made up a sign for Bruiser, our cat."

After Weiner fulfilled her daughter's alternate snack request, she took a moment to quiz her. Propped in her baby seat, her tiny legs and feet dangling below, Sophie eagerly demonstrated sign after sign as Weiner randomly called out words like "jacket," "car" and "hat." She even remembered the sign for "friend" which Weiner taught her the night before.

"The words she uses a lot are the words that have meaning to her," Weiner said. "Of course, babies can't have conversations, but she understands what I'm saying to her and I can understand her and that's great."

By Donecia Pea