"It's so much fun," said Leghart, who teaches signing classes for parents and grandparents and their children and grandchildren in her role as a certified member of the Sign2Me Presenters' Network. "Children just take to it. It's like a secret code ---- a secret hand language. And it can open our eyes to their precious little brains right from the start."

Leghart said she started signing with her son when he was 7 months old and that by the time he was 18 months old he was using 86 signs.Ý

She said sign language is a great way for parents to communicate with their hearing babies months before they ever utter their first word, and that because signing babies can communicate their needs they're less frustrated and less prone to fits of crying.

Leghart said sign language for hearing infants is such a hot trend that parents everywhere have started asking one another, "Are you signing?"

"It's never too early or too late to sign," she said, adding that it's important for adults to understand that they should be patient and to make the learning sessions for their infants fun.

Leghart said she begins her classes ---- held on selected Saturdays in the community room at the Mission branch library in Oceanside through the summer ---- by going over the benefits of signing before teaching adults and their babies three practical signs, for the words "milk," "more" and "eat."

She said she then leads her group of moms and toddlers in singing songs like "Itsy Bitzy Spider" and the "Silly Pizza Song" while signing key words in the songs.

In a class earlier this month, the toddlers seemed to enjoy the songs and sign language almost as much as the parents, and everyone clapped enthusiastically when the music ended.Ý

Parents said they were very pleased with the class.

"It's a great way to communicate without screaming," said Jennifer Brown, who brought her 7-month-old son Joseph to the class. "I've read (signing) can ease a baby's frustration and even improve language skills later."

She said, for example, that 2-month-old infants have learned to tug on their ear as a way to say they're in some sort of pain.

"They use gestures right away," she said.

The idea of signing with hearing babies began in the late 1980s when Joseph Garcia, an American child development expert, discovered through his research thatÝ babies who were consistently exposed to signs could begin expressive communication by their eighth or ninth month.

Subsequent studies have shown that children who sign talked sooner rather than later and had a slightly higher average IQ than non-signing children by the time they were 8.

Last year's hit comedy "Meet the Fockers," in which a signing baby draws some of the film's biggest laughs, appears to have made signing classes for hearing babies even more popular.

Christi Zinniger, another parent who attended Leghart's most recent class, said her older son Michael, now 2 1/2 years, started signing before he started to speak, and that now he's signing with his younger brother, Daniel who will be 1 next month.

"My mother and brother took sign language in college, and when I read articles about how sign language has helped develop speaking skills in children who have brain damage, I got interested," Zinniger said. "We're learning American Sign Language in our family as a second language.Ý Signs are easier than saying words.Ý (Infants and toddlers) pick it up so quickly, and it does fulfill a language requirement for college."

What: American Sign Language classes

Who: For parents and grandparents and their infants and toddlers

Cost: Free

Instructor: Lonna Leghart; (760) 277-5202

When: June 25, July 30,ÝAug. 27

Note: Leghart also offers private lessons for $20 an hour and is organizing a free play group for 6- to 12-month-olds.

By Ruth Marvin Webster, North County Times