"It's just the coolest thing to see this little bitty baby talking," said Michelle Evans, Isabel's mother. "You can say, 'Do you want more?' and she can tell me."

The Allegan youngster isn't hearing-impaired. She's part of a trend sweeping the country in which toddlers with normal hearing are taught sign language as a way to improve communication and reduce temper tantrums.

The practice started more than a decade ago, spurred by a California study that concluded teaching sign language to babies between 9 months and 2 1/2 years old speeds up verbal skills, stimulates intellectual development and strengthens parent-child bonds.

A follow-up study suggested signing also could increase a child's IQ.

That led to the book "Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk," which was followed by other books, CDs, DVDs, Internet sites, flash cards and classes -- including a class held last month in Fennville and sponsored by the Allegan County Intermediate School District. Sign language for babies also has gotten exposure through the hit movie "Meet the Fockers," which features a toddler who can sign.

The premise of the sign-language movement is that children's manual dexterity develops faster than their verbal skills, said Ronda Kuhnert, a teacher consultant for the hearing impaired who helped teach the Fennville workshop.

"Children are able to do things with their hands much sooner than talk," said Kuhnert. "We know that babies gesture and try to communicate with you even if they don't sign. So it only makes sense -- why not teach them more meaningful language?

"Results have shown that children who can communicate by sign show less frustration, have less temper tantrums. They know what they want, they understand what they want in their mind, but they can't tell you."

Parents can start teaching their children to sign by 6 or 7 months, and it can be most helpful when they reach 17 to 22 months, Kuhnert said.

At the workshop, run by Kuhnert and Tammy Hansford, another teacher for the hearing impaired, that meant teaching about 200 signs, including signs for words such as "no," "yes," "cereal," "hungry," "potty," "diaper," "bath" and other things found in a child's world.

Baby sign language -- typically a combination of American Sign Language and signs that parents make up -- isn't intended for someone who is deaf, Hansford said. The signs can be adapted according to where the child is developmentally.

Among those attending the workshop was Misty Warbritton, of Pullman, who planned to teach her young son to sign in hopes it will help him be less whiny, she said.

"Hopefully, this will make our communication better and our life at home better," Warbritton said. "I think it's a great tool to use as a parent."

Being able to see the instructors demonstrate signing was much easier than trying to learn it from a book, said Penelope Muenzer, of Allegan.

Since attending the workshop about a month ago, Muenzer has been working with her 13-month-old son.

"We've been working on (the signs for) 'done,' 'more' and 'milk' the most," Muenzer said. "He's not exactly doing the done sign, but he's making his own. He's definitely pointing to things more now."

Carol Erickson, an audiologist at the Constance Brown Hearing Centers in Kalamazoo, said there's virtually no downside to teaching sign language to a toddler.

"It's stimulating communication," Erickson said. "If a child can communicate earlier, the child will be less frustrated. I don't think it would delay speech at all. ... It would be more like a family that is multilingual."

She said her reading on language development supports the theory that children understand long before they develop the ability to talk and that it's easier for the child to make simple signs than to produce words.

Michelle Evans started teaching Isabel to sign when she was 9 or 10 months old. She said it took Isabel about a week to pick up her first sign after she first started seeing it.

"It's been really nice, because she can say what she wants," Evans said. "You don't have to guess. So it's made life a little easier for her."

From Kalamazoo