Unlike most babies, who communicate through varying degrees of crying or whining, Melissa, 2, tells her mother what she wants by using American Sign Language.

Melissa doesn't have hearing problems. Neither do Lemke and her husband, Steve.

They are, however, proponents of one of parenthood's latest trends: "Baby signing." Parents throughout the nation have turned to teaching sign language to pre-verbal babies in order to increase communication between parents and their children. As interest and popularity swells in the practice, classes have popped up in San Jose, offered in mother support groups, local churches, and people's homes. Many local caretakers at nurseries and child-care centers have also recently begun using sign language to communicate with toddlers.

Almaden Valley resident Kathleen Kurtz has been signing with her 20-month-old son Cullen for almost a year. Cullen is very adept at telling his parents when he's hungry, when he wants more of something, or when he's through. He also has a knack for pointing out airplanes and birds—and he lets his mother know with the appropriate sign.

Kurtz echoes Lemke's support of baby signing, explaining that baby signing has added a deeper bond between her self and her baby.

"It's added a sense of closeness between us," she says. "The fact that we worked with him and signed with him, that's something that's special between us that he doesn't do with other people."

The trendsetter of baby signing is Joseph Garcia, who started researching the benefits of sign language in early childhood development in 1985. He was inspired when he visited the family of a deaf friend and saw a 10-month-old baby communicate with his deaf parents using American Sign Language. He later made this the topic of his master's thesis.

During his research, he discovered that hearing children begin replicating signs as early as eight months, with some exceptional children doing so as early as six months.

He found that infants may lack the motor skills necessary to produce spoken language but don't lack the conceptual ability to understand and use language.

Garcia's book Sign With Your Baby became a must-read for parents who wanted to teach sign language to their children. Garcia also inspired Northlight Communications, a multinational and multimillion-dollar business that publishes educational materials about baby sign language.

"When my company first published Joseph Garcia's book Sign With Your Baby in 1999, the book stayed as Amazon's best selling parenting title for six months. It is still one of the most popular parenting books," says Bob Tarcea, president of Seattle-based Northlight.

Kurtz and Lemke learned sign language from books, including Sign With Your Baby, and both took courses locally from family therapist and baby-signing trainer Mika Gustavson.

Gustavson, 36, starts her class by teaching parents such signs for such basic words and phrases as milk, changing diapers, more, pain and water. "These are just a few useful words, but they can significantly reduce the frustrations of both parents and babies," says Gustavson, who became a baby-signing instructor based on the experience of teaching her son, Seth Berlin.

Gustavson says 90 percent of her students are stay-at-home parents. Many become interested in the program to be more connected with their babies. Many of these parents are engaged in other activities that can stimulate their babies.

Almaden Valley mother Chantal-Marie Jordan has been trying to teach her 8-month-old son, Curran, only in the last few weeks, and although Curran hasn't yet made his first sign, Jordan says she's confident that baby signing will only improve her relationship with her baby.

"Call me crazy, but I think he really does understand what I'm saying. The comprehension is there long before there's a way to reciprocate," she says.

While signing helps some babies to get a head start in learning language, it also helps children who have speech-delay problems, Gustavson says.

Tina Baggott, 39, says signing has helped her communicate with her 18-month-old daughter, Charlotte, who has a speech delay. Baggott tried to teach Charlotte sign language when she was 1 year old, but Charlotte showed little interest and Baggott gave up. But about three months ago, Baggott started teaching Charlotte sign language again when a doctor diagnosed Charlotte with a speech delay. Now Charlotte can make more than 30 signs.

"Charlotte used to get frustrated because she couldn't get her points across. Now she is happier and looks so proud of herself," Baggott said. "That makes my life much easier, too, since I have two more babies to take care of." Baggott just gave birth to twins four months ago.

Gustavson said that baby signing also in no way replaces verbal communication and does not slow the development of speech.

"The most frequently asked question I get from parents is if teaching babies sign language will cause speech delay. The answer is no," Gustavson says. "Actually, signing babies tend to have a better grasp of grammar, syntax and vocabulary than children of the same age [who don't sign]."

Kurtz agrees, noting that Cullen's vocal development hasn't been altered at all by baby signing. He's just as chatty as any of his peers, but he has an alternative method that can get his point across if his verbalizations aren't doing the trick.

"It hasn't affected his verbal development at all," she says. "In the last three months, he had picked up more words. In the last couple months he picked up a couple of signs. If he's tired and he doesn't want to say the words or he wants to have special time with one of us, he signs to us."

Despite its numerous benefits, teaching sign language to babies demands a lot of effort from the parents. Many parents give up in the first few months because their babies don't sign back to them.

Jordan says she learned that fact when on an outing to a park recently. Another mother, who was signing fluently with her baby, explained that it seemed her child would never take to signing.

"Her child did signing classes, and it was taking months and months, and nothing was happening, and the parents started to give up, and they decided it wasn't working and then their child signed to them that day," she said.

Gustavson says learning sign language is no different from learning spoken language.

"When children first say water, they don't say water. They say wawa. The mother has to keep saying water until the child can finally say water," Gustavson says. "The same is true with sign language."

Gustavson says to encourage their babies, parents should not correct their children when their children make an inaccurate sign. "Don't mess with their hands. Don't get frustrated when the babies get the signs wrong. Just keep responding to them. Eventually it will come around," she says. "Learning should be fun."

I-Chun Che contributed to this report.

For more information about Secure Beginnings, contact Mika Gustavson at 408.626.8444 or http://www.securebegin.com.