I've heard that as well, but purely in an urban legend sort of way. I've never come across anything reliable that says this is true. (It may be out there, just that I've never seen it.)
I suspect a family that never encourages a child to speak and make mistakes might find that signing slows the speech down. Perfectionism wouldn't be a friend there. But if signing is something used to get the child through from birth to speech, then I can't see why it would slow anything down. It's still communication, so all the neurons are still firing!
(And even if it did slow it down, it wouldn't be from lack of ability, just lack of attempt, which is really not that big a deal...if that makes sense. What I mean is that if you fear failure and have another way to communicate, you might not be willing to try and fail. But you CAN try. You are capable. You just choose not to.)
Last edited by Kriston; 12/28/08 08:42 PM. Reason: Added last paragraph.
