Gestures that babies make -- holding their noses, opening their hands like a book or blowing air, for example -- may actually be a form of sign language, says Linda Acredolo, a UC Davis psychology professor. Babies making the gestures described above are telling about a pig, asking to read and describing something hot, says Acredolo, who researches infants' and toddlers' early efforts to "talk." This symbolic gesturing can help facilitate vocal development and help parents understand more about their children's thinking and memory, say Acredolo and her collaborator, Susan Goodwyn, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus. They have studied more than 140 families and their babies in research funded by the National Institutes of Health. Among their findings is that, by encouraging their children to "talk" through gestures, parents can enrich communication between themselves and their babies. Acredolo will talk about teaching sign language to babies during a UC Davis' Summer Faculty Series lecture at noon Wednesday, Aug. 2 in the Cabernet Room of the Silo.