The use of American Sign Language (ASL) with:

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The use of American Sign Language (ASL) with

• Babies
• Preschoolers
• School aged children

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Why use ASL with hearing babies?
More

• picture

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Pat Kuhl, Neuroscientist, stated that we used to
think language began at the one year stage when
kids started producing their first words and they
started to understand words. Now what were
learning is well before the stage at which babies
understand or produce any words at all, their
hearing systems are beginning to be sculpted by
language input (Hochberg, May 1997)
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Dr. Joseph Garcia, author of Sign with your Baby
has discovered that babies as young as 6 months
are able to produce basic signs such as milk
or more.
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11-month-old signing baby
To view this video go to http//www.mysmarthands
.com/Site/Baby_Signing_Interview_with_a_signing_ba
by_in_action.html
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Why use ASL, why not make up your own signs?
Eat
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There was a recent study which found that
six-month-old hearing infants exposed to ASL for
the first time prefer it to pantomime lending new
evidence that humans show a broad preference for
languages over non-languages. (Schwarz, 2002)
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When did the use of Sign Language with hearing
children come about?

• A) 1852
• B) 1952
• C) 1982
• D) 2002
• Answer 1852

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Short term effects of using ASL with infants.
water

• Reduces frustration
• Promotes parent/child bonding
• Begins to develop confidence

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Long term effects of using ASL with infants

• Higher IQs when tested at ages 7 8
• Increased spelling skills and reading
  comprehension
• Increased confidence

Finished
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Can teaching a baby Sign Language delay speech?

• ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

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Dr. Marilyn Daniels designed a study with 16
hearing children who knew ASL all but one of the
children had deaf parents. She found they scored
17 higher on the tests she administered than
hearing children who didnt know ASL. Subsequent
research studies with larger groups have found
the same results. (Daniels, 2001)
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Why would this be?

• One reason may be that sign language increases
  overall brain activity, stimulating the formation
  of more synapses, or connections, among brain
  cells.
• Studies with PET scans have shown that childrens
  brains process signing both as a language, in the
  left side of the brain, and as image and
  movement, in the right side of the brain. This
  give the child two places to recall language.

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• They are also being exposed to three different
  inputs visual, observing the gesture audible,
  hearing the word spoken along with the sign and
  physical, feeling the sign used.
• And, as a growing body of research on early brain
  development shows, the more stimulation a child
  is exposed to at an early age, the more
  intelligent he or she is likely to be.

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13-month-old signing baby.
To view this video go to http//www.mysmarthands
.com/Site/Information_piece_on_the_benefits_of_usi
ng_sign_language_with_babies.html
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Why would the use of ASL increase vocabulary and
language development?

• One reason for higher IQs could be that signing
  babies communicate about complex things earlier,
  helping them build the circuitry of their brains.
• A child who signs can elicit more communication
  and responses from adults and older children
  around him providing him with a language-rich
  learning environment that allows him to develop a
  large vocabulary.

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Use of ASL with Preschoolers
Bath
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Research has demonstrated repeatedly that
children retain what they learn through fun,
playful activities that encourage the use of
multiple intelligences

1. Physical learning (movement)
2. Visual learning (seeing)
3. Verbal learning (speaking or listening)
4. Musical learning (music or rhymes)
5. Mathematical learning (reasoning)
6. Interpersonal learning (with other people)
7. Intrapersonal learning (individual learning)

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Laura Bush has stated that, The years between
diapers and the first backpacks will determine
whether a child will succeed in school and make
it to college.

• Hillary Rodham Clinton asked physicians to
  suggest parents read to their young children, and
  she called for greater investment in children
  aged zero to three.

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Penelope Leach states that The more language
they (children) have, the faster thinking will
progress. But the more thinking they are doing,
the more language they will use. So language and
thought even language and intelligence, are
intimately entangled.
Milk
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Research shows when signing is added to the
preschool curriculum, children not only find
signing fun but also show a significant
improvement in receptive English vocabulary and
retain information for a longer period of time.
Marilyn Daniels found that the significant
vocabulary gains made in their pre-kindergarten
years are sustained through their kindergarten
year and remain with them. There is no memory
decay over time. (Daniels 40-49)
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2-year-old signing toddler.
To view this video go to http//www.mysmarthands
.com/Site/Can_signing_delay_speech__NO21__Hear_ho
w_advanced_this_2-year-old_signing_babys_language_
skills_are21.html
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Using ASL in Elementary School
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Confucius, over 2000 years ago said

• If you tell meI will forget
• If you show meI may remember
• If you involve meI will understand.

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Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, developer of American
Sign Language, saw that hearing childrens
language development increased from the use of
sign. This led him to believe that the more
varied the form under which language is presented
to the mind through various senses, the more
perfect will be the knowledge of it acquired, and
the more permanently will it be retained.
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During the early years of the educational process
one of the most important skills, if not the most
important skill, children are required to learn
is reading. ASL has been shown to be beneficial
in helping children in the first years of
elementary school to learn and remember many of
the skills necessary to become great readers.
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Teague, Teague, and Wilson conducted a study with
seven regular first grade students who were
having difficulty learning to spell.

• At the time the students were selected, they
  spelled only 25 to 46 of their words correctly
  on spelling tests.
• When the students used both fingerspelling and
  sign language to learn their spelling words,
  their spelling test scores improved to a range of
  56 to 90 words spelled correctly.
• The students retention of the spelling words at
  the end of the study ranged from 60-90 words
  spelled correctly.

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Jerry Johns, president-elect of the International
Reading Association, says that use of ASL in
classrooms has yet to catch on with mainstream
educators. But, he adds it does utilize
techniques that improve reading skills.
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How to incorporate signing in library programs

• Books
• Songs
• Alphabet / Games

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Books

• When reading and signing to a baby or toddler,
  the child will frequently be more involved with
  the activity.
• Most infants are visual learners and associate
  books as fun. When signing with him/her it
  becomes a game.
• An early introduction of sign language through
  books establishes the joy of reading in a childs
  life.

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Songs

• Children love putting actions to songs, why not
  use signs from a real language as opposed to made
  up movements.
• You can teach specific words and signs and then
  use them in a song these can be based in themes.

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Alphabet / Games

• Children have an easier time learning their
  alphabet when movement and muscle memory is
  involved in their learning.
• You can teach songs with letters in them and have
  the children sign the letters. eg. E-I-E-I-O

• You can play a game with them having one child
  fingerspell a simple word and then having the
  other children guess the word. This is a fun way
  to practice spelling skills.

The letter F
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Hopefully, parents, daycare workers, librarians
and teachers will soon realize the value of
incorporating sign language into their daily
lives!
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Important websites

• My Smart Hands, educating young minds
• www.MySmartHands.com
• Mind Bites (videos on how to sign words and
  songs, go to the parenting kids section)
• www.mindbites.com
• Babies and Sign Language
• www.babies-and-sign-language.com

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Recommended Readings

• Daniels, Marilyn, (2001) Dancing With Words,
  Signing for Hearing Children's Literacy, Bergin
  Garvey, Westport, CT.
• Garcia, Dr. Joseph (2005) Sign with your Baby,
  Northlight Communications, Inc. Seattle, WA

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Resources

• Blackburn, D., Vonvillian, J., and Ashby, R.
  (January 1984). Manual Communication as an
  Alternative Mode of Language Instruction for
  Children with Severe Reading Disabilities.
  Language, Speech and Hearing Services in
  Schools,15, 22-31.
• Bonvillian, J., Cate, S., Weber, W., and Folven,
  R. (Fall 1988). Early Letter Recognition, Letter
  Naming and Reading Skills in a Signing and
  Speaking Child. Sign Language Studies, 271-289.
• Carney, J., Cioffi, G., and Raymond, W. (Spring
  1985). Using Sign Language For Teaching Sight
  Words. Teaching Exceptional Children. 214-217.
• Christensen, K. (1984) Reading Sign Language -
  Use of a Visual-Gestural Mode to Supplement
  Reading Acquisition. Claremont Reading Conference
  Yearbook. 228-231.

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• Daniels, M. (1996). Seeing Language The Effect
  Over Time of Sign Language on Vocabulary
  Development in Early Childhood Education. Child
  Study Journal, 26, 193-208.
• Felzer, L. (1998). A Multisensory Reading Program
  That Really Works. Teaching and Change, 5,
  169-183.
• Good. L. Feekes, J. Shawd, B. (1993/94). Let
  Your Fingers Do The Talking, Hands-on Language
  Learning Through Signing. Childhood Education,
  81-83.
• Hafer, J. (1986). Signing For Reading Success.
  Washington D.C. Clerc Books, Gallaudet
  University Press.
• Hochberg, Lee (1997). Childs Play. www.pbs.org
• Koehler, L., and Loyd, L. (September 1986). Using
  Fingerspelling/Manual Signs to Facilitate Reading
  and Spelling. Biennial Conference of the
  International Society for Augmentative and
  Alternative Communication. (4'th Cardiff Wales).
• Schwarz, Joel (2002). Hearing infants show
  preference for sign language over pantomime.
  www.washington.edu
• Wilson, R., Teague, J., and Teague, M. (1985).
  The Use of Signing and Fingerspelling to Improve
  Spelling Performance with Hearing Children.
  Reading Psychology, 4, 267-273.