The use of American Sign
Language (ASL) with:
Babies
Preschoolers
School aged children
Why use ASL with hearing babies?
More
picture
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 we’re 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)
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’.
11-month-old signing baby
To view this video go to:
http://www.mysmarthands.com/Si
te/Baby_Signing_Interview_with_
a_signing_baby_in_action.html
Why use ASL,
why not make up your own
signs?
Eat
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)
When did the use of Sign Language with
hearing children come about?

A) 1852
B) 1952
C) 1982
D) 2002

Answer: 1852



Short term effects of using
ASL with infants.
water

Reduces frustration

Promotes parent/child bonding

Begins to develop confidence
Long term effects of using
ASL with infants

Higher IQ’s when tested at ages 7 & 8

Increased spelling skills and reading comprehension
Finished

Increased confidence
Can teaching a baby Sign
Language delay speech?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
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 didn’t know ASL. Subsequent
research studies with larger groups
have found the same results. (Daniels,
2001)
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
children’s 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.

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.
13-month-old signing baby.
To view this video go to:
http://www.mysmarthands.com/Si
te/Information_piece_on_the_ben
efits_of_using_sign_language_wi
th_babies.html
Why would the use of ASL increase
vocabulary and language development?

One reason for higher IQ’s 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.
Use of ASL with
Preschoolers
Bath
Research has demonstrated repeatedly that children
retain what they learn through fun, playful activities
that encourage the use of multiple intelligences:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Physical learning (movement)
Visual learning (seeing)
Verbal learning (speaking or listening)
Musical learning (music or rhymes)
Mathematical learning (reasoning)
Interpersonal learning (with other people)
Intrapersonal learning (individual learning)
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.
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
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)
2-year-old signing toddler.
To view this video go to:
http://www.mysmarthands.com/Si
te/Can_signing_delay_speech__
NO%21__Hear_how_advanced_t
his_2-yearold_signing_babys_language_skil
ls_are%21.html
Using ASL in
Elementary School
Confucius, over 2000 years ago said:
If you tell me…I will forget;
If you show me…I may remember;
If you involve me…I will understand.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, developer of
American Sign Language, saw that hearing
children’s 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.”
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.
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.
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.
How to incorporate signing in library programs

Books

Songs

Alphabet / Games
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 child’s life.
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.
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
Hopefully, parents, daycare workers,
librarians and teachers will soon realize
the value of incorporating sign language
into their daily lives!
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
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
Resources
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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, 2231.
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, 271289.
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). Child’s 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.