Research and Information On Signing for Children

General Information on Signing with Hearing Children

American Sign Language, ASL, works, provides wonderful benefits, enhances early learning and is fun and playful.

There are many benefits that children receive when parents, teachers, caregivers incorporate  American Sign Language, ASL, into the lives of all hearing babies, toddlers, preschoolers and elementary school children.    There are many products featuring activities for children that present themselves as a way to develop genius or increase IQ scores.   Most of these claims seem to be nothing more than an advertising ploy.  However, claims made about have been demonstrated for years and are supported by research and solid proof.  We Sign products have been designed for parents, teachers and caregivers to learn how to use sign language effectively as a communication skill, a support for early learning, and as fun bonding activities.

Why signing works is actually very simple and it is something that we all already know the reasons why.  Signing allows children to be involved in the learning process.  Signing provides a way to learn that is visual, physical, playful and interactive.   All together this provides children with a rich way to learn that accelerates their ability to communicate understand and use language.

Signing is a hand’s on learning style that engages children.  Involved learning is the oldest form of education and our universal human experience teaches us that this is true. 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.”

Current studies have shown that people will retain:

• Only about 10% of information told to them after 3 days;
• About 20% of information shown to them after 3 days;
• 65% of information they are involved in learning after 3 days. 1

Other studies have shown that we retain:

• 10 percent of what we read;
• 20 percent of what we hear;
• 30 percent of what we see;
• 50 percent of what we hear and see at the same time;
• 70 percent of what we hear, see and say; and
• 90 percent of what we hear, see, say and do.  2

Signing is fun and children enjoy the activity.  They love the challenge that sign provides.  They love the playfulness of signing activities.   Playful learning is important. Lev Vigostky, a renowned researcher in the field of child development, believed that play was an indispensable part of learning and development.   Fergus Hughes, in the book Play and Intellectual Development, states that “considering the importance of motor activity in the acquisition of knowledge, it seems clear that creative movement as a form of play can be an enriching intellectual experience.”  3 He goes on further to say that movement and play is a highly effective way to teach children almost anything they need to learn.

Playful learn must remain fun.   It is important to keep all playful activities fun and not allow them to become tedious or burdensome.  John Holt wrote in his book How Children Learn "If we take away the fun…we will destroy that which we are trying to do. “  4 Signing is fun for children. Researcher and writer, Marilyn Daniels, states in her book Dancing With Words that children “find an inherent joy in signing,” and that using Sign Language is fun!  5

American Sign Language, ASL, is a structured language with its own structure, syntax and vocabulary.  It is a visual and movement oriented language that uses hand, arm, facial and body movements.  When children learn ASL words they are learning vocabulary to one of the most commonly used languages in the United States.  We Sign uses ASL signs used in a spoken English word order.  This is called Contact Signing.  Contact Signing is the combination of ASL signs and concepts but used in a spoken English word order.  ASL word order is quite different from English word order. In general, ASL word order is the reverse of English, where we place the descriptor before the object, as in a white house, or a large brown leather chair and so on. In ASL the order would be house white and chair leather brown large.  6

Signing has grown to become valuable to hearing children. The benefits include:

• A “hands-on” method of communicating their wants and needs – helping to reduce crying screaming, and temper tantrums.
• Helps to ease parental communication frustrations.  Parents can know what their child is interested in.
• Provides parents with an insight into the world of their preverbal and newly verbal toddlers.
• Accelerates language development – often giving signing children twice the usable vocabulary of their non-signing friends.
• Stimulates brain development.
• Provides for increased communication skills that help to expand language and knowledge (scaffolding). Giving children a “Jump Start on Smart” in preparation for elementary school.
• Develops fine and gross motor skills.
• Stimulates eye-hand coordination.
• Stimulates memory retention and recall.
• Improves reading readiness.
• Develops confidence and positive self-esteem.
• Provides for a fun parent child / teacher child bonding activity.
• Fosters an enthusiasm for learning.
• Is a fun and playful activity.
• Supports the learning of language and educational basics – ABC's, Colors, Numbers, Rhymes, Animals, Phonics, and vocabulary.

From as early as the mid 1800's advantages offered to hearing children who signed were documented. 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 the various senses, the more perfect will be the knowledge of it acquired, and the more permanently will it be retained," (Daniels p.126)

This “varied form” or multi-sensory approach to learning has been widely embraced. Leading the way is Howard Gardner who says there are multiple ways we learn. His list of Multiple Intelligences is widely accepted today. Basically, children do not have fixed intelligence nor do they all learn the same way. Children learn in multiple ways and their intelligence is developing continuously.

Here are Gardner's multiple intelligences and how singing and signing relate to each:

• Physical learning (movement); Signing provides this through hand manipulation, arm and body movement and facial expression;
• Visual learning (seeing): Hand signs are visual by their nature and many of them are iconic (signs that look like what they are);
• Verbal learning (speaking or listening): When singing and signing, children combine words and signs together, simultaneously as they are talking, singing and listening to songs;
• Musical learning (music, rhythm, melody): Singing our wide collection of songs provides rhythms, rhymes and melodies;
• Mathematical learning (reasoning): This is encouraged as a result of the structure and sequencing involved in singing songs;
• Interpersonal learning (with other people): The entire family and the entire class will benefit from signing together and will learn from this interaction.
• Intrapersonal learning (individual learning): We Sign videos and DVD's provide children a way to interact, on an individual basis, with songs and signing.

Gardner goes on to say that he believes it is important to developing children, that they are exposed to rich learning environments allowing them to explore and use as many of these intelligences as possible.

Singing and signing activities work to increase a child's knowledge because they are fun and playful activities, children can succeed in mastering the actions and because they provide rich learning environments allowing the use of multiple learning styles.

There is no doubt that signing and signing activities provide real benefits to children of all ages.  It is fun, playful and interactive. It incorporates a wide variety of learning styles and is based on basic the human experience of “if you involve me I will remember.”   We Sign provides parents and grandparents, teachers and caregivers a variety of ways to incorporate sign into early learning while having fun interacting with children.  We strongly believe that it signing and our signing products are interactive and designed engage adults and children alike.

Notes:

1. Dale, Edgar. Researcher.
2. Pica, Rae, Wiggle, Giggle, and Shake, Gryphon House, Beitsville, MD, 2001.
3. Hughes, Fergus P., Children, Play and Development Third Edition, Viacom Company, Needham Heights, MA 1991. (pg. 181).
4. Holt, John, How Children Learn, Perseus Books, Cambridge Mass. 1983. (pg. 56).
5. Daniels, Marilyn, Dancing With Words, Signing for Hearing Children's Literacy, Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT, 2001. (pg. 715).
6. Daniels, Marilyn, Frawley, Ken and Georgia, Sign To Speak – Babies Can Talk, Production Associates, Inc, Orange, CA, 2010.  (Sign to Speak – Babies Can Talk. (pg. 36).