“Proponents of ASL for infants claim that signing can strengthen the parent-child relationship, raise a child’s IQ, and reduce a toddler’s whining and frustration.” (Rosenquests, 2003)

BENEFITS FOR NONDISABLED INFANTS

Communicating Needs

“using sign language promotes the development of enhanced language skills and increased vocabularies, the development of fine motor skills and improved self-esteem.”

“by age 2, young signers can have an average of 50 more spoken words than nonsigners.”

(Staples, 2010)

Infant Empowerment 

“Signing with a child is as much about empowerment as

about communication. It provided Riley, and would provide

other children, with another tool to get their needs met.”

(Berck, 2004)

also signing with infants associated with 12 points higher IQ

when measured later on in elementary school, compared to

non-signing children

Parental Understanding 

“crying and whining were replaced with signing when sign training was implemented” (Thompson, 2007)

greater mutual understanding begets increased bonding

Doesn’t delay vocal language, rather enhances it 

“Data in their study “argue against the theory that the development of gestural system inevitably delays vocal language acquisition.”

Kate’s “signs literally doubled her vocabulary at 15 months, thereby doubling the number of items and events about which she could ‘talk’.”

(Acredolo/ Goodwin, 1985)

THE LITERATURE 

Benefits to educators 

“When children can communicate more clearly, teachers can respond to them more easily, and teachers feel more competent in their own work. ” (Vallotton, 2011)

Benefits for children in school 

“early childhood educators are more responsive to preverbal children when the children are using signs; when children used signs, teachers were better at making eye contact with them, talking to them, being warm and affectionate, and responding to their needs. ”

(Vallotton, 2011)

Benefits for all 

“There are many benefits to using signs with students –from as young as preverbal infants to those in early elementary, all the way to adult students who struggle with reading or those who are learning a new language. Research has also shown benefits for children with special needs including dyslexia, language impairments, Down syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, as well as for both hearing and deaf children in an inclusive education environment. Thus, signs can be used to enhance education for learners of a wide range of ages and abilities.” (Vallotton, 2011)

Discussing Heller’s work, she “showed that in inclusive classrooms, where children who are deaf or hard of hearing are integrated into a classroom with hearing children, the teachers’ use of sign language during instruction seems to benefit both children who are deaf and those who are hearing.”

(Vallotton, 2011)

“For both hearing and deaf children, sign language gives a head start in language learning and can lead to higher achievement in measures of intelligence, academic and social development. Used in the classroom with hearing children, sign language has been shown to assist in reducing the

achievement gap between underprivileged children and their peers.”

(King, 2017)

THE LITERATURE 

Benefits to educators 

“When children can communicate more clearly, teachers can respond to them more easily, and teachers feel more competent in their own work. ” (Vallotton, 2011)

Benefits for children in school 

“early childhood educators are more responsive to preverbal children when the children are using signs; when children used signs, teachers were better at making eye contact with them, talking to them, being warm and affectionate, and responding to their needs. ”

(Vallotton, 2011)

Benefits for all

“There are many benefits to using signs with students –from as young as preverbal infants to those in early elementary, all the way to adult students who struggle with reading or those who are learning a new language. Research has also shown benefits for children with special needs including dyslexia, language impairments, Down syndrome, and Autism spectrum Disorders, as well as for both hearing and deaf children in an inclusive education environment. Thus signs can be used to enhance education for learners of a wide range of ages and abilities.” (Vallotton, 2011)

Discussing Heller’s work she “showed that in inclusive classrooms, where children who are deaf or hard of hearing are integrated into a classroom with hearing children, the teachers’ use of sign language during instruction seems to benefit both children who are deaf and those who are hearing.”

(Vallotton, 2011)

“For both hearing and deaf children, sign language gives a head start in language learning and can lead to higher achievement in measures of intelligence, academic and social development. Used in the classroom with hearing children, sign language has been shown to assist in reducing the

achievement gap between underprivileged children and their peers.” (King, 2017)

GAPS IN THE LITERATURE 

Too Few Studies 

While there are a number of studies that have interesting findings that support the benefits of teaching to sign to infants, they represent a very small sample size of American middle-class white children with professional parents, so I feel they are hard to definitively generalize more broadly.

Lack of diversity 

Unable to find studies with a focus on the potential benefits of teaching sign language to infants and/or if it was of interest to the PIBOC and LGBTQ communities only very limited studies of the benefits of teaching signs to

non-deaf disabled children

Benefits for all? 

maybe another case of “nice, white parents” >> many good critiques indicate the potential thinness of the literature

“To the degree that this early practice in such interactions gives these children of the professional class an advantage in the educational setting, baby signing may play a role in reproducing social hierarchies within the hearing world.”

(Pizer, 2007)

“There is not enough high-quality evidence cited on these websites to draw research-based conclusions about whether teaching sign language to young children with normal hearing results in better developmental outcomes.” (Nelson, 2012)

“gesturing mothers had higher pre-existing stress and were attracted to gesture classes because of the promoted benefits, which include stress reduction, although class attendance did not alleviate their stress.” (Howlett, 2010)

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY 

Albert Bandura (1977) 

“people are active agents in their learning.”

“They are able to think about the processes in learning, and they actively interact with their surroundings, which often results in learning.”

Modeling

“we can learn behaviors by watching how others do things and then imitating those behaviors.”

“if we observe someone being rewarded for a behavior, we are more likely to imitate that behavior to receive the same rewards.”

Self-efficacy 

“is a cyclical process: The more successful experiences that people have, the more likely they are to seek other opportunities that lend themselves to a successful outcome, which helps to further build a sense of competence.”

“parents who feel efficacious in their parenting also feel empowered to manage their responsibilities and to find intrinsic interest in parenting and their children.”

Important way for children to learn 

“helps to put control into the hands of the clients”

“help clients understand how to change undesirable behavior”

(RODGERS, 2019)

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY 

Applied to teaching infants to sign 

“Identifying parents’ strengths and building on those will help increase parents’ feeling of self-efficacy and empowerment, which may in turn help promote their children’s positive development.” (Rodgers, 2019)

by modeling sign language alongside vocalized language, parents are

empowering infants before they have the capacity for oral speech to become more effective communicators

infants have an increased sense of self-efficacy when they are able to

communicate their needs and desires to their caregivers and are less likely to

become frustrated by an inability to communicate thus the desire to increase

their signed vocabulary will increase both the parents and the child benefit from the improved capacity for communication, thus there will be an increase in the interest in parents modeling the signs and the child being receptive to learning those signs, increasing the parent-child bond and mutual feelings of self-efficacy in their respective roles

PERSPECTIVE FROM A LATE-DEAFENED WOMAN:

”I am a strong proponent of teaching all children sign language to help them develop language and communicate before they develop spoken language. The studies I have read support this. There is some support for teaching children on the autism spectrum ASL, too.”

“Opponents fear that ASL will delay language acquisition, but there is no evidence for this. This is why at oral schools signing was prohibited. This adversely affected the Deaf community.”

PERSPECTIVE FROM A SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR, MOTHER OF A 1.5-YEAR-OLD:

“I think there’s some evidence that it helps kids communicate. I like it, we don’t know many signs but the ones she uses are effective. I think it would be cool to teach to all kids in school.”

“I feel confident that she uses the signs she uses deliberately, so I know that I’m understanding what she needs in those moments.”

PERSPECTIVE FROM MSW, LICSW, MOTHER OF THREE:

“ASL can help reduce caregiver stress by providing an additional way of communicating needs – the caregiver is less frustrated by not knowing what the infant needs or wants”

“Pushes along speech development and provides additional parent-child bonding

opportunities” “Improve motor development – using more facial muscles and fine motor skills more frequently” “Provide multiple total communication partners – genuine inclusion” “Improves attentiveness to social cues”

“Reinforces early academic concepts – providing additional access and repetition” “Stronger reading skills”

“ASL = considered bilingual; kids are using both sides of the brain to access language and improve expression across the board”

“More connection=stronger social emotional development= healthier kids all around”

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1) More comprehensive studies of the potential benefits of sign language need to be done to provide better data

2) The benefits should be looked at from a more inclusive perspective: How can teaching sign language to infants benefits learners of all abilities and backgrounds? How can we use bilingualism (ASL and oral language) to promote inclusion in our classroom to the benefit of all learners?

3) ASL should be honored as language and not just a “tool” of the white middle-class to communicate with pre-oral infants. Signs should be learned and taught in a way that creates increased awareness and understanding of the deaf community.

4) Teaching ASL to all children has many potential benefits for parents/children/educators but it needs to be done in a mindful way that doesn’t just reproduce existing hierarchies and inequalities and rather promotes greater equity and justice.

REFERENCES

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BERCK, J. (2004, JANUARY 6). BEFORE BABY TALK, SIGNS AND SIGNALS. WWW.NYTIMES.COM. 

HTTPS://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2004/01/06/HEALTH/BEFORE-BABY-TALK-SIGNS-AND-SIGNALS.HTML 

BAYNTON, D. C., & AYIM, M. (1997). [FORBIDDEN SIGNS: AMERICAN CULTURE & THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST SIGN LANGUAGE]. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, 22(3), 330. 

GAINES, & HALPERN-FELSHER, B. L. (1995). LANGUAGE PREFERENCE AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT OF A HEARING AND DEAF TWIN PAIR. AMERICAN ANNALS OF THE DEAF (WASHINGTON, D.C. 1886), 140(1), 47–55. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1353/AAD.2012.0325 

KIRK, HOWLETT, N., PINE, K. J., & FLETCHER, B. (2013). TO SIGN OR NOT TO SIGN? THE IMPACT OF ENCOURAGING INFANTS TO GESTURE ON INFANT LANGUAGE AND MATERNAL MIND-MINDEDNESS. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 84(2), 574–590. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1111/J.1467-8624.2012.01874.X 

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