At One Heart Academy all of our staff is trained in the Baby Signs Curriculum. We all have stories to tell about the amazing benefits of using sign language to create a language rich environment even before a child is able to speak.

Baby Signs Curriculum

Baby Signs, the ORIGINAL sign language program for hearing babies, has been bringing powerful, research-proven benefits to babies and their families around the world for over 25 years. The Baby Signs Program is the world's leading program for hearing infants and toddlers because it is the only program that:

was developed by child development experts specifically for hearing babies.

 has been scientifically tested and proven to provide positive benefits for babies and their families.

is based on American Sign Language with added flexibility to meet the needs of all families.

The Benefits of Baby Sign Language

Over two decades of research by Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn, much of it funded by the National Institutes of Health, has shown that using the Baby Signs Program provides many benefits for children and their parents. Using the Baby Signs Program . . .

Reduces tears, tantrums and frustration

Makes learning to talk easier

Boosts self-esteem and self-confidence

Stimulates intellectual development

Strengthens the parent-child bond

Using the Baby Signs Program reduces tears, tantrums and frustration.

By the time babies are 9 to 10 months old, they are quite capable of knowing what it is they need or want. What they don't know is how to tell us with words-which leads directly to frustration for baby and parent alike. All this changes when a baby is able to use signs. With signs like "eat," "drink," "hot" and "cold," literally at their fingertips, babies can make their needs known quickly and quietly without becoming frustrated and resorting to tantrums and tears. No wonder the answer we most frequently get from parents when we ask how using the Baby Signs Program has changed daily life is decreased frustration! 

Using the Baby Signs Program makes learning to talk easier.

Some parents may worry that encouraging their child to use signs might slow down learning to talk. Actually, the opposite is true! Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn's federally funded research showed that using the Baby Signs Program actually helps babies learn to talk. They found that 2-year-old Baby Signers had significantly larger verbal vocabularies than their non-signing peers. And by the time they were three years old, the Baby Signers language skills were more like that of 4 years old. Babies gain a lot of language knowledge when they are able to actively engage in communication with signs-knowledge that lays a good foundation for learning to talk. And, just as a child who learns to crawl is more, rather than less, motivated to learn to walk, so also a child who learns to sign is more, rather than less, motivated to learn to talk! 

Using the Baby Signs Program boosts self-esteem and self-confidence.

What good self-esteem boils down to for any of us is the sense that we are perceived as both competent and valued in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. And that's just what the ability to use signs gives to babies. Because they can communicate effectively with their caregivers, and because their caregivers respond so positively to these communications, Baby Signs babies develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments that lays a solid foundation for the development of their self-esteem and self-confidence. 

Using the Baby Signs Program stimulates intellectual development.

Children who had participated in Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn's study were revisited again when they were 8 years old. Each child was assessed using the WISC-III, a typical IQ test for children. The results were very impressive. After controlling for family income, parents' education and a number of other factors know to influence IQ, children who had signed as babies had significantly higher IQs (an average of 114) than the children who had not signed (an average of 102). That's a full 12 points higher!

Using the Baby Signs Program strengthens the parent-child bond.

Because Baby Signs babies are able to communicate effectively with their caregivers, the number of positive interactions goes up and the number of negative interactions goes down. In other words, when a baby and parent can truly understand each other and share what's on their minds, they feel more connected to one another.With signs, even very young children can "tell" their caregivers they would like some milk, they saw an airplane or they heard a dog barking. They can let their caregivers know whether they are happy, sad or even afraid. Life with a Baby Signs baby becomes a shared life and with greater sharing comes a stronger, sweeter parent-child bond. 

Baby Sign Language and Beyond....

The Benefits of Using American Sign Language with Preschoolers 

by Laura Berg

Every parent knows that young children love movement and actions. When you sing songs and put actions to them, children always want to perform those actions. For example, when you see a child singing ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’ he or she automatically starts making the motions of moving the spider “up the spout” and having “the rain fall and wash the spider out”. Actions help children remember the words to the song because there is muscle memory involved. The more senses involved in learning; the greater memory retention the child will have.

Research has demonstrated repeatedly that children retain what they learn through fun, engaging activities that encourage the use of Gardner’s seven multiple intelligences:
1. Linguistic intelligence (sensitivity to meaning and order of words)2. Logical-mathematical intelligence (mathematic and complex logic systems) 3. Music intelligence (music or rhymes).4. Spatial intelligence (the ability to think in pictures) 5. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (movement and doing).6. Interpersonal intelligence (with other people).7. Intrapersonal intelligence (individual learning).
The use of American Sign Language (ASL) is a perfect way to supplement any preschool curriculum because it can be used with all of the multiple intelligences. In linguistic intelligence you always speak while making specific signs so students are being exposed to two different learning modes for one word.
With logic-mathematical, children can see a pattern of language and how it forms. Musical; you can add signs to common music or rhymes that the children already know. Bodily-kinesthetic; our hands are moving to make the signs so children can feel the words or letters.
In spatial learning, the child can see the sign being made. Interpersonal; the child can sign with a group, parent or teacher. And finally, with intrapersonal learning, the child can also sign when on his/her own when reading stories.
Well-known people are also beginning to realize that it is the early years of life that are crucial for future success. 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.” First Lady Bush addressing the Senate Education Committee on January 25, 2002. 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. (Lee Hochberg, 1997)
Children need a strong foundation to build on. We need to start educating and teaching our children at a very young age. Instill the love of reading and learning in them early so that it will stay with them throughout their lives.

Children and Learning

Penelope Leach, when talking about children and learning said, “The more language they 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.” (Leach, 1990)
When children are taught English and ASL together they are processing language using both sides of their brains. They process verbal sounds on the left side of the brain and ASL as pictures and images on the right side of the brain, giving them two places to recall language from.
So, if language is an essential part of children’s development, and the use of multiple intelligences is important when teaching, it is the next logical step to include the use of ASL in the preschool curriculum. When ASL is used in combination with spoken language it reinforces the learning of educational concepts such as ABC’s, animals and other specific themes. Research shows that children find signing fun and it includes them in their learning process.
Dr. Marilyn Daniels, professor at Pennsylvania State University, designed a study with 16 hearing preschoolers 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)
I have a colleague who is Deaf and has a hearing son who is now in kindergarten. Her son began to read when he was 3 and a half. In kindergarten, his class reads a series of books measured by difficulty. Most children in his class are on levels A and B; while he is sailing through levels M and N. The school has since placed him in a gifted program with older children for reading so he doesn’t get bored. His mother attributes his reading success to signing while young, as well as learning the manual sign language alphabet at an early age.
ASL is such a beautiful language and can greatly benefit our preschool-aged children. I would like to encourage everyone to use ASL with young children to compliment their existing programs, be it in a library, daycare, preschool or at home.

References:
Daniels, M. (2001). Dancing With Words: Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy. Bergin & Garvey, Publisher. Westport, CT.
Leach, P (1990). Your Baby & Child. Alfred A Knopf, Publisher. New York, NY.
Hochberg, L. PBS news hours, “Child’s Play” May 29, 1997