| Signed speech. Bright Tots information on child development. Signed Speech for Children with Developmental Disorders |
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Signed Speech for Children with Developmental Disorders
Sign language is a great way to communicate with each other. All types of people are now using sign language as a
form of communication. A child who is not verbal, can use signing to express his or her needs.
Teaching a child with a developmental disability sign language with speech will accelerate their ability to speak. One
possible reason is that both forms of communication stimulate the same area of the brain. When utilizing the Signed
Speech method, the area of the brain involved in speech production is receiving stimulation from two sources (signing
and speaking) rather than stimulation from one source (signing or speaking).
Signing is useful for children with autism and other behavioral disorders. Many atypical behaviors associated with
autism and other developmental disabilities, such as aggression, tantrums, self-injury, anxiety, and depression, are often
caused by the inability to communicate to others.
Speech allows the child to communicate using signs and may stimulate verbal language skills. When teaching to use
sign language the child may concentrate their attention on social gestures and turn taking.
When beginning a sign language program, it is best to start with signs expressing basic needs, such as the need to eat,
drink, and use the toilet. In this way, the child will be motivated to use the signs to communicate needs. Learning to
sign may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few months to teach the first sign; but as the child acquires more and
more signs, they will be much easier and faster to learn.
Teaching sign language to children with autism and other developmental disabilities does not interfere with learning to
talk; and there is research evidence indicating that teaching sign language along with speech will actually accelerate
verbal communication.
Benefits of Signed Speech
Signs can be used at different levels.
• As individual words
• To highlight key words in a sentence.
• To sign all the words in a sentence.
• To convey all of the grammatical information in sentences including word endings and verb tenses.
• Attention.
• Memory.
• Understanding vocabulary and concepts.
• Learning to say words.
• Using sentences and developing word order.
• Communication and social skills.
Many children with speech, language and communication difficulties may have and underlying problem with processing
auditory information. They take a longer time to understand spoken information than most children. Using signed
speech when you are talking to a child provides them with 2 input channels to process information: auditory and
visual. Signs last longer than words, so the child has much greater opportunity to successfully understand the
message. In addition, when you use signing, you naturally slow your rate of spoken speech down, which allows more
time for the child to process the information and think about how to respond.
Understanding Language
The initial progress in recognizing and producing signs can be very slow. Once children understand the process of
'learning how to learn' signs, they usually make rapid progress, so it is worth the initial high level of input. Some
children need help learning how to copy and make signs. The adult may need to assist in physically positioning fingers,
as motor planning and sequencing skills may be poor. Signed speech is very good for promoting fine motor skills
development.
Attention
Many children with speech, language and communication difficulties need to be taught how to focus sustain their
attention control successfully. Some children may not be able to filter the 'block out' information: learning environment
may have to be adapted by reducing external stimuli.
When you use signing it is a natural way of encouraging and developing eye contact and looking skills, using signing
helps to focus the child's attention on the speaker. Using signing makes the adult more aware of correct positioning and
physical proximity to enhance learning and communication skills: it encourages the adult to position the child so that
they can see his or her face. The adult is now in a position to monitor and encourage looking and listening skills.
Children using signing also more naturally look at each other, which supports interaction in paired or group work.
Using Language
By accompanying new vocabulary with signed speech, a child's vocabulary retention and accessing skills can be
improved significantly and so can their confidence in making verbal contributions.
Children with speech, language and social communication difficulties often need extra support in learning the rules and
language required for effective social interaction. Teaching children to sign as they speak provides them with secure
means of successfully communicating with peers and adults.*
*Information provided by: Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D. Center of Autism, and Georgiana MacAnley PGSS Using Visual Support
Baby Sign Language
The first year of life sets the stage for the development of language. While most babies will not utter their first words or
sentences until the second year of life, the foundation for language, including sound perception and production,
communicative gestures, and non-linguistic cognition, is pre-speech "conversations” for babies and their parents.
When parents speak and read to a child they foster language development by providing form & structure, ways in
which words are put together, and how to distinguish units of speech. Parents help their infant develop babbling, vocal
turn-taking supports communication development. Focusing on the objects and topics that are of interest to the child
parents provide appropriate feedback and verbal labels to their environment.
Sign language training in infancy has been used as a vehicle for parental support of pre-speech development. Sign
language uses a manual type of communication but provides the same language foundation used in oral communication.
Signing is thought to be easier than oral communication for young infants to master.
Sign language learning is meant to teach infants to express their thoughts. Like verbal language, sign language uses
symbols to represent ideas. The connection between the sign and the object in mind might be easier for the young child
to learn because, as symbols, signs resemble the object in mind more closely than would a word. The use of symbolic
gestures is thought to provide parents with an opportunity to create more meaningful language learning interaction
between themselves and their infants. For example, when a pre-lingual child points out a dog to the mother, the mother
says and signs the word for dog, and then shows her child how to produce the sign by manipulating the child's hands.
This helps the child go beyond pointing to produce the symbol for "dog". Early signing may advance language
development based on evidence that the frequency of care giver-infant interaction predicts vocabulary and cognitive
growth. These methods give children an advantage in early vocal word production.
Baby sign language programs, books and videos claim that using gestural signs to communicate with pre-lingual infants
promotes language acquisition, reduces frustration, increases cognitive functioning, and improves early communication.
A substantial number of programs and products are available to train parents to communicate with their pre-lingual baby
using gestural signing. Claims of benefits range from advancements in language development and literacy to increased
intimacy between parent and infant and decreased infant frustration.
Information provided by University of Ottawa
J. Cyne topshee Johnston
Andree Durieux-Smith
University of Waterloo
Kathleen Bloom
Sign language is a great way to communicate with each other. All types of people are now using sign language as a
form of communication. A child who is not verbal, can use signing to express his or her needs.
Teaching a child with a developmental disability sign language with speech will accelerate their ability to speak. One
possible reason is that both forms of communication stimulate the same area of the brain. When utilizing the Signed
Speech method, the area of the brain involved in speech production is receiving stimulation from two sources (signing
and speaking) rather than stimulation from one source (signing or speaking).
Signing is useful for children with autism and other behavioral disorders. Many atypical behaviors associated with
autism and other developmental disabilities, such as aggression, tantrums, self-injury, anxiety, and depression, are often
caused by the inability to communicate to others.
Speech allows the child to communicate using signs and may stimulate verbal language skills. When teaching to use
sign language the child may concentrate their attention on social gestures and turn taking.
When beginning a sign language program, it is best to start with signs expressing basic needs, such as the need to eat,
drink, and use the toilet. In this way, the child will be motivated to use the signs to communicate needs. Learning to
sign may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few months to teach the first sign; but as the child acquires more and
more signs, they will be much easier and faster to learn.
Teaching sign language to children with autism and other developmental disabilities does not interfere with learning to
talk; and there is research evidence indicating that teaching sign language along with speech will actually accelerate
verbal communication.
Benefits of Signed Speech
Signs can be used at different levels.
• As individual words
• To highlight key words in a sentence.
• To sign all the words in a sentence.
• To convey all of the grammatical information in sentences including word endings and verb tenses.
• Attention.
• Memory.
• Understanding vocabulary and concepts.
• Learning to say words.
• Using sentences and developing word order.
• Communication and social skills.
Many children with speech, language and communication difficulties may have and underlying problem with processing
auditory information. They take a longer time to understand spoken information than most children. Using signed
speech when you are talking to a child provides them with 2 input channels to process information: auditory and
visual. Signs last longer than words, so the child has much greater opportunity to successfully understand the
message. In addition, when you use signing, you naturally slow your rate of spoken speech down, which allows more
time for the child to process the information and think about how to respond.
Understanding Language
The initial progress in recognizing and producing signs can be very slow. Once children understand the process of
'learning how to learn' signs, they usually make rapid progress, so it is worth the initial high level of input. Some
children need help learning how to copy and make signs. The adult may need to assist in physically positioning fingers,
as motor planning and sequencing skills may be poor. Signed speech is very good for promoting fine motor skills
development.
Attention
Many children with speech, language and communication difficulties need to be taught how to focus sustain their
attention control successfully. Some children may not be able to filter the 'block out' information: learning environment
may have to be adapted by reducing external stimuli.
When you use signing it is a natural way of encouraging and developing eye contact and looking skills, using signing
helps to focus the child's attention on the speaker. Using signing makes the adult more aware of correct positioning and
physical proximity to enhance learning and communication skills: it encourages the adult to position the child so that
they can see his or her face. The adult is now in a position to monitor and encourage looking and listening skills.
Children using signing also more naturally look at each other, which supports interaction in paired or group work.
Using Language
By accompanying new vocabulary with signed speech, a child's vocabulary retention and accessing skills can be
improved significantly and so can their confidence in making verbal contributions.
Children with speech, language and social communication difficulties often need extra support in learning the rules and
language required for effective social interaction. Teaching children to sign as they speak provides them with secure
means of successfully communicating with peers and adults.*
*Information provided by: Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D. Center of Autism, and Georgiana MacAnley PGSS Using Visual Support
Baby Sign Language
The first year of life sets the stage for the development of language. While most babies will not utter their first words or
sentences until the second year of life, the foundation for language, including sound perception and production,
communicative gestures, and non-linguistic cognition, is pre-speech "conversations” for babies and their parents.
When parents speak and read to a child they foster language development by providing form & structure, ways in
which words are put together, and how to distinguish units of speech. Parents help their infant develop babbling, vocal
turn-taking supports communication development. Focusing on the objects and topics that are of interest to the child
parents provide appropriate feedback and verbal labels to their environment.
Sign language training in infancy has been used as a vehicle for parental support of pre-speech development. Sign
language uses a manual type of communication but provides the same language foundation used in oral communication.
Signing is thought to be easier than oral communication for young infants to master.
Sign language learning is meant to teach infants to express their thoughts. Like verbal language, sign language uses
symbols to represent ideas. The connection between the sign and the object in mind might be easier for the young child
to learn because, as symbols, signs resemble the object in mind more closely than would a word. The use of symbolic
gestures is thought to provide parents with an opportunity to create more meaningful language learning interaction
between themselves and their infants. For example, when a pre-lingual child points out a dog to the mother, the mother
says and signs the word for dog, and then shows her child how to produce the sign by manipulating the child's hands.
This helps the child go beyond pointing to produce the symbol for "dog". Early signing may advance language
development based on evidence that the frequency of care giver-infant interaction predicts vocabulary and cognitive
growth. These methods give children an advantage in early vocal word production.
Baby sign language programs, books and videos claim that using gestural signs to communicate with pre-lingual infants
promotes language acquisition, reduces frustration, increases cognitive functioning, and improves early communication.
A substantial number of programs and products are available to train parents to communicate with their pre-lingual baby
using gestural signing. Claims of benefits range from advancements in language development and literacy to increased
intimacy between parent and infant and decreased infant frustration.
Information provided by University of Ottawa
J. Cyne topshee Johnston
Andree Durieux-Smith
University of Waterloo
Kathleen Bloom
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