Sign language use with babies and young children is an area of growing interest from families and those who work with pre-school youngsters.
The use of signing is now believed to be beneficial to a whole range of children - pre-verbal hearing babies – children who are autistic, dyslexic, have specific speech and/or language difficulties or learning disability, in addition to those with hearing loss.
The visual and kinaesthetic elements involved in signing certainly add new dimensions and alternative channels to help children internalise and take pleasure in language use, and whole group or class involvement is a way of ensuring a rich and inclusive communication environment.
Not only that, but children do seem to love it and there can be little doubt that as a general life skill, it offers all children the potential of improved language and communication skills and to have some confidence and awareness to meet the communication needs of others.
British Sign Language (BSL) is the indigenous natural language of the British Deaf community and forms the basis of other systems such as makaton and Signalong which were developed to help communication with people with special needs and support speech with the signs of BSL vocabulary.
People often express surprise to discover that BSL has only been officially recognised by the government since 2003 and that its use in deaf education only re-emerged in the last 20 years.
Deaf people have always used and valued their language, and BSL was in use by deaf children in schools despite policies against it that were based on the belief that signing would stop deaf children developing speech.
From profoundly Deaf co-writer of Let’s Sign Early Years, Sandra Teasdale (translated from BSL)..…..
.....BSL is my first language, even though my parents and family didn’t sign and I had very little access to it when I was small. It is the language that feels natural and comfortable to me and the only way I can express myself properly. Like my Deaf friends and colleagues, English is not easy for me.
……The important thing is that we all signed – and those who spoke still spoke – signing never stopped them.
Fortunately attitudes and teaching methods have undergone great change. The Baby Signing movement has helped this too - Adele Marshall Baby Signing teacher…..
“In America extensive research has been carried out on the benefits of using some simple signs (derived from genuine sign language, such as BSL) with hearing babies, in order to communicate with them before they are able to express themselves verbally.
Recent research suggests that babies are learning about the foundations of language and making important connections long before it was previously believed….”
There is now a healthy interest in and attitude to sign language use with resultant growth in materials and resources to support this.
A new development for DEAFSIGN is a joint venture with new Baby Signing franchise TalkFirst who also run a deafness and BSL training and consultancy agency, HearFirst.
Julie Ryder, the founder of TalkFirst was already familiar with the Let’s Sign Series of publications and liked the child-friendly graphics.
Julie and her team are developing a comprehensive programme of classes and materials to support Baby Signing groups nationally and have created the character of Dexter (from the word ‘dextrous’) to demonstrate the signs.
Their details and samples of the signs being used can be seen on www.talkfirst.net including some lovely on-line games on talkfirst.net/dexter/
More detail and information can be found on our own National Grid for Learning website www.deafsign.com which details our range of BSL materials, including the ‘LET’S SIGN Early Years collection’ (book, posters and flashcards) as sampled here.
This PDF features the British finger spelling alphabet (right handed version),
