By, Shelby Booth, MA CF-SLP
“If I teach my child sign language in the absence of his verbal communication, won’t they rely on it solely and never learn to talk?”
The simple answer: NO!
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There is no empirical evidence/research that says sign language keeps kids from talking. In fact, theoretical research has shown using simultaneous sign and verbal language is a “promising intervention” for promoting spoken language! Theoretical evidence supports that teaching gestures, such as sign language, to children and increasing parent use of gestures ultimately supports spoken word learning! |
Here’s How:
- When children are exhibiting a delay in verbal communication and are not yet talking, sign language provides them a way to communicate and further enhance their language development. Though your child may not be able to verbally say “I want milk,” they’re able to sign to you “milk” or “want milk” increasing their independence and ability to express their wants and needs while still learning the spoken word! In addition, it provides parents with opportunities to build on their responses and share in a communication exchange with their child!
- It has been shown children with language delays are at risk for less interaction and conversational efforts by adults. This can further compromise the language learning experience as the child is not a part of communication exchanges. Incorporating sign language into language learning allows the child to initiate a conversational exchange and gives the parent an opportunity to follow the child’s lead!
- Even children who do not experience a language delay benefit from simultaneous sign and verbal communication as parents become more responsive to their child’s nonverbal gestures/cues!
- For children who experience difficulties with processing information auditorily, sign language can help in their abilities to process language through different areas in their brain!
- Spoken language is solely processed through the auditory cortex. With the addition of sign language to spoken language, both the auditory and visual cortices are being activated and provides more opportunities for a child to learn language.
- Interpreting language visually also provides opportunities for a child to engage in joint attention, an important prelinguistic skill for language and communication development!
When it comes time to choosing word pairs (spoken and signed), it’s important to choose words that are meaningful to your child, have a high recurrence/use rate, and are appropriate for the age of the child. For instance, for a child who is two some of these words could include: more, all done, eat, mom, dad, ball, book, yes, no, milk, help, etc. The ultimate goal is for a child to communicate their wants/needs, using spoken and sign language simultaneously only provides them additional ways to reach these goals!
References: Lederer, S. H., Battaglia, D. (2015). Using Signs to Facilitate Vocabulary in Children With Language Delays. Infants and Young Children, 28(1), pp 18-31.