Sign Language

Presented by:

Jinny Talledge

Jan Friest

Why would we teach hearing students to sign?

• Signing is fun, so it is a way to help students become enthused and interested in language.

• Piaget (1955) said that gesture and mime language in movement is the real social language of children.

• Sign language may help trigger left brain activity and brain growth.

• Young children learn from hand to brain v.s. brain to hand. (Redwine, S. 2003)

Is there any research?

• A 1993 study (Marilyn Daniels) found that adding ASL to a pre-K curriculum increased hearing children’s receptive English vocabulary as measured by the PPVT (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test). The PPVT scores of the group taught the manual alphabet, signs to emphasize words, requests and commands, tripled compared to the control group.

• A 1986 study ((Wurm, T) found that incorporating sign enhances the rate of children’s learning.

• Sign can give children a strong visual tool as well as adding a kinesthetic component to learning words, letters and sounds.

• Sign is also something that students can teach their families.

Is sign language really a language?

• Yes and no!!!!!!!!• American Sign Language (ASL) IS a language. It

is used by deaf people in much of North America, but it is not a universal language.

• ASL does not follow the grammar and syntax of English. It evolved to be understood visually by people who can’t hear. It is not designed to be English on the hands. (therefore, there is not an ASL sign for every English word!!!!!!!!!)

Signing Exact English

• Signs from ASL have been placed in English word order and some signs have been created to indicate verb tense, to be verbs and some vocabulary items. This sign system (not language) is called a variety of things. We will call it SEE (signing exact English).

We are not going to teach you ASL in 80 minutes!

• We want you to learn some basic signs and signing basics that you can take back to your classroom to help enhance your student’s literacy.

• We also want you to have some comfort level with signs so you and your students could communicate at some level with a deaf person.

Signing Basics

• Eye Contact

• Facial Expression and body language

• Signer’s perspective.

• Materials available.

Good Web Sites

http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu.infotogo

www.where.com

www.commtechlab.msu.edu

Reindeer Game

• Helps teach eye contact.

American Manual Alphabet

• This is also known as fingerspelling

• There is not a distinction between upper case and lower case letters.

• Your palms face the “listener”, not you.

• Your arm should be at a comfortable level at your side, not extended up or out.

• Fingerspelling doesn’t bounce.

Wild Duck

• A great game to practice focus and concentration.

• It is not as easy as you may think!

Signs

• Teach signs from sheets

• After colors and animals teach Brown Bear

• Numbers

• Play Buzz if time remains

• Go over survival sheets