The Issues: Using Sign Language and Fingerspelling
to Facilitate Early Literacy Skills
The
use of sign language and fingerspelling offers a "hands on" beginning
to literacy! Early childhood educators are embracing the challenge of providing
the fundamental skills necessary for successful reading. Research has
heightened awareness of the developmental continuum of skills necessary to
produce good readers. Backed by this research, most reading readiness programs
incorporate the basic components of oral language development, phonemic
awareness and print knowledge. Many teachers are discovering that sign language
and fingerspelling are fun and productive ways to actively engage young
children in the process.
What are sign language and fingerspelling?
Sign
language and fingerspelling are terms that are typically associated with the
Deaf. Sign language is the use of a hand shape, movement and placement to
represent a word or concept. Fingerspelling is the use of hand positions to
represent letters of the alphabet.
Why is the use of sign language and fingerspelling
an effective tool in teaching reading?
Benefits children
There is growing interest in the use of sign language with normal hearing
children. Howard Gardner's research on multiple intelligences has helped
teachers identify the myriad of learning styles present in any classroom. The
teacher will find that the use of signs and fingerspelling will accommodate a
wide range of learning styles. A "verbal linguistic" child loves the
process of learning another language. The "kinesthetic" child is
motivated naturally by movement. The "interpersonal" child loves
being involved in a group activity. The benefit of using this system is the
representation of information through seeing, hearing, and movement. The more
pathways created in the brain, the stronger the memory. Not only that, teachers
are observing that children are interested in sign language and tend to acquire
it easily.
Integrates easily into most reading programs
Sign language and fingerspelling deliver additional clues for learning to read.
Reading is an acquired skill that requires a planned sequence of skill
development. A variety of reading programs, based on excellent research models,
lays the foundation in the early childhood years. The use of sign language and
fingerspelling is a strategy that can be integrated into almost any existing
reading program.
What are the key elements addressed by the use of
sign language and fingerspelling in developing early literacy skills?
Sign language supports oral language development
A child's level of oral language competency reveals information about his
ability to comprehend the meaning of the spoken or printed word. Children with
weak oral language skills struggle with the reading process. The young child
who has fewer opportunities for oral language development, for example an
English Language Learner, benefits from the visual images sign language
provides. Sign language is often iconic. The sign draws a picture in the air
illustrating the meaning of a word. For example, signs for prepositional
concepts such as "above," "through," and
"between" and adjectives such as "fat," "heavy,"
and "tired" provide strong visual clues to their contextual meanings.
Concepts are often acquired quickly when paired with iconic signs.
Further
more, sign language supports oral language development through repetitions of
words or concepts using multiple modalities. When a teacher says and signs a
words, the child hears and sees the word. The child is actually receiving two
repetitions of the word through two modalities. When a child says and signs a
word, he is imprinting the word or concept through auditory and kinesthetic
means. Multi-modality repetitions strengthen a child's recall and enhance the
development of oral language for reading comprehension.
Fingerspelling supports development of phonemic awareness and
print knowledge
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual
sounds in spoken words. Print knowledge involves the ability to recognize and
name letters and relate letters to sounds. When combining these two skills,
children start the process of sounding out words to build the foundation for
spelling. Print knowledge and phonemic awareness are most effective when
introduced early. They help children "crack the code" necessary to
read well.
Successful
readers have strong phonemic awareness skills. They identify, blend, and
segment sounds in words in the early years. Visual Phonics, while not
fingerspelling, is similar in that it borrows hand shapes from fingerspelling
to represent long vowel sounds and some consonants. Other consonant sounds and
diphthongs mimic the articulatory movements of speech sounds. These 46 hand
shapes are based on sounds, regardless of the spelling of a word. Preschool and
kindergarten teachers have reported improved results when using Visual Phonics
with non-readers and English Language Learners. First grade teachers have
reported the positive results of seeing children apply these skills in their
daily reading and writing activities.
Print
knowledge begins with the learning of the alphabet. The way they generally
learn this is through singing the alphabet song. When fingerspelling is paired
with the letter name, many confusing issues are avoided. Who knew that
"duh-bul-you" is only one letter? For children who have not acquired
all their speech sounds, the motor skill to imitate fingerspelled letter names
can be easier than the articulatory movements of speech. Fingerspelling also
provides discrete hand shapes for easily confused letter names such as c
and z and clarifies the confusion for the common letter reversal, b
and d. Children naturally enjoy fingerspelling in the air as they
encounter printed words in their environment.
Conclusion
The
use of sign language and fingerspelling is one of the many strategies that can
be used to engage the young reader in developing early literacy skills. It is
successful with learners of all types and levels. Patrice Wolf, author of Brain
Matters, states, "The most powerful strategies increase retention,
understanding and students' abilities to apply the concepts they are
learning." The use of sign language and fingerspelling puts reading
"in the hands" of children.
Additional Resources
The S.E.E. Center for the
Advancement of Deaf Children
PBS
KIDS: Arthur's Communication Adventure
References
Felzer, L. (2000). Research On How Signing Helps Hearing Children Learn To
Read. MBR Beginning Reading Program, CA State University, Pomona.
Luetke-Stahlman, B., Nielsen, D. (2002). Phonological Awareness: One Key To The
Reading Proficiency of Deaf Children. American Annals of the Deaf,
147,11-17.
National Institute for Literacy. (2001). Put Reading First. Jessup,
MD: ED Pubs.
Moats, L. (1999). Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science. Washington, DC:
American Federation of Teachers.
Roskos, K., Christie, J., Richgels, D., (2003). The Essentials of Early
Literacy Instruction. Young Children, March, 52-60.
Wolfe, P. (2001). Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom
Practice. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
About
the Authors
Marilyn Edmunds and Debra Krupinski work together at Taft Regionalized Deaf and
Hard of Hearing Program in Southern California. Marilyn has worked in the field
of Deaf Education and Speech Pathology for thirty years. She has worked with multiple
grade levels, both hearing and deaf students, and is currently an early
childhood teacher, parent educator and inclusion specialist. She has been a
state trainer for the SKI*HI Family Centered Home Based Program for Deaf
Children. Debra is a Speech and Language Pathologist. She has worked for
twenty-three years with deaf and hearing children. Marilyn and Debra are
involved with a non-profit agency, the S.E.E. Center for the Advancement of
Deaf Children, which provides information and support services for families and
teachers. Debra is a sign language instructor for the S.E.E. Center. Along with
a team of teachers, she teaches Signing Exact English skillshops across the
United States.