Sign Language In Children

Improved Essays
What is it like to have a conversation in complete silence? To have it be completely quiet, just white noise in the background, using only hands and body gestures to communicate and get the point across and understood. When watching sign language, anyone can tell you how expressive the language is and how beautiful the words simply flow from hand to hand, to each facial expression and gesture. Sign language is a beautiful gift that can be given to anyone, if they just took the time to learn it. Parents who know sign language and pass this down to their children in the infancy stage of their lives are benefiting their offspring more than they know. By teaching hearing, not only deaf, infants and toddlers sign language cognitive development in the child has …show more content…
An element considered while coming to the positive conclusion about the use of sign language is the study of children using the language inside the classroom setting. Educator and author Marilyn Daniels is able to be a suitor in the support for the positive aspect of sign language with her data and evidence that she has collected. Her experiment imitates another which was completed in a British classroom with the teachings and lessons delivered in British Sign. The success of her trial allowed for her to fully believe and support the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in the improvement of cognitive development. Specifically, her actions tested for English vocabulary and also reading level improvement which show significant and definite positive gains when the result returned from placement tests. The children who completed these experiments tested significantly higher than they did on examinations previous to the experiment, thus allowing for the conclusion of the positive effect sign language has on development. Daniels is also able to use many

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Deaf Like Me Book Report

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Back when this book was written parents who had deaf children were encouraged for their children to speak. Now parents of deaf children are encouraged to have their children learn ASL. Its inspiring that people who are deaf or hard of hearing now have most of the tools to communicate with others who know the language. I believe that ASL is becoming more common because people are now becoming more aware and conscious of all the people do not have the ability to communicate orally. For example I nanny for a 1 year old and both of her parents encourage her to learn sign language.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also Gallaudet opened up the first deaf school. The effects of sign language in autistic children had been studied. Various “disabled” children have demonstrated a higher quality of communication. Communication is important for the emotional development of all children. Children with disabilities sometimes have trouble in this area and caregivers need to give a high quality interaction by using sign languages that provide a non-verbal communication.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During our Second Language Acquisition lecture, Professor Becker mentioned that American Sign Language was completely different than the English language. Although this makes complete sense to me now, I had never thought about this fact before that class. She also mentioned the concern of the high rate of illiteracy in the deaf community. This sparked my interest with this article even more and broadened my interest in the deaf community.…

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Maryland Bulletin Analysis

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Mrs. Virtis explains the information about what can helps deaf children to develop literacy skills as in reading, writing, signing/speaking, and thinking. They believes that the strategies being used at MSD to help student develop literacy skills. It also provided for both families and school so that the children will benefit. The Deaf children have access to experiences, conversations, family life and friends by uses lots of language, ask questions, pair fingerspelling and signs to help child learn basic sight vocabulary and more specific names and words and provide access to a TDD and television decoder and last to arrange for interpreters when possible. They also believe that Literacy must be a priority between schools and home that includes the process and the product as English grammar is taught as part of the process.…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I used to think sign language was just other form of aid to help people better understand and communicate with the world today. Come to find out that it is its own language and comes with history behind it. As I’m learning about the history and the culture of the Deaf community, it feels like there is so much more I could be learning. After reading Deaf Again by Mark Drolsbaugh, I have learned more of what it’s like to be deaf through a 1st person point of view. Drolsbaugh goes through great detail to tell use the story of his life and how he became deaf.…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My maternal uncle in Vietnam was born Deaf and mute. From the moment that my grandparents were informed by the doctor about his condition, they asked if there is any chance that he will “grow out of it” later in life, to which the doctor could not answer. Afterwards, my grandparents ultimately accepted the situation and decided to take my uncle home and cared for him like how they did with their other children. I lived with my uncle under the same roof in Vietnam until I moved to the U.S. so I have seen how he managed to develop his own ways of communication via signing even though he was never officially taught sign language.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deaf Like Me Summary

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Since being hearing and speaking is viewed normal many hearing parents goal for their deaf child is to get them to have intelligible speech and be able to lip-read. Although theoretically this may sound like a great goal, it is ultimately setting the child up to fail. The goal should be communication and for a child who is deaf sign language is the most successful means of communication. Therefore, sign language should be the first avenue for teaching communication, not the oral approach.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    ASL vs. SEE Research paper In the past fifty years there has been many advances, changes and controversy over the American Deaf community’s language, American Sign Language, and the new system of visual English, Signed Exact English. American Sign Language (ASL) is a complete, distinct language with its own vocabulary and grammar that developed almost two hundred years ago. Signed Exact English (SEE) is a recently new communication system of English through a combination of ASL signs, modified ASL signs, and unique English signs. American Sign Language is a preferred system of communication over Signed Exact English because of its difference in historical background, linguistics, uses in the world, and recent technology.…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    upset and can also occur different children to bully the less confident children in different areas of development. On the other hand, children with differences such as deaf will need support from one another for them to be able to understand the tasks that are given to the particular child. Therefore for the child to understand sign language would be needed when doing all types of play. Although to make the child feel comfortable and equal sign language must be done while talking to all children so the children are able to learn sign language to talk to the particular child and so the child isn’t left out to be given a 1 to 1 more different type of explanation to feel separated and distant from the other children.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If you mention the television show Switched at Birth to a Deaf person, it is likely that they will know what you are referring to, and perhaps even have watched it themselves. Popularized for its one of a kind plot and characters, Switched at Birth documents the lives of two teenagers, one Deaf and the other hearing, that grew up in the “wrong” families. Through unique storylines, the show not only introduces Deaf culture and American Sign Language (ASL) to hearing people, but provides an accurate portrayal of it. Switched at Birth is also groundbreaking in that many of the cast members are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing, and use ASL as their native language.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The deaf culture has come to evolve and change over the years, at first it was oppressed and shunned from society, but now it thrives. The deaf community conquered many obstacles to get to where it is today. This agonizing story is told by a HDTV documentary called “Through Deaf Eyes”. I watched this film in my Introductory to Sign Language course, I learned so much from the video. I was surprised that I hardly knew any of the material covered by the film.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Sign Language (ASL) Club made its debut at Ramapo College educating the community during an event associated with Disability Awareness Month. “We believe in more than fighting the stigma. We want to push for equality and respect,” said junior Kira Abrams, president of ASL Club. “We hope to achieve an environment where disability is seen as a different and equally valid way of navigating the world, where a person who requires some accommodations to do well in an environment structured specifically for the typical type of person is just as worthy of respect and is not lesser for getting necessary help to achieve equality.” To achieve this vision of equality, educating society about deaf culture and its significance to members…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe that if a child was deaf that the parents should possibly consider SEE, but if they are Deaf they should definitely choose ASL because it would just fit better with the child and their surroundings rather than SEE. I think CSD doesn’t offer Sign Exact English as a language class because it’s…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Contrary to the accepted opinion of the time, Sign Language was not a simplified or broken substitute for spoken or written English but instead was a purposeful restructuring of English to accommodate the visual form of its communication, allowing context and subject to be communicated in a functional way. From the Linguistics Research Laboratory at Gallaudet University, William Stokoe declared American Sign Language as a legitimate language, revolutionizing perceptions of the Deaf Community and supporting the culture as a…

    • 1065 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gesture Development According to Jarzynski (2013), gestures are a significant tool used to predict a child’s language. Gestures are an important indication of the child’s language learning path in that, when a child displays a gesture they are employing intentional communication, which is a stepping stone to verbal communication (Jarzynski, 2013). According to Jarzynski, an example of this is when a “nine-month-old child is reaching towards something he wants, while looking back at his mom”. The child is communicating even though they have yet to acquire speech.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays