Linking the Baby Signs® Program and Literacy Development

Read All About It:

Linking the Baby Signs® Program and Literacy Development

By

Catherine Brown, M.A., CCC-SLP

The buzz word is literacy. All around we hear about the importance of literacy. Parents are told to read, read, read to their children – without much instruction on the “do’s and don’ts” of doing so. We hear about the “No Child Left Behind” program and how government funding these days usually means proving that your program relates to literacy development. We hear more and more about dyslexia and the hope that neuroscience will be able to identify new remedies. With all this emphasis on literacy, it seems particularly important to review the connection between literacy and the Baby Signs® Program.

Although we traditionally think of literacy as the ability to read, it is now recognized that the skills needed in the technologically advanced world that we live in go beyond reading. The National Institute for Literacy actually defines literacy much more broadly as “an individual’s ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society.”  Somewhat more narrowly, the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001 defines reading skills as “a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires all of the following:

• The skills and knowledge to understand how phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print

• The ability to decode unfamiliar words

• The ability to read fluently

• Sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension

• The development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print

• The development and maintenance of a motivation to read.”

Whether defined broadly or narrowly, literacy is now recognized to start well before the school years. In fact, there is growing appreciation for what are now referred to as emergent literacy skills. These include a variety of behaviors that research has shown predict success in learning to read. And many of these, it turns out, are helped along by signing. Some examples:  

Verbal language skills 

Research shows that children who are strong in verbal language skills have an easier time learning to read. Reasons for this relationship include the following: Knowing lots of words helps children comprehend what is read, guess at words that are difficult to decode, explain problems they are having, and understand explanations and instructions teachers provide. And how does the Baby Signs® program figure in all this?  The NIH-supported research published by Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn showed that infants exposed to signs during infancy had better receptive and expressive language vocabularies by the time they were two and three years old. In fact, the infants who learned to use signs as infants had verbal IQ scores that remained high well into the elementary school years.

Familiarity with print and enjoyment of books

Ask any Baby Signs® family and you are likely to hear that their children love books. The reason is because the ability to use signs enables babies to take an active role in book-reading. Instead of simply listening passively as their parents name things on the page, signers can provide the names themselves long before they would be able to do so with words. And the praise they receive in return makes them eager to keep exploring new books. In fact, parents even report that their toddlers sit down and read their books by signing to themselves!

Phonological Awareness

This term refers to recognition of the fact that words are comprised of separate sounds (or phonemes)—that “cat,” for example, is made of “c” + “ah” + “t.”  Because individual letters stand for individual sounds, it’s easy to see why knowing that words are composed of separate sounds is important to learning to read. And one of the best ways to help children develop this awareness is through the use of rhymes. When a child becomes familiar with a rhyme (e.g., Jack and Jill when up the hill), he or she learns that words can differ in how they begin but be the same in how they end. This realization, by definition, involves recognizing that words are made up of individual sounds. Voila! Phonological awareness.

And what’s the role of the Baby Signs® Program in developing this skill?  One of the most popular ways that parents teach signs is through rhymes and songs, like Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy, Bitsy Spider, and the many songs and rhymes created specifically for the Baby Signs® Program. These rhymes and the rhythm that we expose children to while we are singing and signing help children develop this crucial emergent literacy skill. 

Late-Talking Toddlers

Late-Talking Toddlers: 

How the Baby Signs® Program Can Help

By

Catherine Brown, M.A., CCC-SLP

Speech-language pathologists refer to children as “late-talkers” when they are slower to develop verbal/expressive skills than their peers even though they have very good receptive (language comprehension) skills. This pattern distinguishes them from “language-impaired” children who have significant deficits in both language comprehension and production.

In contrast to language-impaired children, most late-talkers do eventually catch-up to their peers in language skills, often without intervention.  However, the frustration that late-talkers feel before they catch up can lead to negative interactions with others that leave lasting impressions.  For that reason, helping late-talkers overcome their problem as quickly as possible is in everybody’s best interest.

To find out if the Baby Signs® Program would help such children, I completed a Masters Thesis using a research design parallel to that used by Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn in their NIH study.  The fifteen children in my study all fit the formal criteria for “late-talkers”—being significantly behind same-age peers in expressive vocabulary but not for receptive language. Of these fifteen families, five received training in the Baby Signs® Program, five received traditional training emphasizing verbal interaction only, and five received no intervention at all. 

Over the course of the 8-month study, all three groups of late-talkers were compared with two other groups of children: (a) children of the same age who were developing normally (Age-Matched), and (b) younger children who were at the same level of expressive vocabulary (Language-Matched) as the late-talkers. 

When comparing the expressive vocabularies of the groups four months after the study began, the results provided support for the utility of the Baby Signs®  Program as an intervention with late-talkers. Specifically, the signing group was the only group whose average expressive vocabulary score was no longer significantly behind their age-matched peers.  In contrast, the group experiencing the traditional verbal intervention and the group experiencing no intervention at all both remained significantly behind their same-aged peers with scores much closer to the younger, Language-Matched children at both the 4-month and 8-month follow-up.  

In addition to helping boost their expressive language skills, the availability of signs also helped the families in the signing group deal with frustration and worry about their slow-to-talk children.

Once these parents were able to see how much about language their children did know, they were reassured, and once the children were able to use signs to get their needs met without tantrums and tears, family life was better for everyone.  

In the years since completing my thesis project, I have used the Baby Signs®  Program with many children in my clinical practice who show early language delays. I continue to find it an invaluable tool for families. However, I want to emphasize that any parents who have concerns about their child’s language development, or any other aspect of development, should consult a speech-language pathologist, developmental specialist, or their pediatrician for professional advice. Every state has programs available to provide services for families who would like help or information.

An especially useful resource for parents specifically concerned about their child’s language development is the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). They have a wonderful brochure called “How Does Your Child Hear and Talk?” that includes a developmental chart with yes/no boxes at each age. It helps parents decide when the time has come to seek professional help. Not only does the chart indicate when parents should seek such help, it also provides information to help them find an appropriate professional.

To obtain a single copy of this brochure, visit www.asha.org or contact the ASHA Action Center at 1-800-638-8255 or email actioncenter@asha.org.