Planting the Seeds for Early Learning...

Using Signs from American Sign Language to Promote Early Brain Development, Language Acquisition, and Literacy!

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Advantages of Teaching Sign Language to the
Child with Autism
 

    

 

Sign language has been suggested as another alternative means of communication for the approximately 45,000-55,000 nonverbal children with autism in the United States
(National Society of Communication for Autistic Children 1978)

 

Why do you recommend and teach sign language to Children with Autism?

  • The use of simultaneous communication might trigger or facilitate speech development.
  •  
    It has been suggested that although many children with autism have difficulty understanding spoken words, they seem to better understand gestures.
  • A parent or teacher can easily help by molding the child's hands into the correct sign for a given word.
  • There is often a concrete relationship between the sign and its referent. 
  • Signing will motivate to communication: by signing we can teach the child how to express his needs and wishes, and make sure that the listener understands their message. 
  • Children with Autism who use sign language also exhibit marked improvement in adaptive behaviors; reduce frustration, crying, tantrums, aggression, and self-injurious behavior.
  • Children with autism who use sign language are more self-confident and have improved self-esteem. 

Signing leads to better relationship with parents, educators and interaction with other peers.


 

Advantages of Teaching Sign Language vs. Picture Selection or Exchange

Picture selection and exchange methods become very popular mainly because it is easier for parents and teachers to understand what the learner is communicating (Shafer, 1993).

Sign Language has many advantages for the learner that leads us to recommend it more often than picture selection or exchange methods.

Only when learners have severe motor disabilities such as cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injury do we recommend using selection-based methods initially. This is a very small number of children with autism.

The advantages of sign language over picture selection or exchange are:

  • Signing is portable with no requirement to carry equipment.
  • Signing can be performed at about the same speed as talking. The different motor movements when signing may prompt talking.
  • Signing may reduce problem behavior more effectively because the response form is more efficient than picture selection or exchange.
  • Signing is learned more easily and quickly by some learners.
  • Signing may enhance receptive language.

(Sundberg and Partington, 1998)


 

Disadvantages of Teaching Sign Language vs. Picture Selection or Exchange

  • Some learners with autism have poor motor imitation skills.
  • Not everyone understands sign language.
  • The disadvantages can usually be overcome by teaching the first signs for items the learner wants and by helping persons who come in contact with the learner to learn the signs that he or she uses.
  • In the rare cases in which this can not be accomplished we might occasionally teach a learner to use a picture to communicate