Category Archives: Resources for Teachers and Librarians

Signing Helps Young Children Understand Feelings

American Sign Language, Little Hands and Big Hands, resources, Resources for Teachers and Librarians
pumpkinHalloween is the perfect time to talk about feelings with young children – and American Sign Language is a wonderful way to help children connect visual cues with feeling concepts, to help them develop an understanding of their own feelings as well as empathy for the feelings of others.  Here’s a fun song to introduce feeling signs to kids.  Extend the activity by drawing a simple pumpkin face on a whiteboard and asking the child to help you draw the appropriate expressions for each feeling.

“Pumpkin Feelings” (Click on the links to see videos of the key signs)

If you’re a happy pumpkin, clap your hands. If you’re a happy pumpkin, clap your hands. If you’re a happy pumpkin, then your face will show us something, so If you’re a happy pumpkin, clap your hands. Little Hands and Big Hands coverFind more hands-on signing activities like this one in Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together by Kathy MacMillan, photographs by Kristin Brown.  (Huron Street Press, 2013).

How Signing Enhances Early Literacy

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Excerpted from Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Little Hands and Big Hands coverTogether by Kathy MacMillan (Chicago, IL: Huron Street Press, 2013)

Whenever you communicate with your child in an involving way, you are helping her develop early literacy skills.  Because signing encourages communication and engagement, it supports early literacy.  But that’s not the only way signing helps your child develop language and literacy skills.  In her groundbreaking book, Dancing with Words: Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy (2001), Marilyn Daniels describes her research on using American Sign Language in preschool classrooms with hearing children.  More often than not, her research was disrupted when the parents of her control group (a preschool classroom where the teacher was not using sign language with the students) heard about the amazing gains the signing classrooms in the study were making, and insisted that their children be exposed to sign too!   She found that hearing preschoolers and kindergarteners in the signing groups achieved significantly higher scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than those who knew no sign.  In addition, teachers in the signing classroom reported that their students were less frustrated, got along better, and were more excited about learning than their previous, non-signing classes.

How did signing with these groups produce such extraordinary results?

  • Sign language supports different learning styles.  Signs provide a visual cue and give kinesthetic learners, who learn best through physical activity, a way to interact with letters and vocabulary.
  • Knowing the names of the letters of the alphabet is an important first step on the road to literacy.  Using the manual alphabet with children helps them learn, remember, and use the letters – long before they have developed the fine motor skills to write them clearly.
  • As children move into the preschool and early elementary years, knowing signs and the manual alphabet allows them to access two different “memory stores” in their brains for reading, spelling, and vocabulary.  For example, if a child cannot identify a letter’s sound, signing it to himself may help jog his memory to make the connection.
  • American Sign Language, like any language, stimulates the language centers of the brain, strengthening synaptic connections and preparing them for further language learning.
  • Young children tend to be more visually attuned than adults, and so signing to them naturally captures their attention.  In addition, our visual sense works best when our eyes are moving, as when one is observing signs.
  • The areas of the brain that control movement develop earlier than those that control speech.  This is why even six to seven month old babies can produce signs.  As children grow up, their motor centers continue to develop ahead of their speech centers, allowing them to express more thoughts more clearly through signs than they can through speech.
  • Adults tend to use writing as a way to process and understand information.  Young children do not have access to this tool yet, but they can use signs to serve the same function.
  • The hands are connected to the brain.  Developing the tactile sense (touch) and the kinesthetic sense (movement) helps the different hemispheres of the brain communicate with one another, allowing for more seamless processing of information.
  • Before children can understand the abstract shapes of letters, they must first develop their proprioceptive system, or a sense of where they are in space.  When a child moves, proprioceptive development is triggered as muscles, joints, and tendons make contact and brain connections develop (Johnson 2007).  The movement of signs naturally encourages proprioceptive development.
  • Signing in itself seems to be intrinsically motivating for children; as one United Kingdom study reports, “Children’s motivation for acquiring basic signing skills does not appear to stem from interaction with Deaf children or adults as much as from the language itself” (Daniels 2003).
  • Signing with children facilitates a sense of play.  Play is far more than just simple entertainment – it is the number one way children learn about the world in the first five years of life.  Play allows children to make connections between concepts and understand how the pieces of the world fit together – and if children figure these things out for themselves, the resulting brain connections last far longer than if they had received direct instruction.

For more about the benefits of signing with young children, as well as fun signing activities to use with children, see Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together by Kathy MacMillan available now!

How to Communicate with Someone who is Deaf

Professional Development, resources, Resources for Teachers and Librarians
  • Don’t assume that every deaf person speechreads. Speechreading is a very difficult skill to master, and many deaf people don’t find it effective beyond common phrases such as “How are you?”
  • Keep your face and lips visible.
  • Maintain eye contact.
  • Make sure the deaf person is looking at you before you speak, sign, or gesture.
  • Speak naturally. Don’t exaggerate your mouth movements or speak too slowly. And don’t shout!
  • Be careful not to stand with your back to a window or other light source – this makes speechreading and getting information from facial expressions difficult.
  • Offer pen and paper to write notes back and forth, but be aware that English is a second language for many deaf people. When writing notes, use short sentences and plain language, and avoid idioms and slang.
  • Repeat the question to make sure you understand.
  • To get the attention of the deaf person, tap his or her shoulder or arm or wave in his or her line of sight.
  • ATTITUDE is the most important thing! Most deaf people will appreciate your efforts to communicate.

The Basics of Working with an Interpreter

American Sign Language, resources, Resources for Teachers and Librarians

What does an interpreter do?

An interpreter facilitates communication between people who use different languages. An interpreter must be skilled in both languages, as well as skilled in the process of interpreting.

What does an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter do?

An ASL interpreter facilitates communication between hearing people who don’t sign and deaf people who use American Sign Language.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires the provision of qualified interpreters for services provided by state and local governments, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and private entities related to educational and occupational certification.

How do I know if an interpreter is “qualified”?

The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf provides testing for national certification. The National Association of the Deaf has also provided such testing in the past; currently the RID and NAD systems have been combined into the National Interpreter Certification (NIC), administered by RID. Some states have their own licensure or separate testing systems. Interpreters may also hold degrees from various interpreter training programs throughout the country. Though some states require state licensure or certification, in many other states no certifications are currently required to work as an interpreter.  When hiring an interpreter directly, certification is your assurance that the interpreter has been screened by a knowledgeable panel and deemed skilled.  When hiring an interpreter through an agency, be sure to ask about the agency’s screening process.

When scheduling an interpreter, be prepared to provide this important information:

  • date and time
  • setting (job interview, staff meeting, awards ceremony, etc.)
  • the length of the assignment
  • the number of deaf and hearing people who will attend
  • the deaf person’s name (if known)
  • contact person’s name and phone number
  • directions and parking instructions
  • as much information as possible about the setting and content, including speaker outlines, agendas, programs, whether there will be a visual presentation such as a video, etc.

The more information the interpreter has ahead of time, the more effective the communication experience can be for everyone!

When working with an interpreter:

  • Allow time beforehand for the interpreter to preconference with the presenter or meeting leader.
  • Work with the interpreter in advance to decide how such issues as turn-taking and interrupting for clarification will be handled.
  • Remember that the interpreter will interpret everything she sees and hears. If you don’t want it interpreted, don’t say it!
  • Look at and speak to the deaf person, not the interpreter.
  • Remember that the interpreter will be using processing time and so will be at least a few words behind the speaker. Allow time for deaf participants to receive the message and respond to any questions asked.
  • If the participants will have visual information to study, make sure to allow time for the deaf participants to watch these things and then the interpreter sequentially.
  • Remember that the interpreter will need breaks – don’t expect a single interpreter to work for two hours straight.

Additional resources:

Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf: http://www.rid.org

The official website of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf includes information on how to become an interpreter, information for consumers on hiring and working with interpreters, and a variety of useful “Standard Practice Papers” on topic such as business practices for interpreters, coordinating interpreters for conferences, and working with interpreters in specialized settings such as legal and medical sites.

Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/

The premiere source of information about deafness online, with fact sheets, teacher guides, information about assistive devices, and more.