[tri-med] FYI - Sign Language Improves Reading Skills

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it may be of interest and is from a reliable source. As always, check the
information with your own doctor or health care professional before starting
or changing any treatments.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/hsn/20010528/hl/sign_language_improves_reading_
skills_1.html

Sign Language Improves Reading Skills
By Nancy A. Melville
HealthScoutNews Reporter
MONDAY, May 28 (HealthScoutNews) -- Teaching sign language to young students
who can hear boosts their ability to read.

So says researcher Marilyn Daniels, an associate professor of speech
communication at Pennsylvania State University. In seven separate studies
comparing pre-schoolers and kindergarteners, Daniels found that students who
were taught American Sign Language (ASL) wound up with higher reading levels
than those who received no ASL instruction.

"All of the studies showed an improvement with the sign language," she says.
"Vocabulary was improved 15 to 20 percent, so it was a really big vocabulary
gain."

The studies were part of 10 years of research described in Daniels' new
book, Dancing With Words: Signing for Hearing Children's Literacy.

In perhaps the strongest of the findings, Daniels tested her theory at a
Prince George's County, Md., school with a largely African-American student
population. The educators were concerned about studies showing that black
children typically score 15 points lower than white children on standardized
tests.

In comparing four pre-school classes -- two that had sign language
instruction and two that did not -- Daniels found the test scores were
significantly higher among those learning ASL. Their scores were up to the
levels typically seen among white children, she says.

Daniels began investigating the impact of sign language on children's
reading skills after her graduate students in speech communication at
Central Connecticut State University observed that hearing children whose
parents were deaf seemed to excel in reading and spoken English.

She knew that sign language was also used with special-needs children. So,
she decided to find out whether any improvement could also be seen in
students without disabilities.

The main reason sign language seems to help, she says, is because it gives
an additional dimension to expressing and understanding the concept of
words.

"It helps children in terms of giving a picture for the words. Most of the
signs are iconic, so since the signs look like what the words are, it helps
the child remember what the word is," she says.

"Since the child can associate the letters in a word with a sign, they are
more easily able to remember it," she adds.

Jerry Johns, president-elect of the International Reading Association, says
the use of ASL in classrooms has yet to catch on with mainstream educators.
But, he adds, it does utilize techniques that improve reading skills.

"It's not something that has received much attention yet, but there is
certainly a growing awareness of techniques using basic decoding skills --
such as phonics."

Meanwhile, Daniels says the sign language project has been so effective in
classrooms participating in her studies, it has actually caused a problem in
completing the research as planned.

"I had a teacher using ASL with a morning class and not the afternoon,
because I needed to get really good comparison data," she says. "But she was
having so much success she said, 'I've got to give this to the afternoon
class as well; I can't withhold it from them because the morning class is
doing so well.' "

And schools in which Daniels has done her research don't abandon the ASL
approach when she leaves.

"I've never had a school implement this and then stop when the study is
complete," she says. "They always continue to use it."



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