Photo by Indiewench
I guess I never really made the correlation, but as I meet more people raising their children bilingual and I read more about the whole concept, it truly makes a lot of sense that those who use the OPOL (one parent-one language) method, have found it incredibly beneficial to also teach their children sign language.
Recently, we dedicated a whole week to the topic of the OPOL method since we realized this is the one the majority of you are using. We were pretty happy with the results. Thanks to your feedback, which was amazing, we realized there are many topics we really need to concentrate on – and one of them is using sign language as a bridge between two other languages.
In case you don’t recall, in our guest post during OPOL Week, AnaGloria Rodriguez, who is raising two bilingual (English/Spanish) children mentioned the usage of sign language by saying this:
“We learned ASL so that the family would have one language in common.”
This statement pretty much summarizes the reason why so many parents using the OPOL method also use baby sign language.
A Bridge Between Two Languages
According to Monta Briant – author of Baby Sign Language Basics and Sign, Sing, and Play!- who has been teaching sign language to children and their parents since 2001, it makes sense to many parents raising bilingual children because it connects both languages.
Monta Briant
“It helps them realize that there is more than one way to say the same thing,” she said. “It really helps sort out that leche and milk mean the same things, thanks to the solid representation made through signing.”
The beauty of the whole concept is that there is only one sign that means milk or leche in sign language. It is important, however, to point out that there are many variations of sign language depending on the country and region where it is used. Since we live in the U.S., we’re only really talking about American Sign Language (ASL).
“Sign language makes it easier to learn both languages because it expands on what every baby – and adult – already does naturally,” Briant explained. “Research has actually shown that a baby being raised bilingual will learn both languages quicker when also using sign language. It’s just very natural for babies.”
One common concern that parents have – which really is a concern of parents considering bilingualism to raise their children no matter what combination of languages they plan on using, and ASL is considered a language – is that their children will get confused. As we’ve mentioned in the past, this is a myth and it needs to be debunked!
Briant, who’s raising bilingual children herself, said a lot of parents also worry that using sign language with their babies will actually delay their speech development – another common misconception related to raising bilingual kids.
“Sign language actually promotes and increases speech development,” she said. “Many parents have said to me: ‘If they can use their hands (to communicate) why would they bother to talk?’ But if you think about it, talking is a lot easier than signing. Plus, why then would speech language pathologists use sign language as part of therapy for children with delayed speech?”
It usually goes back to uninformed people making erroneous assumptions. If you’ve been following SpanglishBaby for a while, you know all of us in this bilingual journey face an uphill battle when it comes to comments made by those unfamiliar with this subject.
Another incredible benefit of using sign language, according to Briant, is that as children get older and maybe they forget a word here and there in the minority language, signing can be used as a hint to trigger their memory – instead of the highly discouraged method of simply translating.
Coming Up…
Following is a sneak peek at what we’ve prepared for the rest of the week. As always, we hope you find this info useful and remember we encourage you to leave comments, questions or to just share your own experiences. After all, this is the best way for all of us to learn!
- TUESDAY – Our weekly Ask an Expert series with a question specifically related to sign language and raising bilingual kids answer by Simona Montanari, one of our very own experts.
- WEDNESDAY – A guest post from one of our loyal readers – and a fellow mamá bloguera. She will tell us about her own journey using sign language to help in the process of raising her two bilingual children. You won’t want to miss this one!
- THURSDAY - A list of resources/articles/websites compiled specifically for those of you using or thinking about using sign language to raise your children bilingual.
G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y
We are so grateful to Monta Briant who has been kind enough to give us two copies of her book, Baby Sign Language Basics, one in English and one in Spanish, so we can give away to two lucky winners. All you have to do is leave us a comment sharing something about using sign language to raise bilingual kids, whether it be a question, a concern, a challenge, a tip, pros/cons, an anecdote, anything that will add to the online conversation about this topic.
This giveaway will end Thursday, Aug. 6th at midnight EST. Make sure you’re subscribed either by RSS or email so you don’t miss out on this highly informative and useful week.
I am really glad to read this article. My daughter was signing and speaking in English and Spanish before she even turned one. Apparently being exposed to so many languages at once did not hinder her ability to speak, at all. She could say all sorts of things- in Sign she would say things that she couldn’t pronounce and soon would start pronouncing things when she signed them. For example when she needed help with something- at first she would just scream in frustration- when she learned the sign for help she would sign it, say it and get help, without feeling so frustrated. She also started saying things in Spanish that she couldn’t pronounce in English like Agua. She said “agua” much earlier than she said “water”. She definitely communicated with us in 3 languages. We were not very consistent with speaking to her in Spanish in the beginning- but she still picked up a lot of the language. Now at a few months past 2- she is speaking very clearly – more clearly than many of my monolingual friends’ kids speak in one language, in both Spanish and English. She doesn’t sign much anymore- but once in a while she will do it instinctually like when she says “please” she will sign it at the same time. I feel that signing helped her bridge the 2 languages – water is water (or agua) not matter how you say it.
I love it! Teaching babies ASL. My sister teaches pre-K and Kindergarten and she always sneaks in an ASL section into the curriculum. She’ll stick to the basics like, “Please,” “Thank you,” “Hungry” and such. Have you tried it with your kids yet?
We began using ASL with our Boca Beth bilingual music March 2008 when I met Lillian Hubler, founder of Time to Sign. I listened in on one of her workshops for early childhood development during a SECA Conference (too many acronyms in our world!). And what she said made so much sense. As Monta Briant says, the bridge between English and Spanish is created using ASL for young children.
So Lillian and I collaborated, and now I have two American Sign Language books that go hand-in-hand with two of my four Boca Beth bilingual music CDs. Parents, teachers and children are becoming trilingual before my eyes. It’s so cool!
Thanks for sharing this great post – looking forward to the rest of the week’s information and insight!
I have been teaching my 7 month old signing and am absolutely thrilled to be exposing him to so many different things.
He has begun asking for leche in sign and was so happy!
I bought two ASL board books when our toddler was about 15 months and she immediately picked up the signs; I was amazed! I can only imagine how much we could have communicated beforehand had we started earlier. Once she started talking, she immediately understood how the ASL sign was the link between the two languages. It truly is amazing!
Right before I got pregnant with our second daughter I was looking into this very topic hoping to become certified to teach babies ASL but a exhausting pregnancy side tracked me. Now, though, I’m back on track and hope to get certified in the next few months and evetually develop a local curriculum for bilingual babies. I sooooooo look forward to this week!
I have been signing with my 1 year old for about 4 months now. It’s great because she has away to communicate with us without getting frustrated because we can’t understand her.
Thanks for these articles, and great giveaway.
question: when you sign should you say out loud the word in both english and spanish or stick to your opol? Thanks!
Jessie when I come to NY we need to meet up with the kids!
I love the idea of teaching sign language to my 8 month old son! I have been wanting to do it but have not made the time. Any other suggestions? I am really looking forward to teaching him. Gracias!
I teach Spanish to babies and Toddlers and I use some sign language when singing in our classes
Mami2mommy- The good thing about signing is you don’t need to know much or have much extra time to get started and help your baby communicate. You can just start with 1 or 2 signs like more and done- look them up online at http://www.lifeprint.com under basic signs to see pictures. Then add more as your baby catches on. Help was a great sign to know, as well as more, done, eat, milk, hurt and anything else your baby might want to tell you.
I would think you would stick to the OPOL when using sign and not translate it. You say milk and sign milk and your DH or whoever speaks Spanish says leche and signs the same sign. Your baby will pick up that everyone is signing the same thing and saying different things that mean the same thing.
I work with special needs students and I can’t tell you how important sign language is for these wonderful kids. Thank you.
A friend with 20-month old twins has this book, and I loved what I saw when I flipped through it. One twin is more verbal, and the other uses more signs, but they both understand everything said to them verbally or in ASL. Signing things like “more?”, “milk”, “hungry”, and “I love you” has been very helpful to me when working with babies and toddlers. Since I only speak a little Spanish, the English version would be better for me. Thank you for the offer!
Our bilingual issues aren’t speech based, they’re sign based!
Hubby is from the UK, and knows a little BSL (British Sign Language), I’m American, so I know ASL (American Sign Language) – there’s similarities in some signs but others are quite different, especially the alphabet! With ASL I can sign the entire alphabet on one hand, hubby has to use both hands to sign the BSL alphabet.
Since we’re staying in the US, hubby is doing his best to learn ASL, since baby signing is based around ASL here. There are still times that *he* gets frustrated and can’t think of the ASL for something, and doesn’t want to use the BSL and risk confusing everyone, but we’re doing pretty well so far
We are so commited to raising a bi-lingual baby. Unfortunately, we are all native english speakers. Using baby sign is a brilliant way of bridging gaps.
I learned to sign the alphabet in 6th grade so my friends and I could communicate during morning mass. It worked great, and I never forgot it.
Malia Kai will be here on September 3. I will keep you updated on her progress.
We have been working with our 6 month old on a few simple signs since she was born. I wish we had been more consistent with them and that they would be continued at daycare but she is starting to get the sign for milk. We are also trying change.
I think this is an awesome tool, as both of my parents are deaf, I know how important it is to teach a new language from an early age. I would love to win this for the newest addition to our family, my nephew.
I haven’t done it yet, but I would like to.
I work with children in a school setting and would love to learn more about this. I used to babysit a child who knew a few signs and it was very helpful for him to be able to tell me when he was hungry, etc.
The first sign my twins learned was for ‘milk’