If you have been looking around for the best preschool in Plano, or even just familiarizing yourself with the benefits of preschool, you may have realized that many preschool programs offer language development as a part of their curriculum. While this may seem extremely early to be teaching additional languages, it is actually the prime time! Let’s take a look…
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November 30, 20224 Ways Learning Sign Language Can Help Communication Skills
Did you know that sign language is now classified as a world language just like English, Spanish, German, Italian and any other spoken language across the globe?
According to the most recent U.S. Census, it is estimated between 500,000 and 2 million people across the nation speak sign language. This statistic includes hearing and non-hearing people!
Sign language isn’t just spoken by the deaf community and has shown great benefit to those who are non-verbal, have trouble with oral communication, and infants who are pre-verbal, or haven’t learned to speak yet.
Sign language is an incredible visual language that uses hand gestures, facial expressions, shapes, and movements to communicate without speaking a word.
We use body language to communicate our feelings every day, so sign language is an extension of that body language to now communicate words to match those feelings.
Sign language bridges the gap between those who cannot orally express themselves and allows them to connect with others.
When taught at an early age, learning sign language can help communication skills in preverbal and verbal infants and young children.
Want to know more about how learning sign language can help communication skills? Keep reading!
Decreases Frustration
When your infant cries, do you know if they are hungry, wet, want to be held, or simply upset over something? Even toddlers can have trouble telling us what they need and when that happens, it can cause frustration and emotional breakdown.
It has been studied that by 6 months of age an infant can learn and remember a few different signs! By 24 months they can even learn a combination of words and phrases that can help them express themselves.
When your child is able to communicate their needs through sign language, it decreases the frustration of not being able to verbally express them.
Enhances Connection
How much easier is it to communicate with someone when you understand them? When your child can communicate with you and other adults like their teachers through sign language before being able to verbally communicate, it can enhance connections, build trust and strengthen bonds within those relationships.
Because the child knows they can go to you or their teacher and express their feelings or needs, they can be more easily helped and therefore use that person as an anchor in their life. They will go to you or the teacher when upset, frustrated, scared or for any other reason and then you can help them manage those feelings appropriately and allow them to feel calm again!
Increased Focus
When using sign language you must focus on what the hands, eyes and body movements are saying in order to know what is being said. Learning sign language as an infant or toddler increases focus because they need to have an extended period of eye contact with the person signing to them.
They learn eye contact, how to stop and listen/read what the other person is saying and improve attentiveness.
Improves Learning Skills
When you sign you need to learn vocabulary, word combinations, and spelling since sign language also has its own alphabet to spell out words when a sign is not known.
This improves language development and learning skills because children need to remember, but they can also put a sign, word, and visual picture of a person, place, or thing. When you have multiple ways of understanding what the name or concept of something is, you can better retain that information.
Now when your child sings the ABC song, they can also sign it. The same goes for learning words or recognizing and recalling animals on flash cards.
Want To Know More About How Learning Sign Language Can Help Communication Skills In Young Children? Connect With TLC Schools!
Here at TLC Schools in Plano, TX, we integrate sign language into every classroom. From infants as young as six weeks up to our 5-year-old Pre-K students.
Sign language is an integral part of our award-winning curriculum and helps us build our students’ language development skills, as well as create a more inclusive environment for all.
If you’re interested in learning more about TLC and how to enroll your child in one of our classrooms, contact us today to schedule a tour! We also encourage you to browse our website and read our other helpful and insightful articles on our blog page like our most recent which discusses getting your child ready for daycare!
