Background: Children who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) may start school with smaller vocabularies than their monolingual peers. Given the links between vocabulary and academic achievement, it is important to evaluate interventions that are designed to support vocabulary learning in this group of children. Aims: To evaluate…

Support for baby signing (BS) with hearing infants tends to converge toward three camps or positions. Those who advocate BS to advance infant language, literacy, behavioral, and cognitive development rely heavily on anecdotal evidence and social media to support their claims. Those who advocate BS as an introduction to another language, such as…

The English language development of an unselected group of 20 hearing impaired children (mean age approximately four) taught Signed English was studied over a four-year period. (Author/PHR)

Studied across a 16-month period, young children of deaf parents showed accelerated early language development, on the average producing their first recognizable sign at 8.5 months, their tenth sign at 13.2 months, and their first sign combination at 17.0 months. Findings are inconsistent with previously reported patterns of synchrony between…

Examined the effect over time of the use of sign language in a two-year period, including preschool and ending with kindergarten, on hearing children's language development. Found vocabulary gains, no evidence of memory decay over time, and positive evidence for inclusion of sign language instruction in early childhood education. (SD)