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Let the Sign Shine on 2011,


etel

Etel Leit, M.S.
Founder & Owner http://www.signshine.com/
Publisher http://www.babysignshine.com/

Signing in Bilingual Homes: ASL is the Common Bond

Are you fortunate enough to know more than one language? Feeling a little confused about how to teach your child your native language? Do you slip back into English because you fear your little one won’t understand you otherwise? Do you struggle between the desire to give your child the gift of a second language and the concern that your personal communication and connection will suffer? Well, you’re not alone. I hear over and over again from bilingual parents that it’s easier just to speak English with their kids because that’s the “norm” among other parents and the kids’ friends. But what a gift they would be missing out on.

Our home happens to be quad lingual. You’re probably wondering how we get through the day! We have figured out how to make it work for us. My first language is Hebrew, while my husband and children are Americans and the extended family knows about one word in Hebrew – Shalom. Our wonderful nanny is a native Spanish speaker and we have always encouraged her to share her language with us. I knew early in my first pregnancy that I wanted my children to benefit from all these languages, but until I discovered signing, I wasn’t sure how to integrate so many different vocabularies without causing confusion in our home.




Signing became a common language for everyone in our household. Whether my husband was offering our daughter some milk or her nanny handed her a cup of leche or I poured her chalav, we all used the same ASL sign to describe it. In this way, it was easy for my kids to learn new words in all the languages, because the sign was always the same and it became the common bond.

Signing as a multiple-language tool is a wonderful way to demonstrate to our children the similarities among people and races all over the world. In this way, signing encourages tolerance. Signing is a way to make the unknown familiar, and teaches our kids the most important skills in the world: understanding and compassion.

Regardless of how many languages are spoken in your home, teaching your child ASL is a proven way to begin to hardwire yet another skill – the ability to learn other languages. We have long known that it is easier to learn a second language as a small child, while the pathways of the brain are still being mapped. Studies now suggest that a child who has learned a second language (including sign language) early in life has an easier time learning additional languages as they age, because their brains already understands the process. Signing can be your child’s “gateway” second language. It’s the gift that’s bound to enrich your child’s life tremendously!

http://www.babysignshine.com/bilingual.shtml


Let the Sign Shine!
etel


Etel Leit, M.S.
Founder & Owner http://www.signshine.com/
Publisher http://www.babysignshine.com/
310.613.3900 etel@SignShine.com

 ASL  benefits bi-lingual families!

“I'd totally recommend signing with bilingual children. Signing not only gave us our first means of effective communication, but was also definitely a nice way to confirm that [our son is] comprehending both English and Japanese -- the two languages he is most exposed to. In fact, [he] has recently started responding with sign when spoken to in Cantonese also...thus confirming he comprehends all three languages just fine.”

“My 2 yr old speaks to me in Portuguese and to his dad in English, sometimes using signs too as we are both hard of hearing. He always uses ASL with my Deaf friends.”

“What's been especially helpful is that, since Aries is being raised bilingual, for me to show the sign whenever I say the Russian word for an object, and when I say the English one. I think it really helped cement the idea that they stood for the same thing.”

“If you speak English and your partner speaks Spanish, when introducing a word such as "milk" you would say the word "milk" in English and introduce the sign for that word. Your partner would introduce the word "milk" in Spanish ("leche") while also using the same sign for "milk"."

Yes, it's extremely useful to use the same signs with the two different languages that your child is exposed to--it bridges the gap, decreasing confusion and frustration while increasing learning opportunities and language development.

On our Baby Fingers sign & song DVD, we teach our color song in English, Spanish, and ASL.  Bi-lingual families in our program have benefitted, and have also translated it into other home languages!