Sign Language and Autistic Children

Most People think of sign language as it relates to the deaf community. But, it can be taught to pre-verbal babies, with countless benefits for child and parent. This, of course, is the basis for our baby sign langauge system. Research also demonstrates that sign language is often beneficial for children with a special need which effects their social and/or speech development, such as down syndrome, apraxia or autism.

Signing and Special Needs

A child who is taught sign language usually receives great auditory and visual stimulation. Thus, teaching a baby sign language has a positive academic impact on the child. This is especially significant for those children who may have special needs. A child may have a condition that affects his ability to make auditory and visual connections. Sign language can trigger that area of the brain linked to speech and language development, thus helping to expand the child’s vocabulary and enhancing speech development.

If a childs speech development is enhanced, so are his emotional and social skills. Children with special needs can be moody and frustrated when communication becomes difficult. This frustration may surface in the form of depression and anger, or even tantrums and aggression. Teaching the child sign language can help break down communication barriers and thus alleviate much of the frustration associated with the same. By expanding his means of communication, the child will be more independent and have greater self esteem and behave in a more socially accepted way.

Signing and Autism

Autism is a developmental disorder that often involves a delay and impairment in social and language skills and behavior. It is a spectrum disorder, meaning that no two diagnoses are the same, and they each vary in severity and degree. Some children will be able to talk, while some will have no speech whatsoever. Less severe diagnoses include Asperger’s Syndrome or Pervasive Development Disorder. These children often talk normally, but have many of the social problems associated with autism.

The use of sign language as a teaching device for children with autism has grown consistently since the 1970’s. The main reason to teach sign language to these children with autism, or similar disorders, is to give them another means of communication. MultipleNumerous studies have shown that these children can learn signing as an effective means of communication. Furthermore, through the use of sign language, some otherwise mute children acquire speech. Thus, sign language can be a means to augment communication with the hope of full speech development.

There are countless benefits to teaching sign language to an otherwise mute child. Even if he only acquires the most basic signs, this gives the child a means of expressing his needs in a practical and socially acceptable way. And by learning a conventional language, the child learns to take account of and, eventually, interact with others. Multiple case studies regarding sign language and autistic children demonstrate that, as social awareness increases, frustration and tantrums decrease following sign language acquisition. And, as the child acquires a language, he will acquire those cognitive skills for continued learning, and his disorder will be diminished.