Our Mission

We are providing families and individuals with alternative ideas to break down language communication barriers for all. Teaching infants to toddlers a manual method of communication, like ASL, is beneficial to their cognitive development. Per an article from a magazine, Gallaudet Today, “Brain scans show sign language is processed in the same brain tissue scientists had thought processed only speech. Sign phonology is processed in the identical tissue as sound phonology, showing that the tissue thought to be dedicated exclusively to sound is dedicated to finding the patterns in language. The rhythms and patterns that make up the phonological level of organization of all languages are the same in signed and spoken languages. Specific neural tissue and systems are dedicated to identifying this patterning, regardless of modality” (Congdon, 2016).

The ultimate goal is to raise awareness and provide benefits through research on early bilingualism and visual modalities, enhancing communication, supporting cognitive development, and offering alternative connection options for all children, while fostering inclusivity within the Deaf community. The end result would be to have new parents, expectant parents, and caretakers to make the conscious decision to teach their children ASL from birth or at a young age.

Please enjoy some holiday cheer with Shaylee!

Sheena McFeely. (2014, December 9). ASL Nook - How the Grinch Stole Christmas ASL Version. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuXGjNxO1Ws

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“Children exposed to sign language early gain visual attention and processing advantages. This produces stronger vocabulary, language competence and world knowledge, and literacy and reading skills. It also supports greater self-regulatory knowledge”

— Congdon, 2016

What Do We Offer?

Collections of Resources - A collection of resources from other Deaf organizations and institutions.
ASL Dictionaries - ASL Sign Dictionaries to learn ASL from native Deaf signers and qualified interpreters.
Deaf Media Resources - YouTube videos, websites from Deaf signers, CODA’s (Children of Deaf Adults).
Community Participation - Community resources about learning ASL/involving oneself in the community that pertain to specific situations.

QR Code to reach the Living Resource Document

Evidence to the Benefits of Children Learning ASL:

Benefits from teaching ASL at an early age are helping deaf children feel less isolated and secluded, which allows for easy communication with their peers and greatly helps their cognitive development (Patel, et al., 2021). This can help reduce the experiences of depression and anxiety that are common within the younger generation of the Deaf community. Additionally, it assists with hearing children learning how to develop their visual understanding of certain topics at a young age. For example, Novack (2022) and (2021)’s studies on hearing infants’ objection visualization abilities were able to show a strong early instance of deploy pattern understanding when visual and social engagement was enacted (Novack, M. A., Chan, D., & Waxman, S., p. 6, 2022) and demonstrate more advanced gaze following and control when learning in an ASL-rich environment (Novack, M. A., Brentari, D., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Waxman, S., p. 7, 2021). Additionally, Mercure et al. (2020) cited how the infants raised in bilingual environments, where they interacted with both signed and spoken language, had enhanced skills to help them piece together information from unfamiliar languages (Mercure et al., 2020, p. 27).
Integrating high-quality communication with young children helps support the child’s overall cognitive growth. Studies on Deaf or Hard of Hearing children have shown interactions that assist in not just language but also thinking and social skills. “Assuming that ASL receptive skills are correlated with these factors due to the influence of early communicative interactions, we should be cautious in focusing any interventions solely on language instruction. The timing and quality of language input, as well as the resulting parent–child interactions driven by that input, are likely to play crucial roles in scaffolding cognitive development in DHH infants and young children.” (Paul & Yan, 2023, p.13).
Many deaf, hard-of-hearing, or hearing neurodivergent children may struggle to communicate when they are overstimulated/overwhelmed. “The National Standards Project (National Autism Center, 2009–2015) has designated sign instruction as an emerging treatment, indicating that there is some evidence of favorable outcome but citing the need for additional high-quality research with sign instruction” (Prelock, McCauley, Charman, & Fuller, 2021, p. 162) There are situations where they may not have a modality to express themselves in the immediate moment if they need assistance. Having a nonverbal method of communication can enable neurodivergent children to express themselves more effectively, whether in a crisis or simply by choice. It lowers the pressure on them to create an immediate response and allows a visual and intricate method that encourages movement and expression to convey thoughts or desires.
Providing a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching English to young children, without room for exceptions, can be detrimental to children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or do not speak any language other than English. Moreover, young infants and most children lack access to forms of communication, such as writing with pen and paper (particularly for infants), or tools like Google Translate, Voice-to-Text, and Text-to-Speech. By providing resources for young children to learn ASL, they can explore new methods of language development that tailor to their needs. Normally, with hearing children, they are exposed to only one language; however, in the Deaf community, they “often develop a bi- or multilingual repertoire, typically with a signed language as their L1 or dominant language, and a spoken/written language as their L2” (Nicodemus, Formentelli, Cagle, & Pittman, 2021, p. 111).
From birth, children typically begin learning language at home with their parents or guardians. ASL can provide other modalities of communication to help better understand and accommodate all parties. Compared to verbal language, which a toddler will understand and use around 50 words, however, a Cambridge University Press study states, “data show(s) that the effect of frequency was more robust after the age of 24 months, when children’s vocabulary size was larger than 100 signs.” (Novogrodsky & Meir, 2020).

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Sources

Alfonso, K. P., Bouldin, E., Govil, N., Patel, S. R., & Tey, C. S. (2021). Social Isolation and Loneliness in the Hearing-Impaired Pediatric Population: A Scoping Review. Laryngoscope, 131(8), 1869-1875. doi:10.1002/lary.29312.
Congdon, T. S. (2016). Revolutionizing the Science of Learning. (n.d.) Gallaudet Today. Vl2.Gallaudet.edu. https://vl2.gallaudet.edu/news/revolutionizing-the-science-of-learning
Mercure, E., Evans, S., Pirazzoli, L., Goldberg, L., Bowden-Howl, H., Coulson-Thaker, K., Beedie, I., Lloyd-Fox, S., Johnson, M. H., & MacSweeney, M. (2020). Language Experience Impacts Brain Activation for Spoken and Signed Language in Infancy: Insights From Unimodal and Bimodal Bilinguals. Neurobiology of Language, 1(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00001
Nicodemus, B., Formentelli, M., Cagle, K. M., & Pittman, J. (2021). Address practices of Deaf undergraduate students and faculty: A study of language, identity, and community. Journal of Pragmatics, 176, 110–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.01.024
Novack, M. A., Brentari, D., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Waxman, S. (2021). Sign language, like spoken language, promotes object categorization in young hearing infants. Cognition, 215, Article 104845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.10484
Novack, M. A., Chan, D., & Waxman, S. (2022). I See What You Are Saying: Hearing Infants’ Visual Attention and Social Engagement in Response to Spoken and Sign Language. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 896049. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.896049
Novogrodsky, R., & Meir, N. (2020). Age, frequency, and iconicity in early sign language acquisition: Evidence from the Israeli Sign Language MacArthur–Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(4), 817–845. doi:10.1017/S0142716420000247
Paul, P. V., & Yan, P. (2023). The Effects of American Sign Language on English Reading Proficiency. American Annals of the Deaf, 167(5), 745–760. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27232222
Prelock, P. A., McCauley, R. J., Charman, T., & Fuller, E. A. (2021). Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder : Evidence-Based Intervention Strategies for Communication & Social Interactions. (2nd ed.). Brookes Publishing.
Thompson, R. H., Cotnoir-Bichelman, N. M., McKerchar, P. M., Tate, T. L., & Dancho, K. A. (2007). Enhancing Early Communication through Infant Sign Training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2007.23-06