Happy hands: The effect of ASL on hearing children's literacy

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effect of American Sign Language (ASL) instruction on typical hearing kindergarten children's literacy in four specific areas: receptive English vocabulary, expressive English vocabulary, ASL ability, and English emergent reading level. The research was specifically modeled after a 1997 United Kingdom, Sign in Education, project in which a deaf teacher delivered instruction to hearing students using British Sign Language (BSL). The findings from the current United States study indicate hearing kindergarten students receiving ASL instruction made statistically significant gains in their receptive English vocabulary, maintained an age appropriate use of expressive English vocabulary, acquired a sufficient level of ASL phonology and morphology to begin to communicate in the visual‐gestural language, and tested higher than similar students on Marie M. Clay's (1993) reading placement measures.