Ep #28: Sign Language: Not Just for Hard-of-Hearing Children with Cynthia Long

Cynthia and I had such a fun chat. We talked about baby sign. We talked about how sign language can help with emotional regulation. We talked about how it helps with actually increasing development in the child’s brain. We talked about how it can help with communication and bonding. But it can even help with things like classroom management. There are so many different options and she even shared some funny sign tips for some of our popular finger players like itsy bitsy spider. So there’s lots of fun stuff in this episode. She created a freebie for you as well. You’ll want to check that out. This episode is coming up next right after this.

Welcome to the Raising Healthy Kid Brains podcast where moms and teachers come to learn all about kids’ brains, how they work, how they learn, how they grow and simple tips and tricks for raising the most resilient, kind, smart, compassionate kids we can. All while having lots of grace and compassion for ourselves because you know what? We all really need and deserve that too. I am your host, Amy Nielson. Let’s get ready to start the show.

Amy: Cynthia Long, welcome to the show. We’re so happy to have you on today.

Cynthia: Thank you.

Amy: I am so excited. Okay, so I have to tell you, when I was a little girl I always wanted to learn sign language and kind of started trying to teach myself a little bit but this was back before internet and YouTube, well, at least in my house. I think it was really before internet. But I didn’t have a lot of resources and so it was kind of tricky. And I’m excited. Tell me how you got into this.

Cynthia: Well, you fit the mold because when, well, I homeschooled our three children. My son was in a boy’s group and he came home and he said, “Mom, nobody is able to talk to this deaf boy.” So they had a deaf kid there. And I just decided as a mom, okay, well, let’s learn sign language. So we took a class together, the four of us and I became so fascinated with the language that I ended up going to college for it. And then I became a nationally certified interpreter. And then as an interpreter in education I realized like you did, there were not resources out there other than the A, B, C’s or counting to certain numbers.

So that’s when I kicked in and started making things, not just for deaf and hard of hearing kids but also for special needs or just teachers that want to use it with their hearing students as well. So that’s how my journey began. I can blame it on my son.

Amy: Do you know what, the things we learn because of our kids, that is a true, true principle in my life as well. I love that so much. And what’s interesting is seeing the difference maybe down the road. I have my nine year old daughter is actually coming home with sign language that she’s learning in her classroom and I love it so much. It makes me so happy.

Cynthia: Yes. That’s awesome.

Amy: I know, I’m so excited. Okay, so I want to learn more about this. Can you talk to me a little bit about what is ASL or American Sign Language? And kind of just explain it to us a little bit, what does that actually look like?

Cynthia: American Sign Language referred to as ASL is a visual language that utilizes a system of hand gestures, facial expressions, mouth morphing even involving the head and shoulder movement, all to have its own grammar rules that bring full meaning to the communication. Now, most of us, as you know, we use sign language in a way, we gesture to people, we wave hello or we point to something because we need it. So we’re already using these gestures.

And so for sign language though, we find that most people who start on this journey. They are using pretty much what I refer to as sign vocabulary and not the ASL, which is a language in itself. So that’s where we’re coming from in the approach today is more on the basic side of sign language with simple signs and vocabulary, instead of learning the full out vocabulary of the language.

Amy: Interesting. So there is a lot of grammar and structure to it and yeah, because I feel like when I’ve seen things it’s like well, here’s a word and here’s another word. And sometimes we’ll learn it, to go with a song or something in school and do that but it’s not the full grammar, maybe in everything.

Cynthia: That is right. All of the adverbs and adjectives are within your body and your body placement. So if you were talking about something yesterday you might have a shoulder shift backwards. If you were talking about something that’s really far away you might squinch your eyes and your tongue would also have a wiggle to it. So those are the mouth morphings. So it’s a full out language that is absolutely beautiful when you shift to full ASL.

Amy: That’s so interesting. Okay. And it’s making me think too, I think I read something within the last week or two, I’ve been doing a lot of research around language and reading. And I read something that said that, I think it was 90% of our communication with someone is our body language anyway so it feels like maybe learning this kind of gives you access to even more awareness of how to use that to communicate where our words are only maybe 10% of what we’re communicating.

Cynthia: Yes. Just having that ability, even knowing sign language, I can see people across the room and kind of get a better idea. I’m cheating a little bit because I have that skill.

Amy: Yeah, that’s cool. Because you’re paying so much attention to the nuance of what they are doing with their body. That’s so interesting. Okay, so let’s talk about with kids specifically and even with our children that aren’t hard of hearing, what are some of the benefits to using sign language with children?

Cynthia: Did you say we have a two hour podcast, is that right? No. Okay, so I won’t be that long. So we are going to focus on three that I’d like to narrow in on and the first one would be, and it improves the overall child’s personal development. So let’s start with a basic, are motor skills. Most people know about baby sign language. So what age do you find that most babies start being able to gesture? Do you have a ballpark idea?

Amy: I don’t know. My guess would be around five, six months maybe.

Cynthia: Okay, yeah, that is possible. And I see when I actually Googled that they’re telling me even eight or nine months. And so how about when they first start talking, what age are we looking at there?

Amy: Oh, gosh, that’s later. So I would say mama, dada is kind of around maybe one year to 18 months maybe.

Cynthia: Yes. So imagine just the parent having the skill of giving a gift to the child where they can actually start communicating to you as early as six months old, that they want milk or they want more. My heart is just delighted to know that. So when, babies can start as early as six months. However, here’s a fun fact. I have a deaf friend, a female who had a baby and her baby was signing as early as four months.

Amy: Wow.

Cynthia: I know. And so imagine, people say, “Well, are they really signing?” It is the hand gesture which talks again about the motor skills. So let’s take for instance the sign, more. So for those of you who are listening, just take your hands and make a flat O with them. And then you’re going to put them together, tap the fingertips two times. That’s a sign for more. Now, we cannot expect a baby to have that motor skill at that time. So what they end up doing is taking their pointed finger and tapping on the palm of the other hand for more. So that’s the beginning stages.

And so is that sign wrong? No. It’s just at the level that they can give it to you, but the goal is they are communicating at such an early age. And here’s a unique thing with this. When we had that sign, more, the flat O’s and we’re touching two times. We take that exact same sign with one hand and we bring it to our mouth. What do you think that looks like?

Amy: I want more food.

Cynthia: Yes, it’s food, it’s to eat, yes. And so with that in mind, just teaching them the basics for their needs can be pivotal in understanding. Now, we can apply this as well to even children or adults with special needs or non-verbal. These are definitely signs they’re going to want to have in their abilities. And whether they sign it exactly right or wrong, that’s not a problem. It’s just communication. The other thing that comes with this is the increased creativity. My heart just gets so excited when I see my granddaughter, she came to me and she’s doing this.

She had this dance class and she was using signs with it. And I thought, oh my gosh, that’s so cute. So we know with kids, there’s so many, we call them finger play. Okay, so a popular song with finger play is the itsy bitsy spider. Okay, so let’s just use that one as an example. So with itsy bitsy spider, so again if you’re listening, take your hands and just make a claw hand out of it like you’re scaring somebody. And when you do this you’re going to take those claw hands and cross them on top of each other. And now your palms are going to point down and wiggle your fingers. Does that look like a spider to you?

Amy: Yeah.

Cynthia: That is the actual sign for spider. Now, keep the palms down and uncross them, and I want you just to kind of, like you’re tapping your nails on a desk at the same time, just go drop, drop, drop, drop. That is actually the sign for rain. And most of the time we see them when they’re signing the itsy bitsy spider, we see them signing snow. That’s the sign for snow. It’s lightly wiggled fingers down but rain is the claw hand. So we’re teaching this with the finger play, you’re empowering them to learn another language while they’re encompassing their whole body and movement.

I love it because it’s the same hand shape and they get to make it rain. So we’ve actually included the clipart for how to sign this. We’ve made a PDF for your audience to download so they’ll be able to visually see this as well.

Amy: That’s so amazing. How neat would it be to be able to teach our kiddos the sign language for that for itsy bitsy spider. I love it so much. Thank you for doing that and we will have the link for that in the show notes for you so that you can grab that, everyone. So one of the things that I find interesting too is that we know that children are working really hard to kind of build vocabulary over those first few years of their lives. And I feel being able to sign just gives them another option like we talked about to communicate. And also maybe to express emotion where they may not have all of the ability to express all of that verbally yet.

Maybe there’s options where they could express some of that with their body or their hands. And so giving kids ways to express emotion I think is always valuable too and giving them another form of vocabulary as they’re learning to use their words. Then they can use their body because we know they’re more comfortable with their bodies. They learn their bodies earlier than they learn their words.

Cynthia: Most definitely. So if you’d like I can go ahead and address the social emotional and then we can come to the how it helps with the mind, is that okay?

Amy: Yeah, let’s do it.

Cynthia: So we’re looking at the social emotional awareness of the child. We have several different techniques to help the child notice. Let me ask you this. Let’s just say for a parent, when your child wakes up you pretty much know what mood by how they behave when they wake up, right?

Amy: Yes.

Cynthia: And for a teacher, and you can close your eyes and envision your students walking in the classroom. You can tell by their body language and their face what kind of mood they might be showing up to when they come. We have this thing, we call it a mood dog and it’s just like a paper little thing that sits on their desk. And what happens is they take the face and the face actually can rotate. So the child can take a moment to self-assess and identify the emotion that they are showing up to school. And so they just turn that little face in the little doggy, the mood doggy and that’s how they’re feeling that day.

And then that helps them, the teacher of course might add more to that, help them learn how to self-regulate from there. And their face can change throughout the day. So that’s one of the things we like in using this. We also find this is one of my favorites, classroom management. That’s a buzzword, right.

Amy: Yeah, it’s a real thing, yes.

Cynthia: Yes. So that’s going to help with their emotions as well. So I’m going to give you, let’s give you two examples here as well. So as a parent when my children were at a younger age, I got the normal mommy, mommy, 10 times over while they’re tugging at my shirt. And you’re on the phone and you just, you’re like, “Hold on.” And then you tend to them or you tell them, “Shh, go away, I’m busy right now. Talk to you later.” But how simple it would be with management using sign language to continue your conversation and use your wait sign which is simply wiggling your fingers with your palm up.

And then they know that mom has recognized them and shall be with them later. And your conversation continues so that helps regulate emotions, feeling upset or something of that nature. It worked every time for us. So let’s say you’re a teacher, how does this apply in a classroom? One of my favorite things is when a teacher is teaching or you don’t want to interrupt your class, and a child has to go to the restroom, the dialogue can be simply that the child raises his hand with the letter T and shh, just gives us a little shake if they want to because that’s the sign for I need to go to the bathroom.

So the teacher’s teaching and all she has to do instead of saying, “Is this an emergency, Johnny?” Interrupts the whole class, she can either learn sign language to talk back to him while she’s still teaching or she can do her head nods to answer him or even learn the sign for later or again, wait. So right then and there, there is silent communication going on without disrupting the entire classroom.

Amy: That is so neat and I’m just seeing lots of applications for that for a few simple signs that you could teach your class that would minimize those disruptions that happen constantly.

Cynthia: Yes. And those signs are going to be on the PDF as well to help guide you and we throw in some extra tips in there. So what about fostering a bonding, having bonding. I like this because you’re doing something together where it’s a parent and child or just a teacher and child. It’s something that you’re learning together. You’re giving that child or children additional attention. And just simply learning the sign for I love you, which is the letter IL and Y together, a parent could then drop the child off and from a distance or even from a window, tell their child one more time, I love you, just by using that one sign.

This can also be a calming way to help children if you’re in a loud situation. Maybe you’re at the pool and you can’t yell to them. Maybe you’re in the auditorium and a lot of kids are talking. Maybe there’s an emergency, you don’t want to have your voices on. So just learning a few of these signs to communicate what you need is life changing in some of those situations. And the other one that I like to mention is cultural awareness. So learning sign language can help children become more aware of accepting different cultures, whether they are deaf, hard of hearing or even special needs that use this.

Amy: Yes, I love that too. I love going back to what you were talking about with using symbols for bonding. We don’t use sign language necessarily in our home very much but we do sometimes use just a hand gesture. So we have one that we pulled, my girls like to watch Korean television with me, Korean dramas. And there’s a symbol that they use to send love to you or something. And so it’s something that not very many people know about unless they watch Korean television which not a lot of her friends do.

But it’s kind of our fun little signal to each other that I can send them some love or send them a heart or whatever as they’re getting out of the car, carpool or like you said, a classroom or something like that. And so I love, just I’ve seen that working in a different context a little bit but that same idea, working with me and my children and they feel like it’s their own little secret code and language with me which is so fun. So I can see how powerful that could be using that for bonding with sign language too which is really neat, on top of all the other benefits.

And then we wanted to talk too about what it’s doing as far as their actual brain development, their mind, what’s happening as they’re learning this other language. And I would assume building some additional fine motor skills and some different things as well, but what does that look like actually in their brain? Cynthia: One of the things we actually see in the classroom and that is their cognitive ability, is enhanced, we want you to continue using the tools that you are already using. The difference is, is just adding the component of sign language. It might be for just a few children, it might be for your entire class to help lock in their language acquisition.

So we are aware that the children have learning styles. And now I’m going to quiz you on yours. So we have auditorial which kids learn by listening. Then we have visual that children by seeing things. And then we have kinesthetic where they learn by doing. So I’m just curious, which one are you?

Amy: Which one am I? That’s a good question. I feel like I’m a mix. I think probably most of us are. I might be, I feel like I spend a lot of time being an auditory learner but I also feel like kinesthetic is partly my thing too because I feel like it sticks better if I have to do it myself.

Cynthia: And you gave me the prime example because majority of the children are a mixture as well. This is the beauty of adding sign language. Now, for me, I am off the charts kinesthetic. The other things might help a little bit but I’m completely kinesthetic so I need to be doing all the time. So for me and learning I would need to be doing, so sign language is perfect. So how does this apply to children? We use this in reinforcing vocabulary that they are learning. Some of our favorites are especially even easier is when they’re iconic.

So we have a sign or the word, if they’re learning the word cat. And kids love, again, using their hands and we always say, “Meow.” Cat, something of that nature, so adding sign to that is pretty simple. So if you know your A, B, C’s, make the letter F with both hands, if you don’t, just take your finger and your thumb and you put them together. Now pretend that you are a C-A-T. So I can finger spell that while I’m doing it or I could be simple and just do the cat sign. So please show me the word for C-A-T, cat.

So you’re auditorial, you’re listening, visually you’re watching me and kinesthetic, we’re getting ready to do it. So now take your F hands and act like a cat and pull out your whiskers out from the side of your face. Very good. So right then we have reinforced all three learning styles. And we have one more iconic. Let’s try this one. Car, so go ahead and grab your steering wheel and just kind of drive. Okay, so we’re driving. We are learning the word C-A-R for car, car. And then so they’re hearing it again and they’re seeing the other kids driving their cars and they’re also doing the sign as well.

And you could have each child rotate around C A R, maybe they’re driving while they’re doing it and reinforcing that movement with a child as a memory aid as well. And we’ve included these signs too on the PDF. So don’t worry if you can’t pick it up by just what we’re saying. We’ve got that covered for you. These are great too with sight words because those two words are quite difficult. And so we have these things as you’re familiar, flipcharts, so we call them flipbook because they’re a little index card and on all of them they have the sign as well as the activity to reinforce it.

So it’s really adding sign language is multisensory, engaging and connecting those neural pathways for just an additional tool that helps them. And so you might be as a teacher thinking, I don’t know sign language. That’s too much for me. And I’ll have a hint for you at the end of how I answer that, but definitely the PDF is going to get you started. And if you want to go even further we have got additional things of implementing sign language in the classroom that you can grab a hold of that, as well.

Amy: That is so fun and fascinating. And I am such, okay, when I teach I use my hands and I’m getting kids involved. And sometimes kids need to be able to use their hands and different parts of their bodies. And so I like to incorporate a lot of that into learning and of course at Planning Playtime we do all kinds of trying to use multisensory and use your hands and do all kinds of different things. So I love the idea of as you’re working through phonological awareness and you’re trying to teach these concepts and I’m thinking all the fun you could have with doing your r controlled vowels and here’s an example.

And doing a sign with it which would just add using additional parts of the brain and building additional synapses and connections and just strengthen those concepts you’re teaching as you’re doing it. Which would help with memory and help them kind of gain these other skills while using this, plus probably improving attention I would imagine. So I love that idea. How neat is that? I want to hear more about how you help people with that because it does feel maybe a little bit overwhelming in our busy crazy schedules to go learn another language, to be able to do that. But the power that once you had it I think would be pretty incredible.

Cynthia: Amazing. I just get excited just the thought of just knowing someone else is going to start using that even with their hearing kids because the power that it brings to that relationship and the child’s education. So here’s what we say. Our philosophy is whether you know sign or not, we guide you step by step so you can be successful. So I say, just get started. You do not need to know the language to begin using it. And here’s my pro tip. Make it easy on yourself and the kids by just begin labeling everything.

So at aslteachingresources.com we do have labels that are set up with the icons, the English word and the sign and how to sign it with the words. So that would mean if you have a bin with markers and then you have another one with crayons, another one with glue, you can put the labels right in front of it so it’s an easy access and you could be learning it and they could be learning it as well. We also suggest if you’re doing story time or maybe you have a book area, that you take the flashcards. We have hundreds of them.

You take flashcards and if you’re teaching the colors you just tape that flashcard right in there on that page. And then you can learn, do one word while you’re doing it. So you don’t have to buy a book that’s all about sign language. You just get the flashcards and put them where you need to. For your morning routines, when you’re teaching about the weather, it’s cold outside, you can use these with your existing posters and just add the signs to them or you can buy the full out normal set that you have with sign language on it as well to assist you.

So in your calendar, today is, yesterday was, all of that is complete, you can find that kind of information if you’re really wanting to incorporate that. Just the PDF will guide you further. We have some more resources for you when you get that.

Amy: This is so cool. Okay, so a lot of us want labels on our stuff in our classroom anyway or even at home, you could label things, what a fun, we like doing that because it’s organized and pretty. But just having that right next to it, I love that because it’s such a simple thing. I love how it builds, I think, awareness like you talked about, the cultural awareness of just that there are people that speak in different languages and that could be ASL or that could be other languages as well. I think it just adds awareness that not everyone speaks the language you do.

And then also just giving them something they could do with it. And like I said, my nine year old is loving this so much right now. So I’m thinking maybe I need to get this and put this around my house because she would just enjoy that so much.

Cynthia: Yeah, that would be awesome. I’m super excited that she’s learning sign language.

Amy: Yeah, I think it’s so fun. I love this so much. Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that I should have asked you today?

Cynthia: Well, the only thing I can think of is and this is for all ages, so whether you’re a parent or teacher in the classroom, you’re working with young kids or whatever. Just start labeling everything. Keep that handy. And if you really want to learn the language, you want to take that even further, we have a full out course to learn it. And then we also have several courses just for teachers alone, the top elementary signs so you can see everything signed as well in the classroom to visually capture all of that.

So yeah, just reach out to us when you’re ready to start implementing sign language in your classroom or at home. We’ve got you. We’ll cover you.

Amy: That’s so amazing. Okay, so we will have links for everything in the show notes including your free PDF that has some great resources for getting started and some of those fun signs that we talked about and finger plays and things which I think is so, so cool. And then links for more information if you want to start implementing this in your classroom or in your home and working with your kids. Then you can find that information as well. Cynthia, thank you so much for coming on today and chatting with me. This has been a delightful conversation.

Cynthia: It has been my pleasure and just a shout out to you, Amy, you have been a part of my life and my family for years now, so thank you for everything that you put out there to help us educate our children. I appreciate you.

Amy: Thank you so much. Amazing, okay, thanks everyone and we will catch you again next week for our next episode.

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Thank you for hanging out with me today for this fun chat on Raising Healthy Kid Brains. If you want to see more of what we’re doing to support kiddos and their amazing brains, come visit us on our website, planningplaytime.com. See you next week.