Children that learn ASL have increased early literacy skills. Therefore, it is an effective intervention model for developing pre-literacy skills and ASL is easily incorporated into all aspects of language development. Using ASL as a strategy to support vocabulary development, phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationships, and spelling ability makes it an engaging way for children to develop language and literacy skills.

“Research has proven using ASL as a supportive factor in an early literacy curriculum, as it increases pre-literacy skills in the area of vocabulary development, phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationship, and spelling ability.” (Prevatte & Matthews, 2013) Once young children begin to recognize letters and understand that each letter makes a sound then it is time to start learning that when you put certain letters together, they make a word. It is important to provide many opportunities for children to explore and discover words. During literacy centers’ having a word work center gives children the opportunity to experiment with spelling patterns (word families), memorize the spelling of high-frequency words, and develop a genuine curiosity and interest in words. By playing with words and looking for word patterns children increase their knowledge about words and writing skills. Integrating American Sign Language fingerspelling with building words enhances students’ ability to learn words by sight. The outcome of this play with words will be stronger readers that are independent and successful at spelling and decoding words.

Using ASL with children helps them learn from an early age that the sounds they hear have a visual representation. For instance, as you introduce ASL into your daily routines you are saying the word ‘milk’ and showing your child a visual representation of the word ‘milk.’  Then when you read to them a story about cows making milk, they will learn that the letters m-i-l-k visually represent the word ‘milk’ in print. ASL sign language builds the ability to achieve substantial literacy skills at an early age that will last a lifetime. Research suggests that labeling objects and activities, using ASL fingerspelling to teach the alphabet and spelling, as well as using ASL to teach vocabulary during reading aloud is beneficial for diverse learners, which stimulates and increases brain growth. What a wonderful gift you could give a child. American Sign Language is truly the best gift you could give a child. It supports the whole child, every child.