ASL and Early Literacy…a Natural Combination!

Are you looking for meaningful and authentic ways to support early literacy?

By now, you have probably captured that I love using American Sign Language (ASL) in early childhood! ASL is a fantastic teaching strategy for all early childhood educators. Why? There are many benefits; it is a meaningful and authentic way to support language development and early literacy skills. ASL supports pre-literacy and literacy skills in hearing children, exceptional children, and second language learners! It is a win-win!

So, how does ASL support pre-literacy and literacy skills? By supporting phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is an essential pre-reading skill that children start learning from birth. Phonological awareness is hearing and playing with the more minor word sounds. Children are exposed to phonological awareness whenever they hear a nursery rhyme, a Dr. Seuss story, or sing songs. Making up nonsense, silly rhymes, and adding ASL to songs, stories, nursery rhymes, and fingerplays provide additional and authentic ways for children to engage with the sounds, words, and letters they hear.

The brain is a pattern-seeking organ that seeks to find patterns in words. In addition to playing with individual letter sounds, it is crucial to identify phonograms or word chunks while engaging in wordplay. This provides an understanding of predictable patterns by using vowel sounds within words. Identifying patterns is essential when learning to read. Since the developing brain is a pattern-seeking organ, it is natural for children to recognize word patterns, which makes it easier to sound out words and learn to read. Children become strong, independent, and confident readers by noticing these patterns that will help them decode new words.

How can we create meaningful and authentic literacy experiences?

Help children engage in pre-reading skills by exposing them to lots of language and word families, plus provide child-led opportunities to play with language. Create authentic play-based experiences that allow children to use language patterns and enhance phonological awareness in dramatic play and other play-based learning centers.

Words are all around us; bringing this element into your classroom creates a natural learning environment. Let go of teacher-led language activities that do not effectively support language and literacy development, like “Letter of the Week.” Ask the children what they are interested in. Remember that the brain is wired to connect and seeks authentic experiences to create meaning. Integrating opportunities to hear and identify important words like names and rhyming words through play, song, and ASL helps children develop an understanding of language, leading to a love of reading. In addition, integrating American Sign Language fingerspelling increases students’ ability to learn words by sight and increases retention and recall.

Here are some ways to encourage phonological awareness skills with young children throughout your daily classroom routines:

Add environmental print to play-based learning centers.
Label the classroom with pictures, words, and ASL vocabulary.
Play with words and sounds by adding in ASL and making it into a game. Make this student-centered by connecting it to their interest.
Integrate reading and writing into your classroom activities and create student-led word banks by asking them what words they want to learn to read and write. Also, it provides multiple ways, tools, and colors to write. My favorite is sidewalk chalk.
Have children sound out their important words and add in fingerspelling to support recall and retention
Read rhyming books, sing songs, and recite nursery rhymes.
Check out an amazing resource that includes 18 favorite songs and chants called Songs and Chants for Signing on Teachers Pay Teachers
Explore word families and use ASL fingerspelling.
Another great resource from Sprouting New Beginnings is the Word Family ASL cards. You can use these to play games, build words, and find patterns in words.