signing in hearing babies

[B.Woll]

Adele Abrahamsen emphasised that what children on these
programme are learning is not necessarily linguistic, but rather,
gestural. I think one needs to be careful about suggesting that just
because the symbols are taken from a language, that the child is
learning any linguistic form. So I would want to be stronger than the
statement that "learning "cafe" isn't learning French". Learning to
wave 'bye-bye' isn't learning a sign. As Adele has pointed out, and
as earlier research by Volterra, Petitto and others has suggested,
it is important to distinguish gesture from language in children
exposed to sign language inputs.

In response to the claim that early exposure to sign language will
reduce behaviour problems in 2-year-olds, a deaf colleague of mine
just laughed and said: "I wish someone had told my children that!"


Bencie Woll
b.woll at city.ac.uk
Language and Communication Science
City University, Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB, UK
Tel: +44 (0)171 477 8354 (voice) +44 (0)171 477 8314 (text)
Fax: +44 (0)171 477 8577 or 8354