Signs of better behaviour

Can the use of signing provide children with visual gestural strategies to change temperament? Leanne Miller reports on how her research project developed behavioural changes in her setting.

While under taking my degree in Early Years, Education and Childcare, I was introduced to sign supported English (SSE). This multisensory approach uses key British Sign Language signs to 'clue' children into the meaning of spoken sentences, introduces children to letter recognition and phonics through fingerspelling, and embeds positive behaviour strategies.

I implemented a project plan over an eight week period with the main aim being to assess the impact of using signs, as a multi-sensory aid to communication development, on children's behaviour in the nursery environment – in particular, children with special needs.

I had recently observed a child who is on the autistic spectrum, and another child who had challenging behaviours, display similar characteristics. They both played on in solitude and did not join in with group activities, big or small. I observed that they were also displaying some difficulties at transition times when they did not cope very well, and exhibited some challenging behaviours during this time.

The nursery had all of the recommended materials in place, and staff had had in-depth training in practices to support these materials. For example, the children had access to visual timetables and were shown key signs at certain times of the day, they had a key person that worked closely with them and relationships were developed with the parents. Individual Educational Programs were put in place.

Evidence showed that slow progress was being made towards the desired outcomes, while staff members were becoming impatient for the preferred outcomes. I researched and found that evidence demonstrates that the more senses children used in their learning experiences, by saying it, hearing it and moving to it, while being augmented with accompanying concrete objects (Gardner, 1993), the better the chances were that the information might be retained. This was precisely what sign supported English offered the children, and I was excited to be able to begin this journey.

How did it happen?

My research involved exploring how 10 children developed through using this multi-sensory stimulation. The children in the setting who were not part of the Signs for Success© group continued to be taught phonics using the Letters and Sounds programme and behaviour was dealt with in the traditional way, using verbal communications only.

Each child's progress was followed using a variety of observations and assessment tools, including narrative observations and focus activity plans. Observation techniques were used to obtain information, to record, assess and monitor the children's level of knowledge, and their stage of communication development. During the first week, a signing intervention period was used to introduce children to key signs, while the staff practised simultaneously signing and saying the same words. Signs for Success© strategies were routinely and consistently deployed, encouraging the children and staff to use this new form of communication and to retain the signs they learnt during this time.

Letter recognition

Initially, all of the children were encouraged to sound each letter of the alphabet out phonetically, and to use signs for colours, animals and a range of other simple words – this included common phrases, such as 'good morning' and 'good afternoon'.

In the first instance it proved to be quite challenging to secure the children' attention, but after some perseverance they tuned in to me as I managed to gain eye contact with them.

Some of the children in the groups were developmentally ready to be taught to fingerspell their names and the alphabet using the visual Wow poster. Some children were sufficiently proficient to phonetically fingerspell words, such as 'dog' and 'cat'.

Both the signing and non-signing group included a child with English as an additional language (EAL); one with autism and a child whose behaviour was cause for concern. The children were divided by chronological age as evenly across the groups as possible. The age of the children were similar to those in Daniels' (2001) research, concentrating on young children at the crucial period of their language development.

My intention mirrored that of Daniels', that is, to: '… take advantage of this small window of optimal opportunity that exists during the pre-kindergarten years for children to acquire language readily… this accelerated language growth period, which developmentally occurs in early childhood.'

During a brief introductory session, staff were shown a short clip from a DVD (Robinson, 2003) that showed a young girl looking at a WOW signing book. The girl was seen sounding out and fingerspelling the word 'alligator' straight away.

Although I had not intended this to be part of my research I took this method home and tested it out on my six-year old daughter who had never been exposed to fingerspelling before. First, I showed my daughter how to fingerspell the alphabet and after just three attempts she could do it confidently.

We then copied the activity in the DVD clip and it was a memorable moment to see my daughter signing 'alligator' immediately! She then went on to work out how to spell previously unknown words without any help because of her ability to cue herself with fingerspelling, proving this method to be a strong tool that supported her memory skills.

Back in the nursery, the two groups of children were tested on their phonetic knowledge eight weeks after implementing the Signs for Success© and Letters and Sounds programmes. They were asked to make the sound of written letters. On average, children recognised 77 percent of the written alphabet after using Signs for Success© over the eight-week programme and made the correct phonic sound.

In comparison, the Letters and Sounds children were, on average, only able to recognise 20 percent of the alphabet. From this, I concluded that the children who had the opportunity to access Signs for Success© advanced their phonic knowledge by 57 percent in comparison to Letters and Sounds.

It was evident that the children who were part of the Letters and Sounds programme recognised letters in their names and it is likely that these were the letters that parents and carers had encouraged their children to learn. using parent questionnaires, I established that this was indeed the case.

However, unlike the children who focused on the phonic letters in their names, the children who were part of the Signs for Success© group recognised a wider variety of phonics than just the letters in their names. This suggested to me that using sign supported English is a more beneficial aid to phonetic development.

Behaviour

The behaviour of the children from both groups was monitored for a week before implementing any changes and then monitored again during the week following the end of the project. The results were quite startling. The impact on the children's behaviour through using Signs for Success© methodology was a huge reduction in unwanted behaviour with 30 percent less observed, whereas the Letters and Sounds group showed a six percent increase in unwanted behaviour at the end of the eight weeks.

It is my opinion that the use of sign supported English is extremely beneficial for children in the early stages of communication, language and literacy development and will significantly impact on their personal, social and emotional development.

After reflecting on the strategies that were used to implement Signs for Success© methodology, I concluded that although all of the strategies benefitted all children, the most effective was to use those signs that gave instructions and labelled objects. For example, one child, who was on the autistic spectrum learnt his colours and their signs through signing the 'rainbow' song; he was able to extend this skill by using the colour 'orange' to ask for a piece of orange to eat at snack time. ­ is was the first time he was able to communicate in this way. Signing extended throughout the nursery. The children learnt from one another's interests; extending the signing at their own pace. The rate at which signing skills developed was faster than I expected and the children showed a hunger to learn more, particularly through song, rhyme and stories, which became more animated and visual through signing.

Using sign supported English has been a two-way activity that has encouraged both staff and children to communicate in a way they never have before. For me, using signing has brought me closer to the children and the bond that we have has become stronger. I have observed an obvious change in children's development as they have developed their communication techniques. As they became able, through signing, to communicate preferences or feelings in a positive way, their behaviour changed, which helped them interact more with children, staff and their environment.

One child, who did not speak before the project began, developed words and, at times, began to string up to three words together to express himself. He was, therefore, able to communicate his needs more effectively. I have had experience of some of the many ways (and programmes) available for teaching communication, language and literacy. I have seen these benefit small groups of children, usually the older and more able children. In my view, these strategies and methods do not match the benefits of using signing, for all children, in particular children with additional needs.

In 2011, the Tickell review of the Early Years Foundation Stage discussed the 'results of interaction with people and their environment' and 'a natural flow of affectionate, stimulating talk to describe…' When I discussed this with my colleagues, the consensus was that this could be read as claiming verbal communication is the only way to interact.

The review also observed that there was a need to address children with English as an additional language, but did not suggest the use of communicating using sign supported English, where children have difficulty processing and understanding English alone. I think this is an omission and would like to see sign supported English recognised as an important aid to communication, language and literacy development.

What do the parents think?

Parents and carers have welcomed the use of signs and have seen a dramatic change in their children's communication development and behaviour. One parent commented: 'I can't believe the change in my child's behaviour! It has really helped when we are out and about.' Another parent told me: 'It's fantastic! My child loves the books and tells me every night that he loves me (in signs), which brings a tear to my eyes as he could not communicate this before.'

What we are doing now!

Chestnuts Nursery is now one of hundreds of nurseries throughout the UK that use Signs for Success© to develop children's communication, language and literacy, and for positive behaviour. Staff are continuing our professional development by studying the accredited 'Signing to advance Speech, Language and Behaviour' distance learning course, which will be launched as an optional unit in the CYP Diploma in September 2012.

If anyone would like to hear more about signing at Chestnuts, please contact me Chestnutstw2@aol.co.uk

References

Daniels M (2001) Dancing with Words: Signing for Hearing Children's Literacy. Bergin and Garvey: Westport, Connecticut, USA
Gardner H (1993) Creative Minds. Basic Books. New York, USA
Robinson K (2003) Transforming Lives: The Power of Sign. Signs for Success: Twickenham, London