American Annals of the Deaf

This pilot research project examined the use of sign language as a communication bridge for non-Deaf children between the ages of 0–6 years who had been diagnosed with, or whose communication difficulties suggested, the presence of such disorders as Autism, Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and/or learning disabilities. Teaching staff, speech language therapists, and parents noted that hearing children who used the Bridge of Signs model experienced language development with sign language and, in some cases, went on to use that foundation as a bridge to speaking the oral language of their caretakers. Though deaf children who used the model were more likely to have been exposed to sign language and its use, they still showed improvement in vocabulary acquisition and production. Future development and application of this model will benefit from quantitative and longitudinal study.