for people with Down syndrome

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Signs of the Times: sign language for people with Down syndrome

By Lauren Porter, Clinical Director at the Champion Centre

“I’m hungry.” “It’s a pig!” “I am going horse riding.” “We are eating chicken.” “I need help.” “I am finished now.”

If you heard such statements from a group of pre-schoolers, you would probably think this was excellent communication. What would you think if you saw this communication instead? On any given day in a Champion Centre programme, you might see all these things and more, because you would see children from infancy using sign language to express themselves. New Zealand Sign Language is one of Aotearoa’s three official languages. Often we think of sign language as something to help children who have not yet learnt to express themselves with verbal language. Because children with Down syndrome show delays in producing their first words, sign language is a complement to their strengths. Such strengths include non-verbal communication in the realm of gesture. Whilst supporting children to communicate with sign gives an alternative to reliance on spoken words, research shows sign language communication with infants and young children with Down syndrome actually predicts spoken vocabulary a year later. Sign language is a communication pathway that uses gesture in specific, intentional, and sensitive ways. Sign language differs from other sorts of gesture communication such as pointing, nodding of the head, or facial expression, most of which occur spontaneously and are not taught as language. Delays in vocabulary development, phonological memory, and oral motor planning are commonly-faced hurdles for children with Down syndrome. However, visual short term memory and manual motoric development are often strengths that can be kindled by learning to communicate with sign. In fact, babies with Down syndrome produce signs far more readily than their age-matched, typically-developing peers (but tend to produce fewer gestures). There are signs that communicate actions,

objects, social requests and responses. The ability to produce communication through signing like this creates a significant advantage, allowing access to a large repertoire of communication signs to convey a broad range of meaning. Not only does use of sign language have an important and immediate impact on a child’s ability to communicate and be understood, the learning and expression through sign language maps onto the development of spoken language, with more signing equating to more spoken words. A huge win-win! The use of sign is something parents do, too. The ability to communicate back and forth – to share “circles of communication” – is at the heart of learning and interaction. The experience of having two people engage mutually in a shared focus is called “joint attention”. Joint attention is fundamental to being part of relationships, the world and development. Gestures like pointing or eye gaze, and communication gestures like sign, open up the possibilities for joint attention. A child has the ability to communicate interest in something which the parent can notice and respond to. Sign is a tool for active participation in the joint attention process. Research suggests that for children with developmental disabilities, parents are often more directive, with joint attention occurring less frequently or in a delayed fashion. This is usually because the child does not appear to have the capacity to be an active partner in such communications. Again, sign provides a doorway to a world that is otherwise harder to access. In a single morning I watched children communicate all those opening statements through the use of sign. I watched their parents respond and share their focus. With the powerful inclusion of New Zealand Sign Language into a child’s life, we achieve immediate communication, future verbal skills and the foundation of shared experience between children and their treasured loved ones.

References: Özçalişkan, Ş., Adamson, L. B., Dimitrova, N., Bailey, J., & Schmuck, L. (2016). Baby sign but not spontaneous gesture predicts later vocabulary in children with Down syndrome. Journal of Child Language, 43(4), 948-963. Mason-Apps, E., Stojanovik, V., HoustonPrice, C., & Buckley, S. (2018). Longitudinal predictors of early language in infants with Down syndrome: A preliminary study. Research in developmental disabilities, 81, 37-51. Paparella, T., & Kasari, C. (2004). Joint attention skills and language development in special needs populations: Translating research to practice. Infants & Young Children, 17(3), 269-280.

UpsideDowns reads books with Makaton sign for lockdown - available on their youtube channel