Tips Use one image per flashcard, so the back of your flashcard is blank – this allows for different guessing games. Make a double set of flashcards – this allows for more games, e.g. pair game, guessing game. E. Using sign language One way to make mimes meaningful is to use sign language – it is a useful support for a meaningful movement or action to help children understand concepts. Sign language is a language of its own, and consists of hand signs to communicate. As we focus on using words related to a topic with small children, using sign language can be a solution to providing children with a gesture to represent a new English word or expression. Information about words and expressions in American Sign Language (ASL) is easily accessible online, and so this is thought to be the easiest sign language to use, but if you know any other sign language (e.g. Malaysian sign language) you can use that. What is important is that it is a meaningful gesture to help children remember a word or expression. 1. Find the signs There are sites that help you learn ASL and even YouTube channels. Google ‘(the topic) in ASL’ and you are likely to find lots of resources. Sign language is being used with babies and so sites that help parents use ‘Baby signing’ are also available. 2. Learn the signs This is not as difficult as it seems. We usually introduce five or six new lexical items at any one time, so that’s easy to remember. Signs are made up of a hand shape, a location, a movement and a palm orientation, e.g. Mummy: an open palm (hand shape), facing side ways (orientation) with your thumb pointing to your chin (location), tap it a few times (movement). Female signs are often similar to male signs, just the location is different – female on the lower part of the face and male on the upper – so daddy is the same as mummy, but the location changes to the forehead.
The sign for mummy, mother or mom From: http://www.babysignlanguage.com/dictionary/m/mommy/ If a child asks you for a word and you don’t know the sign admit to this and assure them you’ll find out for next time. We are all learning together and it’s important that children see this too. 3. Use the signs When you introduce a new word or expression go through the following steps: 1. Show the picture, say the word and do the sign. 2. Repeat the word and the sign and ask children to copy you. 3. Allow children to use the sign if they can’t remember the word in English. 4. Encourage the sign when you and the children use the words during games and gamelike activities, when saying rhymes, singing songs and during story telling. 131