Effects of Family-centered Asl Instruction on Hearing Parents' Child-directed Signing

Book excerpt: Objective: The prupose of thie investigation was to explore the effect of direct, routine-based American Sign Language (ASL) instruction on hearing parents' child-directed ASL. Method: The investigation followed a single-case design. Participants included five parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children ages six months to two years and 11 months. The participants attended a once-weekly class for eight weeks, following the ASL at Home curriculum. They video-recorded themselves during playtime with their child twice per week. The dependent variables, the quantity and variety of the participants' ASL output during an untreated routine, playtime, were measured to gain information about how they generalized incorporating ASL into their communication with their children. Results: Both dependent variables increased across participants upon the introduction of the intervention and remained consistent or increased over time. Conclusion: These findings brought attention to the importance of formal ASL instruction designed for hearing parents to apply during daily routines with their young deaf children. Most participants' signed output varied widely across sessions, so there were likely additional factors influencing their ASL output. Future research is recommended to determine what those factors were and how early intervention providers can support parents' learning and use of ASL to provide accessible, language-rich environments for their deaf children.