Fingerspelling: Idea #16

It is fun to incorporate American Sign Language (ASL) whenever possible. Kids love learning the signs and showing them to others. It is a great way to get them excited about learning letter sounds.

Try introducing letter sounds with their letter sign. You could say something like this, "Here is the sign for the letter m. The letter m makes the mmm sound." From this your child will now associate the sign, letter, and sound all together.

I recently read in the Visual Language & Visual Learning Research Brief: The Importance of Fingerspelling for Reading that, "Fingerspelling, reading, and writing are interrelated." It is because of this that fingerspelling directly impacts reading skills. When your child has learned the letter, the letter's sound, and the letter's sign, it will more likely be ingrained in their mind.

GAME: Once they know all of the letter signs, you can play a game with them. In this game the teacher verbally makes a letter sound and then the student signs the letter back. You could also just reverse it where the teacher shows a letter sign and the student verbally makes the sound.