Hearing children benefit greatly from language activities that incorporate rhythmic and rhyming spoken language (e.g., nursery rhymes or Dr. From birth, hearing children access the playful phonological patterns of spoken language on a minute-by-minute basis. The difference between hearing and deaf toddlers’ early language access and experience is stark.

A potential case of sign language impairment was identified in a native signer, creating a new line of inquiry in using ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness to detect atypical language patterns. The findings indicate that recitation skills in young deaf children can be supported through interventions utilizing ASL rhyme and rhythm supplemented with ASL phonological awareness activities. Visual analysis and total mean and mean difference procedures were employed to analyze results. There were four phases in this study: baseline, handshape rhyme awareness intervention, alternating treatments, and preference. Baseline data revealed the lack of rhyme awareness in children and informed the decision to provide intervention as a condition to examine the effects of explicit handshape rhyme awareness instruction on increasing engagement behavior and accuracy in recitation. With the application of alternating treatment design with initial baseline, it is the first experimental research of its kind on ASL rhyme and rhythm. This single-subject study compared the effects of rhyming and non-rhyming ASL stories on the engagement behavior and accuracy in recitation of five deaf children between three and six years old in an ASL/English bilingual early childhood classroom. The use of rhyme and rhythm in American Sign Language (ASL) remains understudied. There is much to explore about the specific techniques used to foster deaf children’s language development. Early language acquisition is critical for lifelong success in language, literacy, and academic studies.

Download asl storytelling