We live in a world where spoken language is the most dominant form of communication we have. For many people sign language is never usually the first form of communication to come to mind. Although they are different in the way they are expressed, these two forms of language have many similarities and characteristics that when used together enhance the language development in children. The main reason many communicate is to be able to learn and understand from one another, which is the reason that language has to be adaptable for everyone. We are given these opportunities to adapt to the environment around us, or learn an additional form of communication for our own greater understanding of multiple viewpoints of language. “Language is grounded in sensory-motor experience. Currently most machines, which process language, are not grounded. Instead, semantic representations are abstract, pre-specified, and have meaning only when interpreted by humans” (Roy, D. 2003). I found this to be an interesting point to be made, because although there are ways for non humans to communicate, the reason language is important is because we give these generic words meaning. Regardless if it is spoken or signed all have the ability to give meaning and reasoning for these words. Throughout this paper we will be exploring both similarities and differences within both of these languages and how they are both used with the same goal of being understood.

By dictionary definition sign language is defined as “a system of communication using visual gestures and signs, as used by deaf people.” Though this may be true, many parents are teaching their babies forms of sign to use before being able to speak. In an experiment by Goodwyn, et al.2000, they took two groups, one who had been taught sign in the early stages and one that had been not, and tested them on their language development at 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36 months. “The results of the present study, particularly the comparisons between the Sign Training group and the Non-intervention Control group, strongly support the hypothesis that symbolic gesturing facilitates the early stages of verbal language development. In a significant proportion of the comparisons between these two groups, infants who augmented their fledgling vocal vocabularies with symbolic gestures outperformed those who did not.” (Goodwyn, S.W. 2000). Signing is a way to help communicate and understand your child before they are able to speak. This is an advantage over spoken language because it is acquired earlier in the developmental process. In a study conducted by Rowe she found that, “The average 10-month-old child does not yet produce intelligible speech but does communicate – through gesture.” (Rowe, M.L. 2009). At a parents stand point there is the desire to communicate and understand your child’s wants and needs at earliest point possible. Signing is that opportunity to understand and teach your child all at once. This journal continues to test a child’s sign to word to predict their linguistic skills for later in life. It was concluded “Gesture might also play an active role in language learning by giving children opportunities to practice specific constructions before they can be produced in speech. Children who produce many gesture & speech combinations may be practicing conveying sentence-like meanings and, in this way, facilitating their own transition to two-word speech.” (Rowe, M.L. 2009). This article shows us the advantages of teaching your child sign but also how sign and spoken language can help a child to grow a larger linguistic understanding of the world around them. Sign language is an early start to your child’s language development and an opportunity for them to learn communication skills before spoken language is usually developed.

Spoken language is the most common way of verbal communication. From the day a child is born, the parents speak in hopes of what their first words will be. The issue with solely waiting to teach your child spoken language is the communication and understanding barrier you have with your child. Regardless of when their first word is spoken there is still the gap in time where they learn to string words together and form sentences of their wants and needs. Looking at a strictly verbal child there is the chance that they are gesturing for what they are trying to communicate about. Which could cause argument that almost every child has some sense of “sign” in their development. When a child points to something they want or clap when they are happy, they are showing gestures, which are a form of communication. When looking at spoken language I am going to solely focus on the linguistic acquisition and development within their developmental stages. There have been many people who believe that a child learning spoken language is something that gives them an advantage in the world. They are given a change to form meanings and give input into their environment. A journal by Kuhl et al (2000), states, “Spoken Language allows infants to recover from language input the rules by which people in their community communicate. Language is thus innately discoverable, but not innate in the way that selectionist models suggested.” (Kuhl, P.K. 2000) This journal helped me see the spoken language from a positive light instead of just a “delayed form of communication.” They talk about how spoken language allows you to put your own ideas and personality behind the words. There is opportunity for children to continuously learn new words and expand their vocabulary. As a child gets older and begins to learn they are opened up to an opportunity to learn new words everyday. They use their memory to hold onto these words and are able to teach other the growing linguistics they have learned.

Researching both sign language and spoken language within children has showed me the many similarities they have. “Both classes of stimuli activate a common, left-lateralized network of inferior frontal and posterior temporal regions in which symbolic gestures and spoken words may be mapped onto common, corresponding conceptual representations. We suggest that these anterior and posterior perisylvian areas, identified since the mid-19th century as the core of the brain’s language system, are not in fact committed to language processing, but may function as a modality-independent semiotic system that plays a broader role in human communication, linking meaning with symbols whether these are words, gestures, images, sounds, or objects.” (Xu, J. 2009) In this article we are shown how these similarities may be due to the location of the brain where language comes from. It shows that both spoken language and sign can be used together to form a more complex understanding in general because of how our brain analyzes these actions. I believe that through this research I have learned that teaching signing in infants ultimately enhances their knowledge in linguistics in the future. The combination of signing and speaking allows a child to be understood earlier in life, forming a communicative relationship between parents and the child. Through the similarities and the differences the two forms of communication are crucial to language development in any child’s life.

In conclusion to this paper, I believe that in early infancy it is proven that greater opportunities can be accomplished to a child when they are exposed to sign language. Throughout the continuing of sign vs. spoken language In contrast of sign language and spoken language, the only major difference is that sign language takes longer to produce than spoken language. “Signs are produced by movement and articulation of the hands in space in relation to the body. They may range over a fairly wide area (top of the head to the waist); some complex and time-consuming movements maybe involved (circular motion of the hands with respect to one another; a brushing motion made more than once; a clasping action, etc.” (Bellugi, U. 1978). Furthermore, this proves a connection between these two languages. There is no advantage of spoken nor is there an advantage of sign later in life. They both are allow others to communicate and understand each other for how they feel, what they need, or questions that are needed to be asked. We take this information as a guide to show the true importance of language in every community. Although these two aren’t the only forms of communication I believed they were most important starting at infancy and the progression they show through adulthood. For some people spoken language cannot be acquired later in life, but people are able to learn sign to communicate with non-verbal people. Language is something that can be looked at in many different ways but is a common factor that helps people live their everyday lives with an understanding of the people and the environment around them.

Bellugi, U., & Fischer, S. (1972). A comparison of sign language and spoken language. Cognition, 1(2-3), 173-200. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(72)90018-2

Kuhl, P. K. (2000). A new view of language acquisition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(22), 11850-11857. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.22.11850

Goodwyn, S.W., Acredolo, L.P. & Brown, C.A. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior (2000) 24: 81. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006653828895

Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). Early gestureselectivelypredicts later language learning. Developmental Science, 12(1), 182-187. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00764.x

Roy, D. (2003). Towards visually-grounded spoken language acquisition. Proceedings. Fourth IEEE International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces, 5(2). doi:10.1109/icmi.2002.1166977

Xu, J., Gannon, P. J., Emmorey, K., Smith, J. F., & Braun, A. R. (2009). Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(49), 20664-20669. doi:10.1073/pnas.090919