Date of Award

2013-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Speech-Language Pathology

Advisor(s)

Vannesa T. Mueller

Abstract

Research in the area of baby sign language has increased dramatically over the past several years, however there is still a lack of research regarding baby signs effects on typical infant development, specifically in the area of cognition. The hypothesis of this study was that instruction of baby sign would be correlated with a significant increase in the development of cognition and language acquisition for infant participants. This study provided a five-week instructional course on baby sign for parents/caregivers to implement with their typically developing infants (n=11). The course provided instruction of baby signs, methods of implementation and encouragement to the parents/caregivers to use baby signs frequently and effectively outside of the course environment. Three development surveys and the Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC) were provided as the pre-test measures for the participants' development. Post-test measures included a follow up with the DAYC as well as a survey regarding the workshop itself. Results did not support the hypothesis and no statistically significant results were found, however the study did result in interesting qualitative data. The study's limitations included the small group size, use of surveys that could have compromised data, no control group, and the confound of typically developing maturation occurrences.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

56 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Clarissa Navedo

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