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I have been enjoying helping my kids with their Spanish homework from school. I studied Spanish from 5th – 12th grade in school, and while I did well on the AP exam (therefore passing out of the college language requirement and getting credit), I still chose to take advanced Spanish as an elective my first year in college.
I wish I could say I’m bilingual, but I’m not truly fluent in any language other than English – however, I do have conversational proficiency in Spanish and ASL, which is fun and useful.
When I am speaking Spanish and cannot think of a word, I find myself signing it. And when I’m conversing in ASL but cannot think of a sign, I find that the Spanish word pops into my head. English rarely plays a role in those situations….I guess it’s mainly the 2nd language center in my brain that is stimulated at that time.
Both of my children were exposed to ASL since birth – it was their first expressive language too. They were also exposed to Spanish early on, between me singing to them and our caregiver speaking to then. It didn’t stick, unfortunately, but they’ve been picking it back up relatively quickly. What I find most interesting and exciting, is that whenever they don’t know or understand a Spanish word, I sign it or finger spell it to them, and it tends to click. Even though they haven’t been signing much over the years, it seems to have remained “dormant” in their brains, just waiting to be revived.
Many bilingual families in the Baby Fingers program have found that incorporating ASL with both of their spoken languages has really helped to bridge the gap and decrease frustration. One of our Baby Fingers teachers is deaf and multilingual – and so is her son. He has learned how to code switch – he speaks Portuguese with his mom, along with some Portuguese sign language, American Sign Language, and sometimes English. He speaks English to his dad, supported by some ASL. When visiting his grandparents, he speaks just Portuguese and fluently uses ASL only (voice off) with his parents’ American Deaf friends. Pretty amazing.
Our website articles page, https://mybabyfingers.com/staging/9114/articles, has some good reads on a variety of topics related to sign language and child development. Scroll down for a few articles specifically about bilingualism and enjoy.