EBP Compendium: Summary of Systematic Review
Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network; University of Ottawa Graduate Scholarship
Teaching Gestural Signs to Infants to Advance Child Development: A Review of the Evidence
Johnston, J. C., Durieux-Smith, A., et al.
(2005).
First Language, 25(2), 235-251.
Indicators of Review Quality:
|
The review addresses a clearly focused question
| Yes |
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Criteria for inclusion of studies are provided
| Yes |
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Search strategy is described in sufficient detail for replication
| Yes |
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Included studies are assessed for study quality
| Yes |
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Quality assessments are reproducible
| No |
Description: This is a systematic review of studies exploring the effect of gestural sign intervention for prelingual infants.
Question(s) Addressed:
Do baby signing programmes work?
Are these programmes effective in advancing expressive and receptive language, parent-child interaction and infant cognition as claimed?
Can and should parents be encouraged to teach their hearing infants to communicate using gestural signs?
Population: Hearing infants who were taught sign language
Intervention/Assessment: Sign language
Number of Studies Included: 17
Years Included: 1980 - May 2003
Findings:
Conclusions:
"The review failed to support claims that signing facilitates language development, due to insufficiencies in scientific methods and to equivocal results" (p. 235).
Keywords: American Sign Language
Access the Review
Added to Compendium: March 2012