Speech and Language Therapy – Core Key Word Sign Vocabulary

In Children’s Key Word Sign (CKWS) we use signs, kindly borrowed from Auslan (Australian Sign Language), gestures and facial expressions alongside speech with only the key words being signed.

Children’s Key Word Sign (CKWS) is known as an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Tool. This means that signs can be used either to augment speech while a child’s speech is unclear or as an alternate to speech when the child is non-speaking. There are other AAC tools out their such as Communication Boards, PECS and Digital Communication Devices, however a benefit of CKWS is that once you and the children you provide therapy to know the signs, no other external equipment is needed. It is therefore known as an unaided communication tool.

The research indicates that you should start with between 10-15 signs and add more as yourself and the child become more confident and familiar with the signs. This will mean that when you start, you may only add one or two signs to a sentence. For example, if you wanted to say “Let’s go and see the cow in the field”, when you first start you may only sign “see” and “cow” as the message you want to get across is that you want to see the cow, but as the child gains in confidence you will need to include more signs to allow the child to express more thoughts and opinions beyond their basic wants and needs. Therefore you many then sign, “go”, “see”, “cow”, “in” and “field.”

Unlike Signed English we do not sign all the words as they are not required for comprehension, we only sign key words to assist the child to understand what is being said, and make it easier to respond.

When you add signs to your speech you will find you naturally slow down your speech and shorten your sentence. This is fantastic as it aids your child’s comprehension of what is being said as it provides the child more processing time and less language to process.

Key Word Sign (KWS) borrows signs from Australian sign language (Auslan).

However, it is important to note that it is NOT Auslan and there are significant differences.

As the table sets about above there are a number of differences between Auslan and Children’s Key Word Sign (CKWS). If your child is Deaf or Hard of Hearing please ensure that you contact Deaf Children Australia, DeafNav or Aussie Deaf Kids.

The main differences between Auslan and CKWS are:

Auslan is recognised by The Australian Government as a language, CKWS is a communication tool only and is not a full language. It is an aid for children to assist their receptive understanding and to be used expressively as a tool to be understood while they are non-speaking.

Auslan does not follow the same grammar or structure of spoken language, it is a visual language and it is less fixed to a word order than the Australian spoken language. CKWS requires that the communication partner always speaks at the same as signing as we are encouraging spoken language (regardless of whether children reach this goal or not), with only the key words being signed.

Auslan has an associated Deaf Community and Deaf culture associated with it. DeafNav states, “The Deaf community in Australia is a diverse cultural and linguistic minority group with many distinctive characteristics including language, values and behaviours.” To learn more about Deaf culture please visit DeafNav, Deaf Children Australia or Aussie Deaf Kids. As CKWS is a communication tool only it does not have a CKWS Community or CKWS culture associated with it.

When using Auslan it is respectful to have your voice off, it can be seen as disrespectful and offensive to speak at the same time as signing. One of the reasons for this is that many Auslan users can lip read, therefore speaking at the same time as signing can be confusing for the Auslan user as they are unsure of where to focus, your lips or the signs.

Auslan is mainly used by the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and children of Deaf adults, whereas Key Word Sign is mainly used by people that have communication difficulties. CKWS was created by Sunshine Sign and Sing to bridge the gap between baby sign and Key Word Sign, to encourage all pre speaking children and their peers to use CKWS as a form of communication due to the numerous researched benefits.

For a one handed signs you use your dominant hand. Do not worry about which hand the child uses until their hand dominance is firmly established, we want the child to find signing fun so be as flexible as possible.

If the sign is undertaken by two hands, and one hand is more active than the other, the dominant hand is the one that is more active (ie moving / changing shape).

Make sure that you use slow simplified speech and short sentences to aid comprehension. You will probably find you do this anyway due to the extra brain power it takes to think of the key words and the signs that go with them.

You need to ensure that you are down at the child’s level so that they can see the sign properly, and IF APPROPRIATE make eye contact with the child to ensure that they are paying attention to the sign. If there is a child that does not appear to be paying attention to the sign do not worry it always amazes us what children can pick up in the peripheral vision.

When first introducing signs, if you are introducing the sign for an object, it helps to have a concrete object at the same time to aid comprehension.

If you are having difficulty understanding how to undertake the sign, you can break the sign down into its 5 parameters, HOLME:

HANDSHAPE

Auslan has 38 main handshakes and another 28 variants. This refers to what the hands look like at the beginning of the sign. Are they a flat hand, fist, are there fingers extended? Which fingers are extended?

ORIENTATION

Which way is the palm facing at the beginning of the sign. Is it facing towards the body, away, across the body?

LOCATION

Where are the hands in relation to the body? Most signs are undertaken in front or on the torso or head. However there are signs such as body parts and clothing that require movements into relevant areas. For example while sock can be done in front of you to aid comprehension it is better to do in the location of where you would put a sock on.

MOVEMENT

This is how the hands move AND any change in shape of the hands. There can be more than one movement for example ‘kind’ (see below) requires the bent hand to move outwards, and the handshape to change into a thumbs up.

EXPRESSION

Expressions and non manual features is if the sign requires any expression to appear on the signers face or any other movement of the body outside the hands. For example ‘like and dislike’ (see below) have the same hand movements but a happy face is like, and displeased face is dislike. Further non manual features include body movements such as the head moving to the hands in the sign for bed or sleep (see below).

Often when a child starts to sign back they won’t look like the sign they have been modelled. This is dependent on age and ability of the child, a neurotypical five year old may be able to correctly sign back to you the same day while for others it may be days, weeks or years to sign back and when they do it may be an approximation (an attempt at the sign that doesn’t get all the parameters correct).

The research has shown that handshapes take the longest for children to master with flat hand, fist or pointer finger being their first handshakes when attempting a sign. They may also attempt to use your hand to do the sign either on themselves or on you. Further they may do the sign on their body or head instead of in front of the body.

So how do you recognise these approximations?

The first thing to notice is if a child keeps undertaking a repetitive motion (that doesn’t represent a usual stim) than this can indicate the child is trying to sign.

The research has found that location is the first parameter of a sign that a child usually gets right. So think of signs that use that location to get an idea of what the sign may be.

Further, a child will usually do a particular sign during activities the signs have been modelled to them ie the finished sign being used at mealtime. Therefore consider what signs have been used during that particular activity.

Often a first sign is often iconic, it is theorised that this is because it is easier for a child to comprehend the sign and therefore mimic it back to you. Therefore consider what iconic signs they have been used.

Once you have a fair idea of what the sign is model the sign back to the child saying the word at the same time.

After speaking with the parents and letting them know CKWS will be used during their therapy, the best way to introduce the signs is to naturally do them throughout your therapy session. Once the child begins to sign back to you, you may want to start the session with hand warming exercises, tell them the sign of the session and ask if they have a favourite sign.

It is recommended that when you introduce key word signs to children you start with 10-15 key word signs. Then as you and the child begin to become more confident and the child begins to receptively understand the signs, more key word signs can be added to aid the child’s comprehension and hopefully allowing the child to communicate through sign.

If you use books during the session, try adding a few signs to a few key words. When you first start this may only be one per page adding more as you gain confidence. You could also use improvised story telling and use our story signs books as a resource.

Song time is a great time to add signs including nursery rhymes and any pack away songs you may have.

Further, signs during play is a great time to ask open ending questions, modelling signs in response and using our communication boards for ideas.

Make sure you check out our free resources to assist adding signs to your therapy sessions and the shop for our resources.