Abstract

HIGUERA AGUIRRE, Edison Francisco; VISCARRA ARMIJOS, Luis Bayron  and  TIPAN CHICAIZA, Mario Roberto. Teaching sign language in early childhood education. Areté [online]. 2025, vol.11, n.21, pp.148-162.  Epub June 30, 2025. ISSN 2443-4566.  https://doi.org/10.55560/arete.2025.21.11.9.

Deaf people communicate through sign language and interpreters, and hearing people communicate through oral and written language, but do not know sign language. This research aims to contribute to bridging this communication gap by teaching sign language to young children. The article aims to examine the relevance of teaching sign language in early childhood education in Ecuador. A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional, non-probabilistic, non-experimental design was applied. The technique used was the survey and the instrument was the ‘Survey on the need to learn sign language’, whose validity and reliability are based on expert judgement and a pilot test applied to 189 participants. The non-probabilistic sample of 1541 people came from 14 educational institutions in Ecuador, who participated online. According to the results, about three quarters of the population consulted consider sign language teaching relevant from the initial level of education. This would suggest the need for a state policy that would allow for the modification of the current curriculum and the training of teachers for this purpose.

Keywords : Communication; Initial education; Teaching; Sign language; Relevance.

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