Sign Language Class for Mommy, Daddy, and Baby too!

Canadian classes teach parents how to communicate with their babies, long before they learn to talk!

Give me a sign! Long before your baby can speak, he/she has the ability to understand speech and has the desire to communicate. When Joseph Garcia began working as an interpreter in the late 1970's, he noticed that hearing babies of deaf parents could communicate their needs and desires at a much earlier age than children of hearing parents. Joseph began to research the use of American Sign Language with hearing babies of hearing parents at Alaska Pacific University in 1987. The results were extraordinary. His research showed that hearing babies who are exposed to signs regularly and consistently at six to seven months of age can begin expressive communication by their eighth or ninth month.

Terrie Durno, mother to 23 month old identical triplet girls and the owner of Just Sign Here: Weehands is a licensed Instructor in the Guelph, Kitchener/Waterloo and Cambridge area. She began teaching her girls sign due to theories that multiples can suffer from speech delays as a result of being premature and due to low birth weights. Her daughters, who have been signing since they were 10 months old, are proof that using signing for early communication works. The girls have a signing vocabulary of over 200 signs. Dumo says, most parents will use 20-50 signs before verbal language takes over, " it is not necessary to be fluent to use ASL with your infant or toddler."

The Benefits of Signing

• Signing allows your infant to clearly communicate specific thoughts. How many children can tell you about their nightmares at 11 months of age?
• Signing reduces frustration for your baby - and for you! We have very few temper tantrums. They can tell us why they are mad!!
• Signing gives you a window into your child's mind and personality.
• Signing won't delay verbal language development - in fact, it may accelerate it. Research shows that babies who sign usually start to talk sooner and develop larger vocabularies than non-signing babies.
• Signing reinforces verbal language by adding visual and kinesthetic emphasis to auditory input. Dr. Marilyn Daniels, a professor of speech communication at Penn State University, has found that hearing students in pre-kindergarten classes who receive instruction in both English and ASL score significantly higher on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than hearing students in classes with no sign instruction. Her studies demonstrate that adding visual and kinesthetic elements to verbal communication helps enhance a preschool child's vocabulary, spelling and reading skills.
• Signing children tend to be more interested in books. My girls have been able to label animals; objects and movement before other children have even started to talk.
• Signing builds on babies' natural tendency to use gestures.

To learn more about sign language classes for babies visit Terrie at her website, www.justsignhereguelph.com

Courtesy: WeeHands Ontario and Sign2Me, a division of Northlight Communications Inc.