Baby Signs!

One of the tremendously fun things about working with toddlers and preschoolers is teaching them to say their first words! Last spring I took a class called Baby Signs: Sign Language for Babies. The concept is that teaching kids sign language while they are also learning speech provides these babes a way to communicate with others, even when they are not ready to do so verbally. Of course, as a Speech and Language Pathologist, I was interested in using baby signs with my speech delayed and hard of hearing or deaf students, but there are advantages to using sign language with all babies!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

...What do you see? I see a red bird looking at me!

So begins the fabulous children's book written by Bill Martin, and now I can teach it to children in sign language!

Last night one of the special ed. teachers and I attended a workshop on sign language for preschool teachers. It was great! The presentor was lively, she added music and games that even adults didn't mind trying, and we came away with over 300 signs. I had taken ASL years ago, but haven't used it regularly so it was not only a good refresher, but I learned new signs, too. We're going to teach some songs (as well as the Brown Bear story) to the early start preschool class when I go in to do speech-language therapy.

P.S. Ash is home! :)