Have you seen our Early Summer Kindermusik offerings?? We have two fabulous classes beginning the end of may and finishing before school is out for the year. The first is Sign and Sing Session A (designed for children 6 – 36 months) and the second is ”Let’s Play” a fun class for children 18 months – 4 years) Want to catch one more Kindermusik class before the summer craze begins? Give me a call or visit the website to register, I will be ordering materials by the end of this week so let me know soon so your child has their materials for the first class.
Daddy Sign
Wondering about the new Sign and Sing class?? Wondering why we would sign with hearing children??? In order to verbally communicate children must be able to coordinate some very complex oral motor mucles involved in the precise placement of their tongue, lip formations, controling vocal chords, breath regulation, in addition to knowing the words they would like to utilize. Unfortunately for young children their receptive communication (ability to understand what is said to them) and subsequent knowledge of how they’d like to respond develops much earlier than these oral motor muscles. The good news is that their hand/arm motor skills develop much faster, which means they can learn to communicate with signs until the oral motor skills catch up the their brains. Here’s what we know about the benefits of consistent signing with babies and toddlers.
The first benefit of signing with your baby/toddler is it gives your baby the ability to express his or her important needs and thoughts. We’ve all had times when we couldn’t express our needs and it is very frustrating, children are no different. Signing gives them a way to communicate with those around them and helps avoid some of the frustration that characterizes pre-verbal children. Signing also:
- Promotes the developent of language skills
- Reinforces language skills already developed
- Reduces frustration at not being able to express needs
- Increase speed of spatial reasoning development
- Creates feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment
- Increases creative thinking
- Reduces unexplainable emotional outbursts
- Increases early literacy skills
- Teaches baby the value of communicating with othersSign language for infants gives babies a way to communicate what they are truly thinking, feeling and/or needing. Because they learn to communicate early, Baby’s mind develops a rapid interest in increasing communication ability.
Here are some common questions that I have heard from parents. I have answered them using information from Signing Smart, the organization that helped Kindermusik design this curriculum we will be using.
- Will signing delay my child’s speaking?
While this is the most common concern we hear about using signs with young children, there is nothing to worry about! Barring other developmental issues, believe us when we say that there is no way to stop your child from talking! But until your child does, or while she is getting better at it, signing with a program such as Kindermusik Sign and Sing created by Signing Smart will foster communication many months before the equivalent interactions can happen through spoken words.
Why? These classes are about giving parents easy-to-use tools to enrich what they are already doing. We teach parents how to use select signs to sprinkle in visual information about concepts and ideas. We also teach them how to integrate Signing Smart strategies that will make the process simple and that will allow children to initiate communication, and to tell parents their thoughts, needs, and worries. When learning and using signs is fun and easy, parents are able to engage children in meaningful interactions -interactions in which children are showered with words about topics of interest to them. Signing in these ways increases children’s vocabulary, develops their memory, and advances their conceptual understanding.
Research has shown that early signers are often also early talkers. National studies of Signing Smart children in particular show that they are markedly ahead of language development norms. For example, at 12 months, Signing Smart children have an average of 25 signs and 16 words, compared to 1-3 spoken words for non-signing children. At 18 months Signing Smart children have an average of 79 signs and 105 words, compared to 10-50 spoken words for non-signing children. To read more about our research, see the Research section of our site. For all these (and other) reasons, signing is a wonderful facilitator of spoken language development.
- I’ve heard that signing advances development, is this true?
Good news! Research has found that signing with your baby or toddler advances many aspects of development. Signing with children facilitates not only language development and overall intellectual functioning, but also advances children’s self esteem, and increases intimacy and attachment between child and caregiver. A study done by Dr. Reyna Lindert, one of the founders of Signing Smart, demonstrates that signing facilitates two-way communication and connections between parents and children. In fact, with the benefits of our many strategies and the host of developmental information you will learn from Signing Smart, you will find yourself more in tune with your child and her attempts to communicate from the very start. See the Research section of the Signing Smart site for more information on the benefits of signing with young children
- My child is talking, should I bother to start or to continue signing?
Some families wonder if there is a time when their child is too old to begin Signing Smart, if their child is talking too much to benefit from using signs. Our emphatic answer is that it is never too late to start (or continue) integrating ASL signs and our Signing Smart Strategies into your interactions with your child. Why?
- Parents in the classes will learn tools to use signs for concept development and learning. ASL signs provide visual highlights of concepts, ideas, or actions, making understanding and learning that much easier.
- Research by Dr. Michelle Anthony, one of the founders of Signing Smart, has found that children who can systematically integrate language and gesture systems together display higher literacy rates than do other children. Research by Dr. Marilyn Daniels shows that even those hearing children who are not exposed to signs until the preschool years go on to display enhanced vocabulary, spelling, and reading skills over non-signing children (for more on this and other research, see the Research page on the Signing Smart website). Therefore, it is never too late to introduce signs to young children. Even preschoolers can benefit from learning basic signs, and all families will benefit from our long-term learning strategies!
- Parents also learn ways to use signs and Signing Smart strategies to help children clarify their early words. This allows communication to remain successful, and it allows parents to correctly reinforce spoken word attempts, thereby encouraging their child to talk even more and in more extended sentences.
Interested in hearing more. Shoot me an email or give me a call.
