ABCMeSign - Sign Language Classes for hearing infants and young children
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OC Kids
Signing With Your
Baby classes - Parents Magazine's pick as one of the best classes for
your child.
ABC me Sign ™ classes recommended by OC Kids.
Wet Set Gazette, Winter Issue 2002
Excerpt from "Me Sign" by Barbara Granoff
Just 10 months
old, Zachary already communicates to his parents when he is
hungry and wants to eat and when he is finished eating. Seventeen-month
old Ruby is fussy and lets her childcare provider know that
her mouth hurts. From across the room, Barbara gently reminds
her two-year old daughter, Shira, not to climb on the bars
and to rejoin the group in circle time, all without using
her voice.
So what do this
preverbal baby, newly talking infant and active toddler have
in common? They are a few of the growing number of hearing
infants and toddlers who are learning to communicate with
their parents, caregivers and teachers using American Sign
Language (ASL). ASL—a language that uses signs, fingerspelling,
gestures, hand shapes, motion and facial expression—was
previously used exclusively by the deaf. However, recent studies
indicate that by using signs in tandem with their spoken language,
hearing parents can start the process of two-way communication
with their babies as early as eight months and enhance the
verbal language development of their babies in the process.
How does sign language
help hearing infants and toddlers communicate? While most
babies begin talking between one and two years of age, they
understand and want to communicate much earlier. And, since
babies have control over their hands long before they develop
the fine motor skills required for speech, signing allows
them to build on their natural tendency to gesture and enables
them to express what they are not yet able to say. Research
funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human
Development revealed that signing children outperformed non-signing
children in both language skills and IQ. The researchers,
University of California professors Drs. Linda Acredolo and
Susan Goodwyn, have uncovered other benefits of teaching sign
language to babies, including: strengthening the parent-infant
bond; reducing frustration for babies and caregivers; stimulating
intellectual development; enhancing infant self-esteem; and
providing a window into a baby's world.
Will signing with
my baby delay his or her speech development? While many parents
worry that using sign language may hinder their child developing
verbal language, the opposite is true. A child's language
development is actually enhanced through the use of sign language.
Just as crawling seems to stimulate a child's interest in
walking, signing seems to provide an excellent bridge to verbal
communication.
In fact, research
shows that signing children learn to speak sooner, and, by
age three have developed language skills approaching those
expected of a four year old. In her book,
Dancing With Words: Signing for Hearing Children's Literacy, Dr. Mary
Daniels explains how sign language can be used to improve
hearing children's English vocabulary, reading ability, spelling
proficiency, self-esteem, and comfort with expressing emotion.
She states that a child's vocabulary development can be enhanced
by simultaneously presenting words visually, kinesthetically
and verbally.
Julia Hawkinson,
mother of 17-month old Ruby and four-year old Jasper, became
interested in signing when her daughter was 10 months old.
"I wanted to avoid the normal frustrations parents experience
when trying to communicate with a preverbal child," she
says. "I felt as if I couldn't speak my infant's language
and she couldn't speak mine. Using sign language has totally
changed how I interact with my baby and preschooler."
When is the best
time to start teaching signs and how do I begin? While the
optimal time to begin signing with your baby is 6 - 8 months,
it's never too early to begin learning about the concept of
signing with your baby and never too late to start signing!
OC
Family, April 2002
Excerpt from "Signed, Mom" by Sandy Bennett
Q: What prompted you to create ABC me Sign?
Barbara: To share
the success I experienced with my daughter with other parents
and children. I have a background in teaching the deaf so
I've been signing with my daughter since she was about 6 months
old. Other moms started asking me to teach them after seeing
what was happening. My daughter was able to communicate with
me at 12 months through sign language. And they were so amazed.
So I started doing it informally...It was actually parent-driven,
parents requesting it and because of my professional background.
Q: The workshop
teaches parents and caregivers of children how to use American
Sign Language to communicate with their hearing children.
What is the age range of children that your program is best
suited for and why?
A: Usually the
best age to start signing with a preverbal child is anywhere
between 6 and 9 months. But I don't believe a child is ever
too old because the benefits
are so profound, even with preschool-age
children, that it's still really good even once a child is
verbal.
A: I think one
of the biggest things is it reduces the frustration for the
babies and the parent or caregiver. Infants actually want
to communicate and have the ability for language prior to
developing their fine motor skills for speech. They have the
gross motor skills necessary to do the hand motions. So by
enabling the children to communicate, it reduces the frustration.
It creates a new awareness into their world and it accelerates
their verbal language development. I think a lot of people
oftentimes fear that if they teach them to sign that they
won't become as verbal. And actually it's just the opposite.
There is some research that followed children who were signing
as toddlers until they were 8 years old. Those children had
higher IQ scores than the non-signing children.
Q: What about
with verbal children?
A: There's the
most wonderful book out, called Dancing with Words: Signing
for Hearing Children's Literacy, by Marilyn Daniels. And
her whole thing is that preschool and pre-K programs should
be doing it because it increases children's vocabulary, their
reading ability, their spelling proficiency and their self-esteem.
Standardized scores are higher; they're comfortable with expressing
emotions. I also hear a lot from parents of boys who say it's
a wonderful physical way for their son to be able to communicate.
Instead of pushing another child, he can do the sign for "stop."
And research says it strengthens the parent-child bond.
Q: In addition
to providing participants "with a solid vocabulary of
sign language," your workshop offers tips for the optimal
times and situations in which to use it. What's an example
of an optimal time for families to sign?
A: Mealtime is
a perfect time to introduce the first few signs. When Shira
was 6 months old, I would ask her while she was in her highchair,
"Do you want to eat?" and I would do the sign to
eat. And I'd give her a bite of food and then I would ask
and sign, "Do you want more?" Then I would respond,
"Yes." So "eat," "more," "yes,"
and "finish," you can do at mealtime so easily.
Q: Your daughter,
who just turned 3, signs. Can you give a couple of examples
of how you two communicate through signing?
A: Through songs,
books and just in everyday conversation. Shira can sign and
cry, so she can tell me what's the matter when she's really
upset. She can eat and still talk to me with her hands. And
I am able to remind her of her manners from across the room
without having to use words. One of my favorite times to use
sign language is whenever I leave Shira at preschool or ballet
class. We kiss, hug and then say "I love you" with
our voices and our hands. As I walk out of the class we both
look back at each other and each hold up our "I love
you" hands. It really is very special.
Costa
Mesa Breeze, Feb. 14, 2002
Excerpt from
"Reading the mind of a toddler" by Brian Martinez
Granoff teaches
parents to use sign language to communicate with children
Barbara Granoff
longed to know what her 6-month old daughter was thinking,
so she taught her how to use sign language.
"My vision
is to reach as many families as possible with the gift of
signing, which holds
immeasureable benefits for children,"
she said.
Granoff first learned
how to sign while working as a volunteer for the Hawaii Center
for the Deaf and Blind in Honolulu.
She founded ABC
me Sign when other parents took note of her communication
with Shira, her now 2-year old daughter, and wanted to learn
it. The words taught in the workshops included "yes,"
"more," "finished," "eat," "up,"
and "hurt"—in adult American Sign Language.
Most children inherently know how to sign "no."
"Barbara is
one of the most caring people I've met," said Mary Zollman
of Newport Beach. "She instantly reached out to us and
showed interest in raising money for Cystic Fibrosis."
Zollman's daughter,
Olivia, suffers from the illness. Olivia was unable to verbalize
as an infant due to pre-maturity. She signed from the age
of 1 until she received a tracheotomy when she was 2-1/2.
She signed to her doctors as she was going under anesthesia.
The mother-daughter pair attend Granoff's classes for fun
and for the effect it has on her now fluent verbal speech.
According to Granoff's
research, sign language can improve hearing/speaking children's
English vocabulary, reading ability, spelling proficiency,
self-esteem, IQ and comfort with expressing emotion. Her work
is guided by publications such as Dancing with Words: Signing
for Hearing Children's Literacy, by Dr. Marylin Daniels.
Several works by doctors Susan W. Goodwyn and Linda P. Acredolo
have also been helpful.
Granoff also leads
a support group for the children of parents with cancer and
co-leads a Hoag Cancer Center counseling group for people
with brain tumors.
Daily
Pilot, February 17, 2002
Excerpt from
"Without words" by Young Chang
Newport Beach
mom teaches others to use sign language to communicate with
their hearing babies
Even while recovering
from a fever and a bout of pink eye, 2-year old Shira Strongin
communicates that her doll—which she calls "baby"—needs
to return to her home because she needs a toothbrush.
Through a mixture
of words and sign language, Shira—who is not hearing
impaired—says that the truck that rolls by every morning
to collect trash scares her. It's too loud.
She asks whether
she can eat her Valentine candy though it's still early in
the morning.
She communicates
"happy Valentine's Day" through signs but it turns
out she doesn't know the sign for "Valentine's"
so she's simply wishing people "happy day."
She even sings
and signs "God Bless America."
Just shy of 3 years
old, Shira and her mother, Barbara Granoff, who teaches sign
language classes, use a mix of signs and speech to get almost
all of Shira's needs met.
"We joke that
Shira's our best selling point," said Granoff, a Newport
Beach resident.
Granoff started
teaching classes for parents and caregivers of hearing infants
and toddlers almost two years ago. The mother, who has a bachelor's
degree in special education, focused her education on teaching
the hearing impaired and has taught in the U.S. and overseas.
After having Shira,
she started signing with her hearing daughter without really
being aware of the researched benefits signing has proven
to have on hearing, preverbal children.
They'd sign and
speak at home, in public, during various mommy-and-me classes.
"I had so
many parents who had seen me signing with my daughter, and
they wanted me to teach them. And once I started researching
it, it was so profound to me," Granoff said.
Her classes—The
ABC me Sign Introductory Workshop—are held once or twice
a month in cities including Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and
Irvine. Granoff arranges classes through the city in both
Irvine and Costa Mesa and privately in Newport Beach.
Students start
off learning the basic signs for words such as "more"
and "finish," as well as the alphabet and some basic
emotions.
"Signing lets
babies express what they're not able to say," Granoff
said. "Children have control over their hands before
they have the fine motor skills necessary for speech, so signing
lets them bypass the speech."
Research by speech
and sign experts shows that teaching sign language to preverbal
children speeds up the rate at which they can learn to speak,
increases self-esteem, helps cognitive development and even
deepens the bond between the caregiver and child.
Teaching sign language
to verbal children has been proven to improve reading and
spelling skills, the ability to learn the English vocabulary
and, once again, to improve self-esteem.
For parents who
worry that depending on sign language will hinder a child's
verbal skills, Granoff cites research to explain that it's
like the process of crawling before walking.
"She'll sign
when she wants to take a bath, when she wants food or drink,
and she signs for Daddy," Nagatomi said. "The signs
make things clearer. I think it cuts down on the frustration
for babies."
Nagatomi's youngest
is now 16 months old and named Tessa. Her oldest child is
6-year old Emma. Emma didn't learn sign language as a toddler,
so Nagatomi's reasons for taking Granoff's class were twofold.
"To increase
channels of communication with the baby and for the older
one to interact with the little one," the mother said.
"And studies show that the more language you give kids
when they're little, the better they're able to communicate
later."
When asked about
the verbal differences between Emma as a toddler and Tessa
now, Nagatomi said she's not sure whether it's a matter of
personality, but Tessa has fewer temper tantrums and gets
less irritated.
Granoff has had
the same experience with Shira. When the toddler wants more
food, she'll point to the fridge and sign "more."
When she's prompted to attach a "please" to a request,
she'll rub her tummy in circles and sign the word too. She'll
sign "yuck" while simultaneously showing disdain
for something she's eating, and she'll make the sign for "hurt"
when something hurts.
"You don't
know why the child's crying, and they don't have the words
to tell you," Granoff said. "But this levels the
playing field before they start speaking."
