Amazing video - Signing Story Time -- one year later! Must see

Click here to watch: Signing Story Time Part II: One year later, Zoe 5 and Dylan 2 1/2 are signing to each other. Zoe reads a card, signs it to Dylan and he signs it back to her and says it to her out loud!! Truely Amazing!

Did you enjoy it? Signing is not only for the deaf - Feel Free to Forward to everyone!
The joys of Baby Sign Language!
Visit www.SignShine.com for more information


Thank you for being an important part of SignShine Family!
Questions? Interesting stories to share? Email me at: etel@SignShine.com

It's Time to Shine!
etel

More every day signing games to play

I have been focussing my blogs on Signing games to play with our babies. They are very simple things everyone can do, no matter how busy we are!

This next game is one which my daughter loved as she was getting older. It helps to reinforce knowledge of phonemes (the sound of individual letters) and the fingerspelling – building a solid foundation to recognise graphemes (the written letter) at an early age.

When you are on long car journeys, or on the way to the supermarket, play the ‘I SPY’ game…with fingerspelling!

This may take a while for your child to learn particularly if she has never played it before.

You start of by saying: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘t-t-t’” (Signing the letter “t”)

If she doesn’t understand the game, say: “T-T-TREE” starts with a “T” (SIGNING “T”)

Find another thing beginning with the same letter.

Try other letters as well – this game can be played endlessly!

Your child will eventually learn to listen to the first sound of the words she knows – and she will learn the corresponding sign as well.

Take a look at this clip to see my daughter reading – at 2 ½ years of age!

http://www.sign2learn.signingbabies.co.uk/

SignShine Gives Back!

Last week I got an invitation to participate at the 3rd Annual Leimert Park Book Fair . What an honor! Leimert Park Book Fair's mission is promoting Literacy among underserved communities in Los Angeles.

Signing is also a great way to emphasize the content of the books you read with a child. If you sign when reading, you are constantly underlining the characters and action you are narrating, which deepens your child’s understanding of the books you and he read.

Research regarding signing with children shows that continuing to sign with speaking children actually acts as an effective tool for expanding kindergarteners’ receptive and expressive English vocabularies, and raises their emergent reading level, too. (Daniels, Marilyn, Dancing with Words: Signs for Hearing Children’s Literacy.)

SignShine™ Gives Back to the community:

Promoting Educational Literacy among underserved Los Angeles communities.
3rd Annual Leimert Park Book Fair
Saturday, June 6th, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Etel's performance: 11:30-12:00

We look forward to celebrate books with you.

Let the Sign Shine!
etel

Etel Leit, M.S.
Founder & Owner http://www.signshine.com/
Publisher http://www.babysignshine.com/

Basic tips for Early Literacy

Following on from my last Blog contribution about Signing and Literacy, here are some basic tips how to start off teaching your child to recognise letters:
You can start this as soon as you begin signing to them, no matter how old they are.

STEP ONE: Learn the manual alphabet !

STEP TWO:
TEACHING PHONEMES (SOUNDS):

· Start showing your child the first letter of their name when you say their name (=namesign)
· Add more namesigns for other people who are important in your baby’s life
· When you think you and baby are ready, occasionally emphasize the first letter, ie ‘B-B-B Ben!’
· Progress to other things around you ‘T-T-T tree’

STEP THREE:
TEACHING GRAPHEAMES (written letters)
· When your child can sign some of the letters herself, start showing them the printed letter for their name
· Add a letter a week
· Encourage her to sign the letter when she sais its sound
· Invent fun games to play, ie: spot the letter ‘H’ on the cereal packet or in the shops. Make up memory cards and play this

Always make it fun and make it into a game. As soon as it becomes difficult, stop – and carry on another day.
The aim of the game is to explore your child’s potential without forcing her to exceed the limitations she has – remember every child is different!
http://www.sign2learn.co.uk/

Toddlers learning phonics - the easy way!

“Multisensory Learning” is the buzzword in schools and Nurseries. Research has proven beyond doubt that if we want an efficient Learning environment for our children we HAVE TO involve auditory, visual and kinaesthetic stimuli.

I have conducted a pilot study with 12 children aged 2 years to 3.5 years to see how they respond to being taught phonics through BSL fingerspelling. It was a 6 week course, each session was 1/2 hour.
Focussing on just 7 letters, the course used games, songs and activities to reinforced the graphic, the sound and the fingerspelling (AVK)

The results have amazed the mums and myself!
After the course, out of 9 assessments I received back, the toddlers

• knew all the 7 letters
  
• could fingerspell most of them.
  
• 5 children knew more than 10 letters
  
• They all developed an enormous interest in the letters and their sounds around them
  
• 4 children started to blend the sounds together and were able to read simple 3 letter words.
  
  

None of the currently used Phonics methods can claim to be AVK, AND a systematic spelling system AND inclusive of children who are already using BSL to communicate.

To find out more see http://www.sign2learn.co.uk/
and watch http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LprS2Ps4hSQ