EVENT: TCC baby sign classes
DATE: Beginning February 5
Baby Sign is a five-week course, offered by Tulsa Community College (TCC) Continuing Education on Saturdays in February, March, and April, 2005, in which babies and toddlers with normal hearing capacity can improve their early communication skills by learning American Sign Language (ASL) with a parent.
The first course begins Feb. 5. For more information about Baby Sign classes, call 595-7566 or send an e-mail message to youth@tulsacc.edu.
Songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "The Wheels on the Bus" are so popular and memorable for young children because the dynamic hand and body motion that accompanies the song lyrics gives young children the capacity to participate before they can sing the words.
This principle has been taken a step further by Joseph Garcia, an early childhood development researcher and ASL interpreter who has developed a system that enables preverbal babies as young as eight months of age to express their needs and observations through ASL.
Garcia has researched the use of ASL by babies and parents with normal hearing capacity since 1987 at Alaska Pacific University.
Current scientific research continues to show that parents who participate in this program experience reduced frustration and stronger bonds with their babies and that their children have an increased interest in reading.
A longitudinal study completed in 2000, funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development and conducted by Linda Acredolo, Ph.D and Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D, reported that toddlers who learned to sign or use symbolic gestures outperformed non-signing toddlers by the time both groups were eight years old, especially in the areas of intelligence quotient and language development.