Children

Pre-school aged children use signs to help them understand and identify their emotions. Research shows that integrating the use of sign language into a pre-school curriculum enhances literacy skills needed for school success: READING, VOCABULARY, AND SPELLING. (Dances with Word, Marilyn Daniel)

What's in it for you?

The ability to communicate more effectively with babies and young children will benefit you in various situations. You may work in a nursery and have experienced frustration when communication breaks down; similarly, children can develop challenging behaviour when they do not feel able to communicate to full capacity. If you could teach them to sign, the children with whom you come into contact could respond more fully and they too would benefit from a happier environment at nursery and at home. Babies and children love learning: sign language gives them the useful and enjoyable tool of visual language.

There is evidence to suggest that introducing sign language to young children increases their IQ in later life from, on average, 106 to 113. Just imagine what impact this could have at our local schools. We can achieve improved language and literacy results if children use sign language, and most importantly, if parents, carers and other professionals working with children get involved.

Signing adds fun to daily routines, learning and music activities. It can help to facilitate home-school communication and to get parents more meaningfully involved in the preschool curriculum. The use of signs in the classroom creates opportunities for children with special needs and other non-disabled children of the same age to interact in a more rewarding way.

You may also have children attending pre-school and mingling with friends for whom English is not the first language. Signing can serve as a bridge between those of different nationalities - children and their nursery workers - who speak other languages.

Sign and Bond are developing a Curriculum Pack, incorporating a Trainer Pack, geared towards pre-school children aged up to 5 in partnership with Sure Start (visit www.surestart.org.uk for more information). A delegated Sign and Bond trainer visits nurseries and pre-schools weekly to deliver fun signing classes to children and staff and we normally operate on a termly basis. See our workshop page for further details.