SIGNING FAMILIES is a company that uses interactive, "user friendly" and fun techniques to teach sign language to people of all ages and abilities. We pride ourselves on not being a "cookie cutter" company. Each workshop is designed to meet the needs of our audience, including daycare and preschool providers, healthcare workers, educators, and families. Our most popular workshop and DVD is titled "Baby, Toddler and Preschool Sign Language". The workshop and DVD includes Spanish in tandem with sign language. We also are very pleased that people who live and work with individuals with special needs have embraced SIGNING FAMILIES and are asking for our assistance to teach sign language in order to help their children or adults. SIGNING FAMILIES also has been fortunate to have weathered the most recent economic storm and we often "give back" to organizations that support children and their families.
*Discounts available to all daycare providers who mention this article.
WHY “ SAMPLING ACTIVITIES IS A GOOD IDEA FOR YOUNG CHILDREN”
There has
been a lot of conversation in the press recently over whether parents “ over schedule” their children or not. Does a child need to have everyday full of
activities after school or when daycare ends?
I am a firm believer that children who are eight years old and younger
may wish to enjoy the art of “sampling” extra-curricular activities. Not all at
one time either! One or two a week is
more than enough for this age group!
Do you
remember when you first started to enjoy eating non-kid foods? Perhaps your mom or dad would urge you to
“try a little bit”? The same can be said
for activities for children. Have your
child take a recreation camp or course in art, music, soccer, learning a
language, gymnastics, etc. in order to gain some new skills and explore their
interests. A child may think she will
love dance but finds out that she prefers team sports instead. Some children prefer individual activities,
such as an art class, while others
desire to be in the thick of a large group, such as with soccer. Both should be encouraged at a young age to
help your child realize that working alone and within a team are essential for
navigating through life later.
Another
reason that “sampling” is a good idea is to be selective with activities. In my opinion, young children should not be
racing from place to place after a full day of daycare or school! Over
programming a child’s day will most likely lead to weary children and stressed
parents. Neither which is a desirable
outcome for what should be a fun experience. Children need to have playtime
where they hone their developmental skills, have a venue to explore creativity
and learn about socialization. My rule
of thumb (which you may or may not agree with today) is simply to have a child
participate in one activity that meets on a weekly basis and another that meets
perhaps every other week or on a weekend only. During the evening hours when
you have a “day off” use that time you
have together as a family to relax and perhaps to play board games, draw, play
outside and have fun during unstructured
time with your child. And of course, READ to your child everyday.
(Playing board games, reading and other activities that can be enjoyed at home
all have great educational value).
I am sure
that parents reading this article will have differing opinions. Many will feel that a lack of exposure to
many activities at one time and “sticking with them” may become a detriment to
their child’s overall learning and future success. However, keep in mind that children learn in
a variety of settings and activities. Also, college applications do not include
the activities completed while six years old!
The key ingredients are to learn while having fun and not feeling
overwhelmed. Tired children are neither
happy nor ready to learn. And neither
are their parents….
Special Education for Young Children
Sometimes young children will demonstrate difficulties with learning that are noticeable at a very young age. Preschool teachers and daycare providers often are the first to notice that a child may have difficulties with speech and language or the attainment of other skills. Parents sometimes are surprised that they “never noticed” their child was lagging in development as compared to age mates. Yet, early childhood providers are keen at recognizing children who are above, average or below attainment for developmental milestones.
What to do if your child is experiencing developmental difficulties? First, contact the public school where you reside and ask for the Early Childhood Intervention Team (Sometimes it may be referred to by another name.). This team can be located through your home school or the school district's main office. Ask for the intervention team to have a meeting with you. (Make sure to write your request formally as this letter will begin a legal process.) When you meet with the Early Childhood Intervention team they may wish to learn more about the child's birth and early stages of development. Also, they may ask about any medical challenges or complications with the pregnancy, such as a premature birth. Any and all information could be pertinent to help the specialists assist your family and your child. Recent hearing and vision tests, if conducted, also are very important pieces of information to provide to this team. If you wish, have your daycare provider supply additional anecdotal information in your letter.
When you are invited to the meeting do not go alone. Bring your spouse, a friend, or someone else you trust. The reason is that a lot of information will be conveyed. However, sometimes parents can get caught up with all the terminology used and having someone else there to help recall meeting highlights will be most useful. Also note that parents are part of this “team” as schools use a multidisciplinary team approach and parents are essential to helping the child.
If the team determines that there is a suspicion that your child may have some developmental delays (whether mild to severe) they may ask to complete a series of evaluations. These assessments are conducted by different specialists and help to determine the child's current level of development in areas such as cognition, readiness skills, speech and language development and visual-perceptual motor skills. If the child demonstrates statistically significant lags as compared to age mates then an offer for special education services may be warranted. Now the term “special education” is often very scary to parents. However, keep in mind that speech and language therapy falls under “special education” in the public schools. Also, occupational and physical therapy is part of special education programs.
Each child who is part of the special education process must receive a special individualized program. This legal document indicates that a child is being served for free in public schools in a program that is in the least restrictive environment and appropriate for the child's needs. The program will set forth goals and who will provide the services to help the child to learn. Also, every year the program is reviewed and any modifications can be made. Parents have approval over the individualize program. In order to make sure that a student is improving with the programs/ accommodations set in place (or other determined interventions), annual meetings are convened with the multi-disciplinary team, including the parents. Usually goals have been met and new goals, if warranted are set. If the child has mastered all the goals and shows no more delays then the special education services are typically terminated.
If you have any further questions regarding early childhood special education services or other educational topics, there are many excellent resources available online. One of my favorites is by the National Association for School Psychologists http://www.nasponline.org/. Here you will find many helpful articles to help parents, educators and students learn more about different educational, behavioral and contemporary psychology topics.
Sign Language in a Daycare Setting
Many people associate “baby sign language” as a new fad. One that will go away as the next “new and different” phenomenon takes hold. However, in my opinion, sign language in the daily milieu of homes and daycares is one that is long overdue. Researchers have long known that the use of sign language helps to promote spoken language (verbal), reduce disruptive behaviors, and form bonds between caregiver and child. For children with special needs, such as Deaf, Autism, Down Syndrome, Speech and Language Impairments and Medical disorders that prevent speech, sign language has been a mode of communication that has helped augment developmental skills or provide a means of discourse that was so badly needed. Finding a daycare that uses sign language can be difficult, however, more and more providers have taken workshops, classes or watched DVDs to learn the basics of sign language for young children. This is good news for the family with a typically developing child or a youngster with special needs.
If you are a daycare provider then you have at least a one in ten chance of having a child with a learning difference in your midst. This may mean that the child has a speech disorder, perhaps display a difficulty with fine motor skills or may be more deeply involved, such as with the case of Autism. Daycares/preschools of the past simply chose not to accept the more challenging child, however, as inclusion and mainstreaming of children with exceptional needs has happened in the public schools, so has the trend in daycares and preschools. Thus, parents have many more options in finding a daycare that uses sign language. Not only are providers in areas that have a concentration of deaf people seem to be learning sign language, but caregivers in rural areas are jumping on the bandwagon too!
Although there has been no formal measure of the trend of increased use of sign language in formal and informal learning environments, sales of sign language materials through on-line websites and private companies, such as Signing Families and Harris Communications has skyrocketed. Television, movies, public events are often incorporating sign language in to their medium, as well. Children are exposed to sign language through everyday activities and observations. And bridges are being built between the hearing and deaf communities.
When parents are assessing a daycare as being right for their needs and a good match for their child they often ask about the use of a language other than English being introduced. Hispanic daycare providers often enrich their charges by providing language immersion with the use of both English and Spanish, thus children at a young age are bi-lingual, although not necessarily bi-cultural. The same is true with sign language. Many daycare providers are sign language users. Some are adult children of deaf parents. Others may be education majors, who have had sign language training or someone who has taken a class to fulfill continuing education requirements for state licensing of daycare providers. In Maryland, these courses are often in demand and enrollment is high. In a recent workshop conducted by this author, basic sign language knowledge was known by two thirds of the educators who participated. Half of the people who knew sign language were early childhood teachers, some with concentrations in special education. None had deaf parents or spouses.
In closing, if a parent wishes to find a daycare setting that employs sign language as one mode of communication for their youngster with typical development or special needs then chances are good that they will find a provider in their area who has at the very least basic signing skills. If they wish for a non-signing provider to learn then there are many readily available tools (e.g. DVDs, flashcards, etc.) that can be used to quickly pick up the fundamentals. Parents of special needs children have the option in the United States to access services through the school district and then make available their child's early childhood intervention plan to the daycare provider to facilitate consistency of care.
Why Preschools Should Teach about Multiculturalism!
by Louise
Masin Sattler, NCSP
It is very possible that
within a daycare or preschool exists children representing as many cultures as
their may be in a basic box of Crayola™ crayons.
A child need not be born
in another culture to be considered bilingual/bi cultural. For example, a child
born in Chicago to a second generation family from Mexico who continue to
celebrate their Mexican heritage, culture and speak Spanish within the home can
still be considered bilingual/bi cultural. Why? If the parents celebrate
customs, holidays and maintain the language within the home then this "All
American" child is considered to be bilingual/bi cultural.
So, how does this effect
daycare and preschools? Many times the culture being celebrated is not known
to the care providers. Perhaps a child a Dutch family may choose t o have a
celebration of a birthday differently than a child here in the U.S. Same may be
true of children and their families who do not have Christianity as their
religious belief. (Should Christmas trees and Easter eggs be an arts and craft
project for all the children? Or can alternative or additional activities be
offered to show inclusion and diversity within the daycare/preschool
setting?)
Another example of a family
being bilingual/ bi cultural is when a family uses American Sign Language in the
home (usually when the parents are deaf). The majority of people in the United
States would be surprised to find out that the deaf community has a deep, rich
and beautiful cultural and linguistic history. American Sign Language, in the
form it is used today, was brought to us from France. Schools which serve deaf
children are often seen as extended "family" for a deaf child. Many times
friends made at the "deaf school" are carried with people throughout their
lives. Children who are hearing, yet have a deaf parent (s) are often
straddling the hearing and deaf worlds. Relief often comes to a child when
hearing adults, such as a preschool teacher, can use basic or fluent sign
language to communicate directly with the parents vs. using the child as an
instant interpreter. (This by the way can also be said of children who are
bilingual who need to translate from English to their home language when the
parents are not bilingual themselves.)
In closing,
children that are in our school and daycare's are wonderfully diverse. We as
educators need to respect different cultures, prepare accordingly to the changes
of demographics in our community what we teach, and be open to learning basics
of languages other than our own to facilitate communication.
Language development with children can be erratic. Some toddlers talk in full and comprehensible sentences by the time they are a year old. While others barely can utter two words. For the latter, an early intervention team should assess a child for possible developmental delays. While this may sound scary, there are many children who have lags with language development. When a child is older, say preschool age, and continues to demonstrate speech and language delays then it is harder to encourage active communication in a formal setting. Therefore, play may need to be used to help a child learn skills and gain confidence. To help in this vain I recommend a new, highly engaging and dynamic game called Kubit2me! This is the PERFECT game for typical and atypically developing children as basic skills are learned through a fun and interactive cube that is tossed with surprise super game cards and reward stickers to help promote conversational skills. Now I earn nothing from telling you about this game other than the satisfaction of making parents and educators aware that there is a product which is equally fun for kids AND adults. Therefore, parents won't mind tossing the cube around with their kids and seeing what comes up next! Preschool teachers will not need to worry about broken games or lost parts with this game either. Toss it freely among the children in a classroom!! You will love it, I did!
To fully understand the concept of Kubit2me go to their website- http://www.Kubit2Me.com Mention that you read about it hear and I bet that the developer and company owner- MaryKay Russell will give you a special discount for MyChildCareGuide.com readers! Happy playing!
Louise Sattler
