Every Saturday from 11.30 amd to 12.00pm EST
A fun and innovative event for children and parents to engage: a “Spanish & ASL Storytime!” workshop.
We teamed up with Baby Fingers to offer a unique moment to enjoy your child’s favorite story books while communicating with Sign and Spanish. Songs and movement will add to the fun by further reinforcing the vocabulary.
This workshop will give you a preview of how you and your child can communicate while having fun and strengthening your bond.
We teamed up with Baby Fingers to offer a unique moment to enjoy your child’s favorite story books while communicating with Sign and Spanish. Songs and movement will add to the fun by further reinforcing the vocabulary.
This workshop will give you a preview of how you and your child can communicate while having fun and strengthening your bond.
Learn More about Baby fingers
We are excited to bring new and exciting ways to communicate with your child from the youngest age with our new language learning partner: Baby Fingers.
Created in 2000 by seasoned music therapist and ASL teacher, Lora Heller, MS, MT-BC, LCAT, Baby Fingers has made language accessible for hearing and deaf children alike.
Founded on the principles that sign language is one of the most effective ways to support expressive communication for children and foster early language development, Baby Fingers pairs the benefits of sign language to music in order to enhance early language development and strengthen family relationships and interaction.
Sign language is indeed a wonderful tool for children to communicate!
www.mybabyfingers.com
Created in 2000 by seasoned music therapist and ASL teacher, Lora Heller, MS, MT-BC, LCAT, Baby Fingers has made language accessible for hearing and deaf children alike.
Founded on the principles that sign language is one of the most effective ways to support expressive communication for children and foster early language development, Baby Fingers pairs the benefits of sign language to music in order to enhance early language development and strengthen family relationships and interaction.
Sign language is indeed a wonderful tool for children to communicate!
www.mybabyfingers.com
the benefits of learning spanish at an early age
Including sign language into a child’s daily communication has been proven to have tremendous benefits on early language development and socio-emotional behavior.
Studies have shown that “meaningful hand movements and gestures which activate this area of the brain making learning a new word easier. [...] Infants and toddlers who use sign language [are more likely to] learn to talk sooner, understand and use more words, use longer sentences, and feel more secure and confident.” (Baby Fingers website)
With ASL, from an early age, children can communicate with their surroundings and express themselves. This feeling of being understood and engaging socially fosters self-esteem, confidence and ability to connect with others.
It is also a fantastic way to facilitate bilingualism. For children of parents from two different native languages, ASL will bridge the gap between the two languages. It will also stimulate children learning a second language at an early age.
Lastly, signing at an early age also promotes literacy and self-expression.
Studies have shown that “meaningful hand movements and gestures which activate this area of the brain making learning a new word easier. [...] Infants and toddlers who use sign language [are more likely to] learn to talk sooner, understand and use more words, use longer sentences, and feel more secure and confident.” (Baby Fingers website)
With ASL, from an early age, children can communicate with their surroundings and express themselves. This feeling of being understood and engaging socially fosters self-esteem, confidence and ability to connect with others.
It is also a fantastic way to facilitate bilingualism. For children of parents from two different native languages, ASL will bridge the gap between the two languages. It will also stimulate children learning a second language at an early age.
Lastly, signing at an early age also promotes literacy and self-expression.
HOW signing and gestures affect the language development for bilingual children?
Not only signing and gestures enhance language development, it is also “a very useful way to build conceptual bridges between [two spoken] languages. For example, parents teaching the words “I want” and “quiero” can use the sign for want, because the gesture itself is a natural indication of the concept “I want” or “give me.”” (babiesandsignlanguage.com)
When we consider that verbal communication only makes up 7% of the language, non-verbal communication is crucial.
Sign Language is a very expressive and visual way to communicate. Intonation is represented by body movements and facial expressions.
ASL is a complete and natural language with its own structure and specificities; Deaf/Hearing Impaired using it are also considered bilingual.
Interestingly, ASL is actually the 4th most used language in the USA.
We highly recommend sign language for children learning or speaking a second language.
When we consider that verbal communication only makes up 7% of the language, non-verbal communication is crucial.
Sign Language is a very expressive and visual way to communicate. Intonation is represented by body movements and facial expressions.
ASL is a complete and natural language with its own structure and specificities; Deaf/Hearing Impaired using it are also considered bilingual.
Interestingly, ASL is actually the 4th most used language in the USA.
We highly recommend sign language for children learning or speaking a second language.