New ASL baby book!

A new ASL pop up book is available!

Hold on to your hats!! A brand new baby sign book is out. It is called :Everyday Signs for the Newborn Baby by Katarzyna Adilman (Illustrator) , Tanya Kuza, Katarzyna Adilman (Illustrator) . It is available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ . This is a must have. The illustrations are clear and lovely. It is a pop up book and we know how children just love pop ups!

It is made of very durable hard board and the pop ups show the action of the sign. In addition to the material and lay out, the signs are perfect. I especially love the very first sign in the book. It's "precious". Now just what does every grandparent and mom and dad say over and over again as they view the new little one? Yes! Of course! We say "Oh! How precious!"

This shows such thought and care and love! There are practical signs as well, such as: 'milk' and 'eat' and 'drink'. The feeling of the book is one of great care and love. You will appreciate this book as much as you will learn from it.

As a teaching tool, it is a great way to open the door to the rich and beautiful world of American Sign Language (ASL) and to show that it is a vibrant and flowing language. It is not a complete book of all the signs one will need to communicate but just a great beginning book.

I think it's a must have and one that I hope all doting aunts, uncles, grandparents rush right out and buy!

for it, visit:
www.BarnesandNoble.com

Multiple Intelligence Model and Baby Sign (ASL)

Educators know of the Multiple Intelligneces model. In it a professor of Education at Harvard University, Howard Garder found that the traditional notion of intelligence based soley on IQ testing is far too limited. He found that we all have to some degree the following intelligences, which can be measured. They are:

*Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
*Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
* Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
*Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
*Musical intelligence ("music smart")
* Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
* Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
* Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

Baby signs have been noted as the perfect way to supplement any preschool curruciulum because it can be used with all of the multiple intelligences. In linguistic intelligence you always speak while making specific signs so students are being exposed to two different learning modes for one word.

With logic-mathematical, children can see a pattern of language and how it forms. Musical; you can add signs to common music or rhymes that the children already know. Bodily - kinesthetic; our hands are moving to make the signs so children can feel the words or letters.

In spatial learning, the child can see the sign being made. Interpersonal; the childcan sign with a group, parent or teacher. Finally, with intrapersoanl learning the child can also sign when on his/her own when reading sotries.

Researcher Penelope Leach ( Leach, 1990) said, "The more language they ( young children) have, the faster thinking will progress. The more thinking they are doing, the more language they will use. So language and thought even language and intelligence are intimately entangled."

Dr. Daniels and research

Dr. Marilyn Daniels is a leading researcher in the area of Baby Sign and language. She is a professor of speech communication at Penn State University. She has published many articles and books. Her most famous booksin the area are Dancing with Words, and Benedictine Roots in the Development of Deaf Education.

In a recent article in the WFD News magazine for the World Federation of the Deaf, she explains the many and varied benefits of ASL as a language and of the use of it's vocabulary. First she explains that since ASL is a legitimate and complete, language, it is to be used in teaching babies and young children and not 'home signs' or made up signs. Because it is a language a child's brain reacts to it in that way and stores it as a language.

She further notes:

ASL uses eyes to a greater extent than spoken language and eyes develop sooner in young children.

• Using the eyes help develop the right brain.
• Languages are stored in the left but, when babies use sign they use the left and right brain.

Motor areas develop sooner in young children so that

• it is easier for children to learn and remember signs than spoken words
• they pay more attention to the movement and become more involved

Using sign language in infancy through sixth grade improves literacy.

• children who learn sign spell better and
• have larger vocabularies

Further she takes exception to the notion that Deaf children should not be taught sign. She states that: "All human beings need a language for communication, but they also need a language for thinking, for processing information. Speech and language are two very different things. Deaf babies need sign language; it is their natural language and it should be taught before they are taught English or Swedish."

Please see the complete article at www.handspeak.com