Guess Who? Keast!
July 20th, 2007, 6:28 pm · 2 Comments · posted by
Appeal-Democrat is running an article this weekend on a Deaf woman, Missy Keast, written by Freedom News Service. Freedom News Service is part of our corporate. Full article here.
Missy Keast has been mentioned in many news, newsletters, and blogs. Just Googling for her name brings up results. Missy Keast is known for her storytelling and ASL DVD videos “Teaching Signs for Baby Minds” at www.sfibaby.com.
My own observation of American Sign Language, or Baby Signs, with babies shows that it reduces frustration in communicating. Many of my friends who are parents of a toddler, are using sign language and say that they understand their children much better before speaking. An online friend of mine named Sandhya Bean, is a teacher in nursery school in Massachusetts, and says Baby Signs is a life-saver. My infant nephew will be learning American Sign Language soon.
American Sign Language will help your baby develop language early but also give your child an extra leg up in the linguistic ladder. Your child will be at least bilingual in English and American Sign Language. Research shows that being fluent in more than one language is parallel to increased intelligence. American Sign Language is also a valuable language to know in America, and qualified interpreters will always be in demand.
I would like to emphasis that Baby Signs or American Sign Language for babies is not just for hearing babies. I want to strongly encourage parents to use American Sign Language with deaf children. Why? Communication is important for all children, and extremely so for deaf children. Giving a deaf child language during the most formative developing age (between infant to 4 years old), increases their chances for communication and comprehension success in the world.
Locally, NorCal Center on Deafness provides resources and support for parents with deaf children or Deaf parents with hearing children. Their web site is www.norcalcenter.org, and their contact information listing is here. Our Marysville branch of NorCal Center on Deafness is with Ms. Kimberly Dethlefsen. She can be reached two ways, by email or telephone. Her e-mail is kdethlefsen@norcalcenter.org and telephone is (530) 740-7805 [VP]. The [VP] stands for “Video Phone” and is for anyone, both Deaf or Hearing, to call her.
Sign on and let’s reduce “Say what?” happenings.
2 Comments
Leave a Reply
-
Contacting Hana
Got a question? Something you want to bring to my attention? E-mail me! -
Looking for Deaf Events?
Deaf Calendar Events are being listed on
CalDeaf Events Calendar, please visit them for the latest Deaf Events.
Also, if you are on Facebook, join the Deaf Californians here.
Missy is one of my dearest friend and she is an awesome teacher with ASL.
i fully agree. baby sign is great in general - it reduces frustration because children are able to understand language well before they are developed enough to speak. an 8 month old who might just cry for something is instead able to sign “milk” or “eat” or “more.” i think it is especially crucial for parents of deaf children to learn and become very comfortable with ASL. all children need to be exposed to language at an early age in order to help them master it more easily - so of course deaf children need to be able to learn ASL to help them be able to communicate with the outside world even at such a young age. great blog!