TUESDAY, JANUARY 31st, 2006 11am Lora was featured on Bronx Talk, a local educational TV talk show, Cable 67.

NPR aired a show about American Sign Language on Feb. 2nd, 2005 Search the archives for the transcript. Good Morning America also aired a February program about signing with babies. Channel 9 news had a clip on signing with babies in March. CBS News featured baby signing in May. Japanese TV and a WB 11 morning news featured Baby Fingers summer of 2005. .

Hollywood is catching on! Little Jack, the toddler in "Meet the Fockers" communicates through sign language! Read about them in the Feb. 25th cover article of LIFE.

Lora was featured on a radio show featuring a daily "mommy hour" with Darla Shine, Happy Housewives on December 16th, 2005. She spoke about the benefits of ASL!
www.dougstephan.com

We were previously highlighted in the New York Times Science Times, on WABC Eye Witness News (Channel 7), and Fox 5 Good Day New York (spring, 2004)! The Health Section of the NY Post featured an article about signing babies, some of whom are in our program!

NPR Radio, NYC, featured Baby Fingers in a segment about signing with babies in New York 2002; BBC Radio of London featured a story about how babies think, including through sign language. Several on line baby and family newsletters have featured our program as well.

When Ezekiel was six months old, he asked his mother for "more music" after his mobile stopped. Likewise, Joshua could call for the dog when he was also six months. Both sound like infant prodigies, but they hadn't yet begun to speak. Instead, they communicated these words and many more through sign language.

Neither Ezekiel nor Joshua is deaf, so why teach them sign language? Because studies have shown that through signing, babies can actually talk to you.

Talk to the Hand
Talking is difficult-coordinating the mouth, teeth and tongue requires a finely-tuned set of motor skills. Instead, it's far easier for young children to use their hands to communicate-they can't see the position of the tongue to say "bye-bye," but they sure know how to wave. Tara Fersko, a pediatric speech language pathologist, explains that "developmentally, children are able to communicate with signs before they're able to speak. They point and wave because they've seen adults do it, and will sign if we sign with them."

In addition, teaching sign language can lead to a more peaceful household, one where "What do you want?" is not a weary refrain. "Most children's tantrums come from the fact that people can't understand them," says Lora Heller, teacher of a signing class in New York City called Babyfingers. "Once they know they're being understood, children relax." Because of Lora's classes, many Big Apple kids now know signs for "happy" "silly" "apple" and the all-important "potty." And according to Lora, they always want to learn more. "They're so excited to be able to communicate to those around them. It's a great motivator."

The First Sign
Credit goes to Joseph Garcia for being the first person to introduce hearing babies to sign language. Through his work with the deaf, Joseph noticed that hearing children of deaf parents could communicate far earlier than other children- in some cases as young as six weeks. Meanwhile, psychologists Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn from the University of California-Davis found that by age eight, children who had been taught to sign as infants scored a staggering 12 points higher on IQ tests.

Sign Language Concerns
There are worries that teaching sign language will slow down a child's speech development. "My friends signed up for signing classes with their babies," said Carly McGuire, mother of one-year-old Max, "but to me it just seemed like putting roadblocks in front of the way they should be learning. Like it confused the situation." But others strike a different tune. Olivia Meeks is the mother of three-year-old Elizabeth and a big fan of baby signing. "I think like with a lot of things, kids are smarter than we give them credit for. And the sooner we tap into that, and give them much more practice with language, the less they'll be afraid of it later on. Elizabeth had signs she used all the time when she was a baby, like 'milk,' 'Mommy,' and 'Daddy.' And now that she speaks, I can't get her to stop talking." Lora concurs: "By 18 months, a child should have about 10 spoken words. A signing child of the same age will have 10 spoken words and 10 signs...and possibly 10 more signs."

The Future of Baby Signs
And the buzz has spread across the country. Debra Messing of Will and Grace taught sign language to her infant son, Roman, and Meet the Fockers helped spike the trend when it featured Robert DeNiro teaching sign language to his grandson. Meanwhile, Joseph Garcia, Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, and Lora Heller all have books that instruct parents on how to teach basic signs. Though each has different methods of teaching signs and gestures, all believe that having fun with signs is the best way to make it an enriching experience for the child-and the parent.

How to Become Your Child's Sign Language Instructor
Want your child to be a signing star, but don't know where to begin? Lora offers these tips:

• Make eye contact
• Speak while simultaneously signing
• Sign while doing the action-for example, sign "change" when you're changing your baby, and "milk" when giving a bottle
• Teach the signs to all the important people in your baby's life, like babysitters and grandparents, to keep the learning consistent
• Show your feelings
• Respond with excitement to his or her attempt to sign
• Be attentive to your child's likes and dislikes, new interests, and favorite things, as they will often be the things your baby is most interested in signing

Lisa Kenny took a yoga class with her new daughter Leilani, because she wanted to get back in shape, learn how to relax her mind and meet other new moms. What she didn't realize, however, was how much it would benefit Leilani." I cannot begin to list all of the wonderful things my daughter gets out of our class," says Kenny, of Tallahassee, Fla.....

Beyond Bonding
Kenny and her daughter both benefit from the classes they're taking together. According to Skylar Hill-Jackson, owner of Baby & Me Pregnancy and Postpartum Fitness in Ontario, Canada, that's what "baby and me" classes should be all about. The company offers fitness and Pilates classes, yoga, stroller fitness classes and aquatics programs. All classes are located in neighborhoods to make them more accessible and to increase the chance that mothers will find like-minded moms with whom to bond.

"On the first day when the moms introduce themselves, we have the, say what street they live on as well so they can figure out who lives close to them and perhaps make arrangements to get together outside of class," says Hill-Jackson. "This is great for new moms because it allows them to get out, meet friends and discuss parenting issues with moms who are going through the same thing at the same time."

Helen Garabedian, founder of Itsy Bitsy Yoga and author of Itsy Bitsy Yoga: Poses to Help Your Baby Sleep Longer, Digest Better and Grow Stronger (Fireside, 2004), started teaching mom and baby yoga classes five years ago. According to Garabedian, she started up the classes not only so like-minded parents could meet those who share their parenting values, but also because she feels that yoga movements can help a baby learn important coping skills.

"Our classes incorporate a lot of voice and eye contact," says Garabedian. "For example, we have a pose called "I Love You" that simulates the Moro (startle) reflex so that when the baby is frightened it helps them re-center and calm themselves."

Yoga classes have soared in popularity throughout the world in the last few years. Hill-Jackson attributes this to famous mom Madonna, who put yoga on the map when she was pregnant. Now many centers that offer baby and mom classes have a yoga class, and most yoga centers have a class that moms can take with their babies.

While yoga may be the newest thing, aquatics classes are definitely the mainstay of mom and baby bonding. YMCAs have long offered classes of this type, as do private fitness facilities.

Classes that teach songs, finger plays and nursery rhymes are found not only in centers that focus on baby and mom classes but also in libraries and community centers. Danelle Eikens, of Middleburg Heights, Ohio, takes a class at her local library and likes the fact that her daughter Payton, is learning nursery rhymes and simple skills such as counting." I was a teacher before becoming a stay-at-home mom so I was very interested in her learning at an early ago," says Eikens.

Another class that's growing in popularity is sign language. Lora Heller founded Baby Fingers, a New York-based center where babies learn American Sign Language, because of her own experience working with hearing-impaired children. She feels that signing, in addition to verbal communication, strengthens the bond between mother and child and reinforces vocabulary skills in children.

"The moms and babies that come here are developing a lifelong mode of communication and second language," says Heller. "It's really something special that happens between them."

At only six-and-a-half months, Zeke Heller was able to sign "I love you" to his parents. Now, just under one year, Zeke has a vocabulary of approximately 15 signs. He recently strung together a two-word request for "more music" when his mobile stopped playing, something not normally expressed verbally until 18 months.

Zeke is one of a growing number of hearing children who are learning to communicate with American Sign Language. Although most babies begin talking between one and two years, they understand and want to communicate much earlier. Zeke's mother, Lora Heller, started signing with him at birth so he would be able to express what he is unable to say. "Research shows that the use of sign language boosts IQ, accelerates verbal language acquisition, and helps to enrich communication between parents and children," Heller says.

Besides being mom to Zeke, Lora Heller is also a music therapist and teacher of the deaf. She is so convinced of the benefits of teaching signs to babies and toddlers that she recently founded the Manhattan-based Baby Fingers, a program that offers sign language instruction through music.

Her classes consist of 50-minute sessions in which hearing or deaf infants and their parents or caretakers sing songs and learn signs that they can use in everyday communication. Topics include greetings, names and practical words. "To teach the sign for 'more', we sing the song 'The More We Get Together' and practice the sign with our hands. We talk about applications, like how to use the sign at dinner to ask for more," Heller explains.

Besides their educational aspect, these classes also foster social skills by encouraging interaction between infants and toddlers. While parents sit on cushions in a circle around the room, babies move about freely, babble to one another, and play with musical instruments. They focus on Lora Heller when she is singing and playing the guitar.

While some children learn to sign within weeks, others take months. The development of sign language depends on age, motivation, and practice at home. Heller cautions that parents should take on signing with reason, saying, "Demanding that children sign is not key. Offering the sign, looking for a response to the sign, and helping a child to produce the sign is useful. When parents sign, children are focused. With focus, language development can speed along."

A ten-year study recently completed at the University of California at Davis indicates that Lora Heller is on the right track. Research shows that seven-year-olds who signed as babies were an average of 12 points higher in their standard IQ scores than the control group. Proponents of signing believe babies who sign in their first three years actually speed up their brain processes, since this is the time when the majority of synaptic development occurs and learning capability is at a peak.

But does signing delay the onset of verbal language? As it turns out, the opposite is true. "Sign language actually results in an earlier onset of spoken language, because motor skills in hands develop before oral skills. Signing lets children use words and syntax at an earlier age," Lora Heller explains. Perhaps the most important aspect of learning to sign is the emotional advantage children have when they are able to express what they are unable to say. "When my son is crying and he can tell me it's because he's thirsty, what a relief," Heller says. Parents who use the system say their children are less frustrated and have fewer tantrums.

The added benefit of music during Baby Fingers classes not only focuses and motivates babies to learn signs but also may enhance their ability to read. Studies show a correlation between keeping a steady beat and basic reading skills. This is partly because of the cadences and phrases involved in reading, and partly because both reading and music are rhythmic.

Although Baby Fingers is still in its first year, participants are enthusiastic about the program. Amy Jo Frischling, a speech pathologist and mother to Robert, brought him to classes at four-and-a-half months old. She found that Robert came to understand more about the world around him. "When I change him, I use water," she says. ³Now that I use the sign for water, he seems to really know what to expect.² Although classes have ended, she still uses the signs she learned and sings songs with him everyday.

Terry Voltaggio, a former banker and mother to six-month-old Lily, is equally pleased. "It's more educational than other classes we've gone to,² she comments. ³I'm convinced that what enhances my child's communication skills and mental growth is interaction. This gives me a tool with which I can interact with my child earlier than we would have otherwise."

There are discounts for parents registering more than one child and for those who sign up with a friend. For more information, contact Lora Heller via email or (212) 874-5978.

Why should hearing children learn sign language? How can Deaf children participate in and enjoy music? What is music mediated sign language instruction?

Playing in his crib at 10 months old as his mother folded laundry, Ezekiel calmly got her attention and signed "more music." Realizing only then that the mobile had stopped, his mom wound it up again and Ezekiel continued playing happily. A hearing child in a hearing family, he has been exposed to sign language since birth to aid in overall language development, early communication, and later acquisition of speech. Not only was this baby able to express his needs clearly without tears of frustration, but he also used a two "word" phrase at 10 months old. This level of language is rarely present until 18 months, or more typically two years of age.

Three year old Larry proudly led his integrated preschool class in "Old MacDonald" during the end of the year show for families. A Deaf child of hearing parents, he first learned sign language in preschool. Larry's ability to express himself developed further through his exposure to music in a group and individual setting. Through signing songs and playing instruments such as drums and chimes, auditory discrimination improved, vocabulary flourished, interest in language and self esteem increased.

Maya, a two year old with delayed speech, was adopted as a baby from China. She has been exposed to sign language at home to aid in her overall language development and motivation to communicate. It was during the hello song in a music mediated sign language class that Maya first signed her own name; during a song about feelings she was able to sign and demonstrate the broad range of emotions.

Music mediated sign language instruction has several central purposes. The first is to guide each child, deaf or hearing, in developing fluent language skills while promoting effective communication between the children and their family and peers. The second is to support the development of language as a tool for literacy attainment. Third, it will create an effective and rewarding vehicle for self-expression and self-esteem, allowing participants to explore new means of expression while they enhance existing ones. The fourth purpose or objective is to facilitate social interaction and age appropriate play. Additional benefits include more rhythmic speech; growth in balance, spatial reasoning and motor skills; increased IQ, auditory and perceptual awareness, attention span, memory recall, and vocabulary; reinforcement of cultural identity if Deaf; and improvements in family relationships as communication is clarified.

The first three years are the most critical years for a child's language development, though sign language may be used to encourage communication among children of varying ages, abilities, and interests. Signing not only offers a method of communication to nonverbal children, but it also facilitates the onset and development of spoken language for pre-linguistic children. Studies have proven that once a set of conceptual, cognitive, and linguistic skills are developed in a first language, they can be transferred or are applicable to the subsequent development of a second language. As children naturally gesture in self-expression, there is a growing consensus that a sign language such as American Sign Language (ASL) should be presented as the first language in infancy and childhood.

Research shows that ASL is an appropriate instrument to facilitate the development of thought patterns and allow full communication of intelligence. With the use of signing, unexpected benefits may occur for children who hear normally. Hearing children learn to think in words; signing with them teaches them to think in terms of referents of words. When they are told it is raining and simultaneously shown the signed word for rain, they are provided the opportunity to visualize rain through sign. Otherwise, words are quite abstract. Sign language provides a means of communication more closely aligned with pre-linguistic thinking.

Research in early childhood development has indicated a strong relationship between the ability to keep a steady beat and the ability to read. Further studies have found that the early experience of signing, beginning in or before preschool, results in the ability to keep a competent, steady beat, thus linking music and sign language to reading skills. A longitudinal study conducted in California ascertained that by second grade, a group of children who were exposed to sign language in infancy were advanced in vocabulary development, and had an average IQ 12 points higher than their peers. Researchers have discovered that music training can improve young children's future abilities to solve complex math and geometry problems, navigate ships, design skyscrapers, and improve intelligence­perhaps permanently. In one particular study, spatial reasoning skills of preschool children given eight months of music lessons far exceeded that of preschoolers without music training.

Studies of the brain have determined that the left side processes patterns and is responsible for recognizing melody, harmony, and timbre in music. The right hemisphere controls temporal aspects, including rhythm. Until the mid eighties, it was believed that American Sign Language was processed in the right side of the brain due to its visual/spatial structure. Professionals in the field have known that spoken language primarily involves the Broca's, or language center in the left frontal region, and the Wernicke's Area for auditory perception and comprehension, in the left temporal region. A sign, however, has identical linguistic properties as a spoken word. Research has only recently proven that the Broca's Area processes the linguistic aspects of all language, spoken and signed. Deaf babies exposed to sign from birth have been found to begin babbling with their hands at the same time and for the same purpose as their hearing peers babble with their voices. These similarities noted in the time, structure, and use of manual and vocal babbling also suggest the link between human signed and spoken language acquisition.

The development of language should be accomplished by making use of the experiences, interests, and needs of children. Music is one medium to achieve this goal. Teaching sign language to children through music enhances motivation, enjoyment, social skills, self concept, and development of language. Benefits of music mediated sign language instruction are endless.

What can families do at home to reinforce language development, reading skills, motor coordination, and other benefits mentioned above? First and foremost, have fun! Talk and sing to your baby as you are out taking a walk or inside making dinner. Carry your baby in the front carrier or sling so you can sing and dance together heart to heart-literally. Quietly listen to and feel each other's breathing and heartbeats, two of the most significant aspects of both life and music. Respond to your baby's cooing and babbling, reinforcing the first stages of language. Make eye contact. Listen to music together; children should be exposed to all genres from birth. Watch an opera. Make Sesame Street a family event; count and sing along. Dance together; demonstrate and watch how our body rhythms can change along with musical changes. Sing out loud; all our voices are good enough for singing, at least in the privacy of our own homes! Have a basket of small hand held instruments available for spontaneous play-include drums, maracas, bells, kazoos/whistles, xylophones. Be the performer and the audience, allowing your child to play both roles as well...take a bow and applaud one another.

Encourage older siblings to be a "teacher" for the day, or at least the next few minutes! Include him or her in the baby's bedtime routine, singing a lullaby or reading a story. Ask questions, rather than always having to answer them. Give your child a chance to make requests. Attend children's community events, like concerts, storytelling, and puppet shows. Make up your own puppet shows at home. Make collages, color or paint pictures...count the crayons, label the colors, ask about your child's drawing rather than describing what you might see, and make up stories about what you each created. Read a lot of books, and encourage your child to "read" aloud to you. [At a year old, Ezekiel (mentioned above) was reading aloud by signing all the things he saw in his storybooks.] Take a nice afternoon to make up songs and stories in the park; spend a rainy day at the bookstore or the library.

Find picture books or storybooks with sign language diagrams, such as My First Sign Language ABC, Animal Signs, and the Where's Spot? series. Purchase a sign language dictionary or find one on line. Dawn Sign Press has published a book called Signs for Me, full of children's vocabulary--it also makes a great coloring book. Put in a video tape of signed songs and watch as a family; even make your own music and/or sign language video together. Learn signs for your child's favorite animals, toys, foods...incorporate them into your day as you play, walk through the park, eat, and shop. Put a photo album together of your baby's favorite people, places, and things; s/he can start to communicate by smiling or cooing, then pointing to the photo, later using the sign, and eventually saying the name or word. Encourage other significant people in your child's life­babysitter, grandparents, siblings, etc.­to learn the signs along with you. Look for age appropriate playgroups so you and your baby both have an opportunity to socialize. Invest in a class or two to take together.