Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) Child Development Instructor Dawn Braa is bringing an early childhood sign language course to DCTC’s campus this November to provide childcare providers, teachers, and parents with an opportunity to learn how to communicate with their children more effectively earlier in life.
The class, CDEV 2714 Communication with Preverbal Children Through Sign Language, begins November 12 at 6 p.m. and will meet every Monday and Thursday through Dec. 6, with the exception of Thanksgiving week.
The class will feature early childhood sign language facts, best practices, and about 200 signs.
“We will learn to sign finger plays, stories, nursery rhymes, and other learning tools that parents, teachers, and childcare providers can use with children,” said Braa.
After learning about the practice of early childhood sign language while working at a day care in college, Braa began learning more about the subject. Since, she has written her master’s thesis on the subject, taught her son, teaches community education classes, and is bringing a class on the subject to DCTC’s Child Development program.
“This class will be great for adult that works with or has children. It only meets for six evenings and teaches all the signs and methods necessary to begin signing with children immediately,” Braa said.
Early childhood sign language has been around for about 30 years and is growing in acceptance. Braa was an early believer, and believes that sign language is helpful in helping childcare providers, teachers, and parents communicate better with children earlier on in life.
“It’s a way for children to communicate before they can verbally,” Braa said. “Traditionally, we reinforce their crying. When they cry, we feed them. When they cry, we change them. Early childhood sign language allows them to communicate differently.”
Braa says that babies can begin learning baby sign language at about six months old, but they should only learn one word at a time. For example, you can teach a baby to communicate when it’s hungry by learning the sign for milk. Then when you are feeding the baby, you keep showing the sign for milk.
“Whatever sign you choose, you need to keep reinforcing it with the child,” Braa said.
The child goes through three stages in learning. First, they notice the sign. Second, they recognize the sign, and finally, they sign it back, Braa said.
It takes a few months to learn a word, but after they learn the sign, children will use that sign to communicate with adults instead of crying.
“When they learn it, they don’t cry – they sign it,” Braa said.
After they learn one word, the adult can move on to another word and go through the process again.
“There is no more crying because they have a new way to communicate,” she said. “It empowers them and gives them self-confidence.”
Braa says that not only does early childhood sign language help children communicate earlier with adults, but it can also help them with future verbal communication.
She believes that teaching her four-year-old son, Carter, to sign as an infant has helped him speak earlier.
“By the time he was two, he was speaking in full sentences,” Braa said.
The practice of early childhood sign language is still controversial, but Braa believes that the naysayers have been proven wrong.
“The research is there, and I know from personal experience that it helps,” she said.
To learn more about the class, contact Dawn Braa at 651-423-8000 or dawn.braa@dctc.edu.
