by Pablo Martos, Certified Signing Time Academy Instructor

Somehow, I convinced a remarkable young woman to marry me nine years ago, and she went around being remarkable until someone invited her to go to Ghana. I tagged along.

It started when a friend gave us some DVDs featuring an overly chipper woman in orange to help us communicate with our developmentally delayed son. Since then, my wife has started training to be an ASL interpreter, and has worked for Rachel in a number of capacities. I tended to be involved in some of the larger projects she did for the Signing Time Foundation, and as such, we both got to join Rachel, Leah, and a small group of other wonderful people whose names you won’t likely recognize, on a trip to support the Demonstration School for the Deaf in Mampong, Ghana.

It is really difficult to put into words exactly how the trip affected me, or how I feel we made a difference there. It was an unfortunately brief visit, so everything jumbled and blurred together in a busy whirlwind of activity. It certainly put my own affluence and happiness in perspective. As Ronai said, the people there are surprisingly happy for the level of poverty in which they live. I’d seen that kind of poverty before in Mexico, but I hadn’t immersed in it for a week, and this seemed qualitatively different somehow. If you look at this picture of a table from a college sociology textbook, you’ll see that the populace of Ghana is somehow happier than we are here in the US (or at least, that was the case in the late ’90′s, and I don’t know that we’ve gotten any happier here since the tech bubble burst).

But this trip also showed me how very important it is to have made the social equality advances we have. There are still places where the Deaf cannot serve on a jury here in the US, but they have opportunities here that they don’t have in most of the world. Here, there are Deaf doctors, lawyers, and teachers, and the ADA rules mean they can get an interpreter in most situations where they need one. The contrast with Ghana was immense. The DemoDeaf school is a haven in Ghana for children who are often otherwise forgotten or ignored. There, they get training, they get education, they get food and clothing, language and a peer group. But outside of the school, their world is very different. The school is run by a wonderful woman who happens to be one of some two dozen interpreters in the whole country, but until recently even that school was run by someone who didn’t use sign language. As you can see in this video, the general public is completely unaware of how Deafness works, or even what sign language is.

The gentleman in this video is a tour guide at a national park in Ghana, presumably someone who meets and talks with a very large number of people on a daily basis, and he had never met a Deaf person or seen sign language, much less seen a Deaf person interacting as an equal.

I hope we changed that tour guide’s perspective a little. I know we helped a lot of kids at the school immensely. We mostly worked with the younger age groups while there, and I helped Rachel teach a class that showed the children that signed words, fingerspelled words, and written words were all equivalent, and all could represent real things they could see and touch. I helped a new arrival at the school write his first few words at probably 10 or 11 years of age. We showed them that Leah was our and their equal. It was a very powerful experience.

I’ve been supporting the Signing Time Foundation’s work for about two years now in one way or another, and I have never been more convinced of the importance and value of what they do than I was on this trip. While we were there, we got to meet the very first Ghanaian to graduate from a two-year college. He was only able to make it that far, is only able to dream higher still, because of the help of groups like ours, because of people like you. That’s what the donation link at the bottom is about. Use it.

You can read a more detailed description of our trip, from my wife’s perspective, here.

Annual Report 2011 – My First Year in Review

by Karen Gutrath, BST Instructor

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GROSSE POINTE PARK – According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, parents can deeply influence the wiring of their young child’s brain through physical interaction. The MDCH says repetitive, positive actions such as singing, touching, talking and reading are vital expressions that positively affect the way a toddler’s brain develops. Grosse Pointe Park resident Kelly Konieczki has put her own twist on this concept – she chose sign language.

Konieczki began teaching her daughter Matilda to sign when she was just 7 months old.

“It was very overwhelming and hard to know where to begin,” she said.

Konieczki’s process was aided by a video series specifically geared toward teaching signing to children ages 3 and under.

“Nothing else has been able to grab her attention for so long. She loved the music, the animation and watching all of the babies signing,” Konieczki said. “We ordered all the volumes and started watching them every day. It quickly became a special time of day that we could share and learn together. I was amazed at how easy it was to learn the signs, and we were both having a lot of fun.” Matilda, now 18 months, has spoken only a few words, but can sign well over 100.

Konieczki became inspired by the signing experience with her daughter.

She is a wife, mother, and as of recently, now a certified Baby Signing Time Academy Instructor. BST is the interactive video series created to teach American Sign Language to children under the age of 3. While searching for something to do with Matilda over winter break, Konieczki decided to launch her own baby signing class by assembling friends and local parents. “They just wanted a playgroup; none of them knew about signing. They all came together with no intentions, and they’re all signing now,” Konieczki said.

When it comes to sign language, Konieczki doesn’t like to call what they’re doing “practicing.” “This is where I think people misunderstand the concept of using sign language with their babies,” she said. “It should not feel awkward or forced, like you are drilling them. It is as simple as incorporating a few signs into your daily activities.” Konieczki suggests that parents use mealtime, playtime and bedtime as an opportunity to integrate sign language into their child’s life.

“Just sign the word you know, every time you say it, and repeat, repeat, repeat! Once your child understands that signing is a way to communicate, then you can start adding to their vocabulary,” Konieczki said. “It’s truly amazing what children are capable of understanding and expressing at such a young age if you just give them the tools to do so.” Konieczki said the benefits of teaching children signing can be monumental. She said her 18-month-old cannot only communicate her basic needs, but also her thoughts and feelings, as well.

“It gives them another way to express themselves and communicate, which in turn makes them a happier toddler because they feel more understood,” she said. “Some of the many benefits include increased vocabulary, social skills, confidence and reduced frustration for both parent and child.” Abbey Cook is an educational speech language pathologist for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. She is also the mother of two young boys who sign.

“There are many life-long benefits, such as increased problem-solving skills, increased literacy skills and the possibility of an increased IQ,” Cook said. “But the biggest immediate benefit is that your child is able to communicate with you at an early age, as well as decreased tantrums.” Josh Eltervoog, a Grosse Pointe Woods resident and friend of the Konieczkis, recently began taking his daughter to the Thursday morning classes. But he admits to having doubts at first.

“I knew Kelly was doing (sign language) with Matilda, but I was skeptical,” Eltervoog said.

After attending their first class, Eltervoog and his wife, Christine, were in the dining room with 18-month-old Claire when they observed a change in their daughter.

“She pointed at a tray of oranges slices and signed ‘more,’ so we gave her more. It was our watershed moment,” he said.

Eltervoog said that once children figure out that they can communicate, they get really excited and because of this, he recommends the sign language classes to other parents.

“It’s a way for children to communicate early on, before words. It removes the level of frustration,” he said. “I would definitely say it’s been a very cool thing.” For more information about Kelly Konieczki’s classes, email momcatkelly@signingtimeacademy.com or visit www.facebook.com/momcats.signing. academy.

Congratulations to the February 2012 Signing Time Academy Instructors of the Month!
We love you guys!

Kelly Konieczki (Grosse Pointe Park, MI)	Erika Vetter (Menlo Park, CA)	Jessie Cardarelli (Hamilton, ONT, CAN)	Bree Blum (Wheeling,
Rachel Coleman (Ghana)	Stacey Shipman (Trussville, AL)	Arika Ledom (Overland Park, KS)	Ashley Elston (Overland Park, KS)

to a fun-filled Potty Time Workshop!