Talking Hands - Wellington

21/05/2023

I spent this afternoon teaching baby sign to this wonderful group of parents keen to communicate with their gorgeous babies. One parent asked “is this connected to New Zealand Sign Language?” And my answer is yes! All the signs I teach are NZSL signs with a small amount of simple grammar. NZSL is an official, unique and beautiful language of Aotearoa, it should be the sign language we use - even with babies. There are resources and a curriculum out there to help. ASL (American sign language) and BSL British sign language) are not the same. Let your ECE/playcentre/kindergarten know and put your hands up for NZSL!

13/05/2021

TBT: This video of Niamh makes my heart happy and I can’t wait to experience it all again for a second time. I wonder how Saoirse will sign 🤗

Also had a lovely morning sharing some NZSL with my Space group. Looking forward to seeing happy signing babies! 🤟

12/05/2021

So excited to share this: Saoirse signed “milk” for the first time today while feeding! (And I got it on film - bonus!) Perfect timing it for NZSL week too (clever girl) 😊
Now she knows the sign I can’t wait for her to use it to let me know she wants to feed.
This sign can be used in any context: breastfeeding, bottle feeding, tube feeding, sippy cup etc. 🤱🏻🍼🥛🥤
Keep signing to your babies

11/05/2021

Introducing Saoirse (sur-sha) also known as Pineapple thanks to her big sister Niamh. It is also one of my favourite signs so I thought I would share it for NZSL week. She is six months old and we can’t wait to see her start signing.

Remember babies and toddlers can understand far more than they can express. Receptive language skills (what they can understand) usually develop before expressive language skills (what they can say). Learning to coordinate your tongue and teeth to produce words is a tricky skill and most babies won’t be able to do this until around 12 months. However, gestures or signs can be produced much earlier (around 7-9 months). So a baby who can sign will be able to communicate much earlier than those babies who use only words to communicate.

Check out the signs from yesterday and keep signing! 🍍

10/05/2021

Happy New Zealand Sign Language week! Teach your babies how to sign

08/08/2020

Any primary school teachers? This will be a cool resource!

Māori Language Week and NZSL Week are both in September this year! This unit for primary school teachers, provides rich activities and language learning around New Zealand Sign Language and Te Reo Māori. Heaps of awesome links to videos, stories and songs in Te Reo Māori and NZSL. Teach your clas...

23/09/2019

We would like to wish you a very happy International Day of Sign Languages!

Niamh is enjoying learning some nursery rhymes, we love using the Rhymes with Sign app that can be downloaded for Apple and Android.
http://rhymeswithsign.com/

Keep signing to your little ones 🙌

17/09/2019

Had our final class with these lovely families today. Over the four weeks we learned over 50 signs to incorporate into everyday interactions such as eating, family, bedtime, and lots of animals!
Good luck on your signing journeys: communicating with your babies is awesome 🙌

13/09/2019

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori: Rā Rima
The NZSL dictionary app is a fantastic free resource and you can search for signs in Māori. I love that there is a picture and video for every sign.
Check it out!

Thanks to Jenny Chapman at Kiwi Sign for the share

12/09/2019

Nau mai ki te rā tuawhā o Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

I have to share this with you. Today we were at the library and Niamh was excitedly signing something above her head saying “siiiisssh, siiiisssh!” I could not for the life of me work out what she was trying to say (it looked like her sign for plane/flying). After a while of trying to communicate what she was so excited about she said “ika!”
I was like “ooooooooooh...you want to go and see the fish”

Isn’t their consumption of language incredible? The rate that she picks stuff up just blows me away.
Keep communicating with those tamariki

11/09/2019

Rā tuatoru o Te Wiki o te Reo Māori!

There are some great resources for you to learn to kōrero with your tamariki. There are a whole series of Te Reo Singalong books by Sharon Holt. Some have been translated into NZSL too!

For more information about Te Reo Singalong books, go to www.tereosingalong.co.nz For more short videos about learning te reo pronunciation, words, phrases, ...