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Home » Starting to Sign
Starting to Sign
Tricia Davis, owner of SigningStore.Ca, is a certified audiologist with A.S.H.A. (American Speech-Language Hearing Association). She trained at the University of Western Ontario, obtaining a B.Sc. and Michigan State University where she obtained her Masters Degree in Audiology. She has had an interest in American Sign Language (ASL) since undergrad. Tricia has studied ASL in Toronto at the Canadian Hearing Society, in Calgary through Mount Royal College and Calgary Board of Education. Her most recent training has included week-long ASL immersion summer camps offered through the Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf - held at Ontario Camp of the Deaf in 2006, 2007 and 2008!
Tricia used signs with her two hearing children when they were infants and toddlers. She used signs successfully to assist her son when he was struggling to learn to read between kindergarten and Grade 2. For example, his favourite book was "Go Dog Go!". He would have difficulty seeing the difference between 'go' & 'dog', because the words looked very much alike - sharing most of the same letters. He would get frustrated when Tricia would correct him out loud when he'd make a mistake. He'd often throw the book to the floor! To ease his frustration, yet improve his fluency and boost his confidence, she quickly changed to signing the words for 'go' and 'dog' (each being very unique signs). He gladly accepted the sign cues (because she was no longer correcting him out loud). After a number of weeks of practice he had the book down pat. She continued to use this approach to help him succeed in sight and phonetic reading. He enjoyed reading stories with 'duck', 'horse', 'bird', 'frog' etc. all having distinct ASL signs. Over one summer, between Grades 1 and 2 Tricia's son transformed from a reluctant reader to a very happy, confident reader.
She's taught ASL classes to over 500 Calgary & area families since 2004.
In the following sections find advice, and learn how to get started signing with your child. It’s an incredibly fun and rewarding journey of discovery - into your child’s thoughts as well as language and cognitive development!
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