FARMINGTON – Knee-high kindergartners expressively gesticulating is a common sight at W.G. Mallett School, and the activity is encouraged. In fact, it is taught.
About 90 kindergartners, 18 teachers and the school’s principal are learning American Sign Language at the elementary school in Farmington.
The program, funded through a grant from MBNA, was started last year so that a hard-of-hearing student would be able to communicate with his teachers and classmates.
It was “one student having a ripple effect,” Principal Tracy Douglass said Tuesday.
The money from the credit card company enabled the school to buy dictionaries, puzzles and create a library of learning videos, as well as to pay for a sign language interpreter to come once weekly for classes.
That teacher is Sherry Walrath of Strong, a 32-year veteran sign language interpreter and teacher.
“It’s been exciting and fun because they’re so enthusiastic and have more energy than you can imagine,” Walrath said of the kindergartners Wednesday.
And this physical form of communication seems to appeal to the 5- and 6-year-olds.
In a darkened classroom and with rapt attention Tuesday, almost 20 youngsters watched a video of several stories acted in sign language and mime, including “Where the Wild Things Are” and “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” both of which were rife with signing opportunities. They followed the stories and practiced the signs as Walrath pointed them out.
“The children pick it up so quickly,” teacher Stacey Augustine said. Augustine is one of five kindergarten teachers learning to sign, and she actively participates in classes with her students as well as attending classes for educators held after school.
“They use it and they bring it home,” she said.
Often when she is trying to get children to quiet down, class members are seen waving open palms beside their ears, she said – the sign for “pay attention.”
They also know “stop” and “listen,” she added.
Walrath said she concentrates on basic vocabulary with the children and has taught them courtesy signs – like “please” and “thank you” – food, clothing, animals and colors. She uses songs, poetry, music and movement, many of which she created herself. She’s also working with them to communicate using facial expressions.
“So much communication is on the face and body,” and signers are very expressive with their faces, she said. “And children are much less reticent to use facial expressions than adults. They’re very easy about making faces.”
As for the educators, they are not just learning a language. They are getting a better understanding of the challenges of deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
“I’m getting an increasing level of awareness of what people who communicate with sign are up against,” Douglass, the school’s principal, said.
The classes plan to present their skills with songs and poems at an event scheduled for Jan. 10 at the school. More than 250 people attended last year’s production, Walrath said.
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