Look who's talking now

THERE is a sea of little faces, some gazing in wonder, others lit with smiles, as the class is about to start. At the apex of the group, a teddy perched on her knee, sits Carol Davies. She welcomes everyone, her tone familiar and warm, and with both mums and babies settled, begins a song. The words may be simple; the tune an easy one to sing, but it’s accompanied by signs. This is no ordinary toddler group but a session by TinyTalk, a leading exponent of baby signing which operates throughout Britain and the world.

As the class gets under way, Carol uses songs, and often props such as cuddly toys, to teach the signs. This week, they’re learning core gestures like “food” and “milk”, and as Carol demonstrates them, the mums copy and show their babies. The children might fidget – some even go off to explore – but this doesn’t matter. The idea is that mum will learn the signs herself then keep repeating them at home, so that her child will eventually master them. For a room full of mainly under-twos, it is surprisingly relaxed, which is precisely the intention.

This may be technically a lesson, but the ultimate goal is to have fun.

It may seem a strange concept, but baby signing – teaching sign language to hearing babies – is certainly catching on. Helped notably by CBeebies, the BBC’s channel for preschoolers, which now screens the signed programme, Something Special, it is increasingly being used as an aid to communication. For practitioner Carol, who runs classes in Durham and Spennymoor, this is simply an obvious thing to do. She says that signing provides a window into what young children are thinking.

“It’s bridging the gap between preverbal and verbal communication.

Most babies’ vocal chords don’t come in until about 12 to 18 months, so physically they can’t speak before that age. A lot of my babies at around six months of age can sign ‘milk’.”

Though Carol is deaf in her right ear, you wouldn’t know it from talking to her, and she teaches with a confidence and exuberance that belie her disability. Her route to working for TinyTalk began with learning adult signing. “I gave up my job when I had Taylor (her oldest daughter, now eight) and decided to be a stay-at-home mam,” says the 42- year-old, who lives in Spennymoor.

“Then when I had Liah (now six-anda- half) a year-and-a-half later, I thought I would be going back to work at some point, so I sat down and thought what I really wanted to do when I was at school and it was to work with deaf children. So I went back to college when Liah was still a baby and did my British Sign Language Stage One.”

At this point Carol hadn’t really thought about baby signing. That changed when she was amazed by something her daughter did. “It was the day of my exam and Liah, who was 13 months by then, was following me round the house and she signed ‘Mammy, biscuit please’ and I just burst into tears,” she explains.

“I had been doing my homework, but I hadn’t realised I’d been teaching my children as well. I finished my exam and went on the computer and found out about baby signing.”

Carol resolved to train with TinyTalk to become a teacher but due to ill-health (she had to have a benign tumour removed from her stomach muscle) was only able to start work after having her third child, two-year-old Mitchell. She says the company was happy to keep the job on hold. “TinyTalk were amazing – they waited for me. I launched in January 2007 at Tudhoe and Gilesgate, and in April 2007, I moved to Belmont.”

ALTHOUGH another form of sign language, Makaton, is commonly taught to children, TinyTalk uses British Sign Language (BSL), which is practised by the deaf community. It is slightly modified to draw attention to the face, making it easier for babies to learn, but the signs are basically the same. Of course, it isn’t just for hearing children – it’s obviously vital for the deaf and Carol welcomes any disability to her classes – and the scope for better integration is clear. A common concern is that as a consequence of signing, babies’ speech might be delayed, but Carol says the opposite is true.

“It’s been proven in 2006 that children who have signed go on to speak more clearly and fluently than most other children who haven’t signed.

The key issue is you need to speak all the time and because you are saying the word and you are repeating what you are saying it actually helps with verbal communication.”

This has been borne out by her own children. All three were taught to sign and by the age of two, all three were forming sentences. Carol says they still use signing in certain circumstances. “We were at the chemist just before Christmas and it was pouring down and I’d left them in the car. I was standing in the window and Taylor signed to me that Mitchell was crying. I signed to her ‘sing Old Macdonald Had A Farm’. I hadn’t realised I’d collected a little audience on the other side of the road.”

Until recently, Mitchell accompanied Carol to her classes, a practice TinyTalk encourages, but once he turned two, the recommended cutoff age, she felt she couldn’t keep this up. “He kept chattering to me, so unfortunately, I had to ban him,” she laughs. Now he is represented in the form of the teddy she uses to demonstrate signs, the appropriatelynamed Mitchell.

At the end of every class there is the chance for a drink and a chat while toys are brought out for the babies.

For Carol this is very important – she never rushes parents out – and while the lesson may be over, this morning’s mums are keen to linger.

There is the hum of conversation; an obvious sense of camaraderie, and as they play and go marauding, the babies seem quite happy too. At the centre of it all is Carol herself, who clearly relishes her job. “I absolutely love what I do,” she says. “I think it’s because I do know it works. It really does make a difference to family life.”

■ Carol runs classes at Clever Clogs nursery in Durham, 9.30am- 10.30am and 11am-noon on Fridays and at Tudhoe Children’s Centre, 9.30am-10.30am on Tuesdays. For more information, email carold@tinytalk.co.uk or visit tinytalk.co.uk