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Show Varna Tynrocc Wednesday, January 26, 2005 3 i Youngs begin sign language classes 9 By Maureen Spencer V: Express Writer For Stefni Jo and Aaron Young, children are never too young to learn to communicate through sign language. To prove the point, the two have begun teaching baby-sign baby-sign to infants as young as six months and vow that when they have their own children they will teach them to sign as infants. "It does wonders for kids," says Stefni Jo, who taught a summer class of 10 adults and their children from six months to 2 12 years last year. "Parents want a way to communicate com-municate with their babies," she says. A "graduate" of the baby class, now one year old, will watch his mother sign the name of the item and he will then point to it. Simple communication such as "drink" and "eat" are among the concepts taught the tiny students. stu-dents. One mother, who firmly believes in the signing process with infants, has taught both of her children to tell her what they are wanting when the children chil-dren were very young. One four year old with Down Syndrome was also in Stefni Jo's summer children's class, underscoring an unexpected use of sign language in the very young. Down's children frequently have language sounds that are hard to understand. By learning sign language, simple sim-ple words such as "water", "drink", "food" and "help" are taught and the parents are able to begin understanding the sounds the child is using for those needed words. "It's really effective," Stefni Jo says of the program. ' The Youngs have used the Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE) in their work with children and adults, which gjjVgs, a more, rounded vocabulary vocabu-lary and sentence structure. , ' .The Youngs frequently teach signing together. In the summer sum-mer of 2003, Stefni Jo was asked by North Eastern Services for People with Disabilities to come teach and train some of their work staff at their office. A group of 20 took the course. Stefni Jo Ross began her fascination with sign language when she was about eight years old. Between eight and 10, her mother would get books from the library and the two of them would play "sign games." She admits that her interest inter-est dwindled until she was a junior in high school when she and friend Aaron Young took a community education class together from Anita Calder. Also her junior year, she took an "exceptional child" class at Uintah High School for which she made a class presentation on sign language. ; "That got me even more . interested in it," she admits. She then approached her teacher and ultimately became a classroom aide for a hearing impaired child in Calder's preschool pre-school class. Following her UHS graduation gradu-ation in 1997 she gave respite care in the home for families with children with disabilities. Her work again was with Down Syndrome children. When an opportunity arose to work with Calder once more as an aide, she gladly set aside her degree work and began as an aide in the classroom for a severely hearing impaired student a six-year-old Down Young Academy students Mitch Larsen, Daegun Oaks, Kolbe Mason and Shon Wall use sign language to begin the day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Stefni Jo Young has taught many courses and assisted many hearing impaired individuals with her use of signing. Shelly Kidd and Express writer Jody Hadden proofread articles for print Vernal Junior High career shadow day Vernal Junior High's ninth grade career classes had their career shadow day Wednesday, Jan. 12. Ninth grader, Shelly Kidd chose to spend her day at the Vernal Express learning about the process of making a newspaper. newspa-per. She enjoys writing and reading read-ing mystery books and hopes to pursue a career in the field of writing, preferably books. Syndrome student. Stefni Jo did the work through the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB). "She had a cochlear implant and my job was to teach her to recognize sound." Young worked with her during her first and second grade. In this case, Young was serving as an oral interpreter in the classroom. class-room. By the child's third grade, she was able to hear, listen and communicate for herself and no longer required Young's help in class full time. Another girl was being helped simultaneously by Young in the classroom during her second, third and fourth grades. This child wore two hearing aids. Before long, Young became an instructor of the deaf. She would remove children from their regular classes and work on specific language skills. This work was completed in 2003. In the meantime, Stefni Jo had married her high school sweetheart, Aaron Young in 2000 following his return from an LDS mission. Aaron had taken sign language lan-guage with her years earlier and he refreshed his signing and became an interpreter with the USDB. The Youngs joined Stefni Jo's father, Kent Ross, in developing devel-oping the Young Academy preschool pre-school in 2004. Although Stefni Jo carries the job of teaching teach-ing and directing the classes and teachers in the student body of 55 pre-schoolers at the Academy, Aaron also helps with projects in addition to his own employment. Stefni Jo has taught her preschool pre-school student body how to sign the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, the alphabet, mannerly words such as please and thank you, and words with each letter. let-ter. She anticipates teaching new infant sign classes in the future. Utah riini Pivots, Inc. Zimmatic & Greenfield Pivot School coming to this area Feb.11, 2005, 10 am - 3 pm Lunch provided. 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Vernal Office 1607W.Hwy.40 435-789-3335 Open 9 - 7 Monday - Friday 9-5 Saturday Extended Hours in Feb. icj.toioiiiiifcMcd.Ap ' H&R BLOCK Children are at risk in fires Uintah County Fire Marshall Gary Roberts points out that children playing with matches or lighters are a leading cause of home fires and one in which the children and others present are often hurt. In many cases, children who start fires have a history of fire setting. Many fire departments offer counseling programs for juveniles who set fires. Roberts reminds parents that if they have a child who is setting set-ting fires, it could be beneficial to contact the local fire department depart-ment for counseling before the situation gets out of hand and the child is hurt. Even though children have a natural curiosity about fire, Roberts says children may become frightened and confused con-fused in a fire and hide rather than escape to safety especially espe-cially if they started the fire. Children are often found hiding in closets or under beds where they feel safe, a situation situa-tion frequently made worse by the frightening appearance and sounds of a suited fire fighter in the room. As a result of the confusion children experience when seeing see-ing a firefighter during such a crisis, area fire departments regularly teach youngsters at school what the firemen would look and sound like when they would be coming to help them. Clothing fires are a significant signifi-cant cause of fire injuries to children. They set their clothes on fire by getting too close to heat sources such as open fires or stoves, or when playing with matches or lighters. A child's natural reaction is to run which will make the situation worse. Roberts says children taught to STOP, DROP and ROLL are less at risk during dur-ing clothing fires. "The moment they discover their clothes have started to burn, they should be taught to stop where they are, drop to the ground and roll over and over with hands covering the face to smother the flames." Fire responding personnel have found recently that an increase in injuries has been reported among children sleeping sleep-ing in garments classified as "daywear" such as tee shirts and jerseys. Although these garments look just like sleep-wear, sleep-wear, they are not fire retar-dant. retar-dant. Careful examination of the garment label will clarify the difference. When the Flammable Fabrics Act required that children's sleepwear (sizes 0-6X) be flame retardent in the 1970s, within a short time children's sleepwear fire deaths and injuries were reduced by 95 percent. Fire Marshall Roberts says that it is startling to discover that many children are able to sleep through the sound of smoke alarms. As a result, children chil-dren should be taught what to expect when the smoke alarm goes off. "We'll go to civic, church and club activities to teach families fam-ilies fire safety," says Roberts. "We'll even go to family home evenings to assist parents in teaching their children important impor-tant fire safety." Educated hints for retirement planning No longer are current or this retirement means to each Pension plans soon-to-be retired Americans motivated by a couple years of rest and relaxation before they die. For those who have entered into or are preparing for retirement, retire-ment, there are many books and resources available with helpful guidelines. The single most important step in preparing and enjoying r retirement, time seems to be .taking, the time to define what individual. First, retirees need to evaluate evalu-ate if they want to quit working cold turkey and take up a new hobby. Whether or not the company com-pany offers phased retirement programs is an area to explore. Determine whether the retirement will signal the start of a whole new business. The t type of-lifestyle desired to be a maintained needs to be evalu- s-ated Pension plans and ongoing medical coverage to fall back . on are also areas to explore. These types of questions are important to address in order to enable proper investments during each defined stage of retirement. Counselors advise that the planning, will help ensure, that seniors thrive in retirement, .not just "survive" retirement. I tfti MiteijRii ifll $25. 00 Sinclair I Gas Card Nationwide Auto Glass in Vernal and receive a Offer applies to windshields that have been submitted for an insurance claim. Some restrictions mav aoDlv. Call for details. Ji 7) A digital camera used to cost $500. Now ifs less than $50. Almost everything digital has come down in price. 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