Julie Crask was a special education teacher for 10 years and she says sign language can help children learn to speak, perhaps even sooner than they normally would. She also says it not only gives children a way to communicate, but it can also prevent crying from frustration and temper tantrums.

Crask says research has found that babies who had been taught sign language had significantly higher IQs in the second grade than kids who never learned sign language. She says sign language can also increase verbal communication.

When it comes to talking, 27-month-old Hannah Crask is ahead of the game. Julie says, "Say microphone". Hannah replies, "Microphone." Her mother, Julie, believes it's because of sign language. Julie says, "I mean when she was a year old she was already saying words really clearly and just speaking very well."

Julie first taught sign language to her special education students, only they weren't hearing impaired. Julie says, "All my students had a lot of speech difficulties. And so I think that sometimes they would get frustrated when they were trying to tell me something and I could not understand what they were trying to say speech wise. Once I taught them the sign and they knew that I was going to understand them because they were going to use the sign along with it they became a lot more comfortable with their speech."

That's when Julie thought if it worked on her students, it could work for her daughter, Hannah, who doesn't have a physical or learning disability. "When she was six-months-old we started teaching her some sign language. Everyone asked us when we told them that we were teaching her sign can she not hear, can she not speak. That was always their first question. That is absolutely the opposite. And I just can't believe how it promotes speech. So I would say to anyone. Try this with your child"

Now Julie tries it with a lot of children. She teaches a sign language class called "Signing With Me" at the Nichols Community Center in Belleville, Illinois. Tonya and Brian Loehring are two of her students. Brian says, "She had been working with Caroline doing some signs in her home daycare and we heard about the class that way. It's really helped Caroline. It's helped in her development in that we think that she's a lot more expressive, seems like she's more outgoing. She'd always been somewhat talkative before the sign language classes and working with Julie throughout the entire year but she's become more expressive, more outgoing because of it."

The signs Julie teaches are American Sign Language, but on a much smaller scale. Parents learn 120 signs over six weeks. Julie says, "It's very basic. And it's more like they might do, 'How are you,' a three-word sentence or 'what will you eat for lunch.' The children aren't going to come away with 120 signs after six weeks, but their parents will now be equipped to use whatever they want."

Tonya and Brian say it's a great way to communicate with infants and toddlers when they're just learning how to talk. Tonya says, "We're just doing basic things right now but it helps because if she does it I know what she wants and what she's saying."

Signing With Me classes, cost $60 for a six-week session, which includes a course manual. An adult one-session group class and individual sessions are also available. For more information call (618) 394-0214 or visit www.signing with me.com.

By Erin O'Neill