"It's kind of nice to be able to communicate with her before she's able to speak so Mom doesn't get frustrated and Dad doesn't get frustrated and baby doesn't get frustrated," said her mother, Lisa.

Paige can say four words in sign as opposed to two words verbally.

The Sauberts — including Paige's brothers, Hunter, 8, and Collin, 10, who had previous exposure to sign language in school — just finished a Come Sign With Me class offered by Debi Schaefer at Aurora Medical Center in Two Rivers.

"One of the reasons I started getting into this is that I started teaching my son when he was born," said Schaefer of her experience with son Bryce, 3. "There wasn't a class I could go to."
Schaefer studied American Sign Language and became a certified presenter with SIGN2ME, a nationwide program founded in the late 1990s.

The program is based on research findings that babies exposed to sign language consistently at 6 to 7 months can begin to express themselves by age 8 to 9 months, according to the company's Web site.

Schaefer began giving classes at the hospital and area day care centers in 2005 and will offer more sessions this month.

"The reason I started teaching was the increasing demand of parents looking for classes," Schaefer said.

The classes teach American Sign Language, which uses natural hand movements that are easy for small children, whose fine motor or finger dexterity develops before the speaking muscles, she said.

Benefits of communicating with pre-verbal children through simple signs include less frustration, higher IQs, larger vocabularies and more confidence, Schaefer said.
Sign language enforces the spoken language and has been linked to earlier speech development, she said.

"It doesn't hinder a child's speaking. It enhances it because they're able to tell you what they want," said Amy Wetenkamp of Newton, who attended the class with her son, Jenson, 13 months.

"I just feel like I'm talking to her all the time," said Lisa Saubert of her daughter, Paige. "You're constantly speaking to them when you do the sign."

Wetenkamp decided to attend because she had read about the benefits in parenting magazines. She brought Jenson's sisters, Riley, 8, and Reese, 11, because they had already learned some sign in school.

"My initial reason was so that it would speed up his development," said Amy Dewane of Manitowoc, who took the course with her son, Cormac, 1. "After I started to do it, it's something special that we do together."

Like Wetenkamp, Dewane was intrigued when she first learned about the concept.

"I had seen it on 'Oprah,' and everybody was really excited about it when it came out. It's really popular on the West Coast," she said.
Rather than crying because he needs a diaper change, Cormac can sign his needs, she said.

"When we're eating, every time he wants more, he signs 'more,' " Dewane said. "One of his favorite signs is 'baby.' When he sees a baby, he might make the sign 'baby.' "

After taking one session of classes, Jenson already knows signs for the words eat, more, milk, thank you and banana — his favorite food.

"The first time he did 'eat' and 'more' I was amazed," Wetenkamp said.
The signing trend was portrayed in the movie "Meet the Fockers," in which the grandson of Robert De Niro's character communicates in sign as part of the plot.

Schaefer and her son, Bryce, have used the communication method successfully throughout his three years of life.

"It's helped quite a bit in that he's able to tell me what he needs. I tell the story of when he was almost a year and he woke up at 2:30 in the morning and he was standing in his crib signing 'milk' so I knew at that moment exactly what he wanted," she said.

Now that Bryce is potty training, they use sign language when they're in social situations, Schaefer said.

The whole process has helped her understand Bryce better and has helped them bond.

"I opened up a whole new world for us," Schaefer said. "One of the reasons we are so close today is because I had those insights early on."

By Suzanne Weiss
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/13574238.htm