"It's almost like a game, it's so fun for the kids," Spencer said. "And it cuts down on the frustration of not knowing how to communicate."

Spencer taught her own children, Elias, 3, and Cadence, 1, to use sign language starting when they were about nine months old. Now they can understand her if she signs and does not speak.

During an interview in their home Wednesday, Cadence and Elias used sign language to say the names of animals in a story book. While watching a video demonstration, Cadence pointed to the television.

"He said 'more water,'" she said.

Spencer's children were proud to show they knew the signs for "airplane," "Mommy," "Daddy" and "fish."

"Babies pick it up immediately," she said. "As soon as they realize that this one hand motion means 'more,' and it can get them more food or more milk, they'll remember that sign."

Elias was 11 months old when he could actively communicate using sign language, Spencer said.

"He was in the bathtub, and all of a sudden he started to get really fussy," she said. "I wouldn't have known what to do, but then he signed, 'more hot water,' because he was just cold. If he hadn't known that, I would have just taken him out of the bath and never understood what was bothering him. Instead, I put some hotter water in there, and he played in the bath for 20 more minutes."

Spencer learned sign language when she was 13. Her mother ran a day care in their Athol home and a deaf girl enrolled, so the whole family learned some American Sign Language signs, she said.

She continued learning throughout high school, and after graduation took college courses to become a sign language interpreter. She moved to Oregon in 1998, where she worked as an interpreter for hospitals and job placement services.

"I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so I could do those jobs on a freelance basis," she said. "When I got pregnant with Elias, several of my girlfriends were pregnant at the same time. I got the idea to teach the babies sign language, and after just a fe lessons, all the babies could sign."

Spencer moved back to her hometown of Athol in the fall, and she's hoping to teach parents to communicate with their children using sign language.

She is the only Sign2Me certified teacher in Central and Western Massachusetts, according to the organization's Web site.

Spencer is also teaching a baby sign language course at Mount Wachusett Community College starting in June.

"A lot of people think that if you teach them to sign, they're not going to want to talk," she said. "But when they use signs, they start to understand that communication can get them things. A lot of babies who can sign speak earlier than normal."

Cadence, who is 21 months old, speaks in complete sentences using both words and signs, Spencer said.

"I can't say enough about it," she said. "It's brilliant. I can't think of one con, but the list of pros is a mile long."

By Marisa Donelan
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_3538560