Spring is in the Air!

It’s Spring time and there’s lots happening here at TalkFirst HQ so settle down and have a read!

First of all, a huge thank you to Les Dundas for producing our new and improved TalkFirst website! Our previous website was a fantastic resource for people wanting to find out more about what we offer at TalkFirst so we are really excited that it’s been given a spring-clean and brought up to date!

Re-doing the website enabled us to reflect on how many years TalkFirst has been having a real impact on the early years’ experiences of young children, parents, carers and their childcare settings. Can you believe TalkFirst has been in action since 2005 when Julie Ryder created the scheme and our lovable puppet Dexter first came to life? Since then TalkFirst has been focussed on enabling very young children and their parents/carers to develop excellent communication skills through sign-supported speech – and we’ve had loads of fun along the way!

These days Dexter is in the very capable hands of our tutors Susan Broxton and Julia Ansell, who deliver the TalkFirst baby sign language scheme to parents and carers in the North of England. They currently deliver classes to over 50 families and 200 children in settings EVERY WEEK and they love it!

So what’s in store this term at our classes? Well, we have a fantastic Summer vibe going with themes such as ‘A Day at the Beach’ ‘In the Garden’ and ‘Going to the Park’ – incorporating lots of signs to support our conversations. We will be singing lots of songs that help us to practise our signs and develop our love of music, as well as playing instruments, sharing rhymes and, of course, dancing with Dexter!

Talking of sharing… Dexter, Susan and Julia love to hear about your signing successes with your little ones so why not pop over onto our tutors’ facebook pages (find the links on our website home page) and share your stories, magic moments and photos with us? We would love to share them!

That’s all for now – we hope to see you and your little ones at one of our weekly classes soon – and remember to keep singing and signing together!