NORWALK PRESCHOOL USES SIGNING TO INCREASE COMMUNICATION

One teacher at a local preschool said she has walked into a room full of screaming infants who quiet down after she signs the word "eat" to them.

Theresa Lauzon, the American Sign Language director at Carousel Preschool on France Street, said teaching infants sign language gives them a way to communicate. Before their vocal chords are developed, they can recognize words and express their needs to adults around them.

"Instead of crying and screaming, they (the babies) use their hands to talk," said Lauzon. "There's a bonding experience with the parents and with me as the teacher. They know as soon as I get there, they have someone to talk to."

According to Carousel, research has found that babies can construct language with their hands at least six to 12 months before they can speak.

Lauzon has been hearing impaired herself for approximately 12 years. None of the children at Carousel Preschool are deaf, but Lauzon said teaching them sign language from such an early age (Carousel is open to children from 5 months to 6 years old) helps with a variety of things.

Students learn to associate letters with words if they learn the ASL alphabet and how to spell their name before they learn to write. They can also teach their parents ALS after school, building confidence.

"The children love it, that's the most important thing. They have fun with it and love it," said Lauzon. "There are so many benefits."

On Tuesday, State Senator Bob Duff, D-25, visited the school and watched a class of 4-year-olds sign the alphabet. He was there to read to students and take a tour of the facility now that school readiness funding has been approved in the newly passed state budget.

Joyce Abate, the school's executive director, invited Duff, and shid she was grateful for all of his support of school readiness in Norwalk.

Abate noted that ASL has been taught at Carousel for the past year.

"Sign language teaching is part of the curriculum," said Abate. "It's amazing. Research has been done that shows what we're doing here has been done, and it works."

She added: "The children love it because to them, it's communicating."

by Lauren Mylo, the Norwalk Hour, Norwalk, CT

Birth to Three Provider Updates from CT Community Providers Association

Regarding Parents' Fees: 17a-24g(e): The CT commissioner will establish a schedule of fees based on a sliding scale for early intervention services. The schedule will consider the cost of such services relative to the financial resources of the parents or legal guardians of eligible children. Fees may be charged to any such parent or guardian, regardless of income, and shall be charged to any such parent or guardian with a gross annual family income of forty-five thousand dollars or more, except that no fee may be charged to the parent or guardian of a child who is eligible for Medicaid.

Proposed changes in Medicaid rates: Medicaid Rates – (from Linda Goodman, Director, Birth to Three) Our current monthly service rate for Medicaid is $639.37. The proposed revision is $755.29/month but I do not think it has been accepted yet by CMS.

Birth to Three providers can share data on the number of referrals by town by program: Contact Linda Goodman, Director, Birth to Three Referrals by Town by Program - Full Year, 9-16-09.

LEGISLATIVE TALKING POINTS

You can contact your legislators via email. Copy and paste this link into your browser, and then follow this link to access the tool http://www.ccpa-inc.org/legislativesearch.aspx

Simply search by town, select the recipients and type in your contact information. Then, you may write your own personalized message or use CCPA Talking Points, below. You will receive an electronic copy of your sent correspondence, and will be directed to the CCPA website home page once your email has been sent. Please note that there is no spell-check, so you may want to write your message in a word processing software and cut and paste it into the message box to make sure there are no errors.

Please tell legislators:
· The current budget passed earlier this month contains fee increases, including significant increases to Birth to Three family participation fees.
· Birth to Three is a program that aims at helping families to meet the developmental and health needs of their infants and toddlers who have delays or disabilities. The program has a tremendous impact on the children and families it serves. Most notable, over 50% of the children who participate in Birth to Three do not need special education services by the age of 5. · We urge you to take action in the budget implementers to assure that these fees do not dramatically increase.
· Any significant increase in these fees would mean that many families could no longer participate in this valuable program. When family participation fees were first implemented in 2005, 330 families ended participation in the program.
· These fee increases would be harmful to the infant, toddlers and families who may no longer afford these vital services and would lead to cost increases for municipalities in their special education budgets.
· Please include language in the budget implementer bills that would assure that the Birth to Three family cost participation fees do not significantly increase.

The budget scheduled to go into effect on September 8 includes a multitude of fee increases effective October 1, 2009. The long list of fee increases ranges from DPH outpatient clinic fees to social work license renewal to DPS fingerprint searches and criminal history record searches.

§§ 140 - 391 – VARIOUS FEE CHANGES
This bill raises state fees by:
1. increasing fees to at least $ 15; - THIS AFFECTS ALL STATE AGENCIES
2. doubling fees under $ 150; - THIS AFFECTS ALL STATE AGENCIES
3. increasing fees between $ 150 and $ 1,000 by 25%; and – THIS AFFECTS ALL STATE AGENCIES
4. adding $ 250 to fees of $ 1,000 or more.