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Putting Words in her Hands – Sign language for hearing baby
by Cheryl Cornacchia
The Gazette – May 12, 2003 (en anglais seulement)
Mackay Center proves charity can begin at work
The Gazette – November 17, 2003 (only in English)
Viomax: partenariat avec Mackay
Altergo, Bulletin d’information (only in french).
Source: The Gazette of May 12, 2003
PUTTING WORDS IN HER HANDS (back to top)
Sign language for hearing baby
By the age of 11 months, daughter had sign vocabulary of over 20 words, mother says
Cheryl Cornacchia
The Gazette
When Daphne Vamvas was 6 months old, her mother began using sign language to communicate with her.
“More”, “finished”, “Diaper change”, “eat”, “drink”, and “milk” were among the first signs her mother, Olga Montes, used, and within three months, the perfectly hearing Daphne knew the signs herself.
Of course, at the same time, like other babies her age, Daphne was uttering first words like “mama” and “dada” to her mother and father, Johnny Vamvas, both of whom work as actors/writers in Montréal.
But more remarkably, by 11 months of age, the impish infant had a sign-language vocabulary of more than 20 words, including “music” and “dance”.
“It blew my mind,” Montes said.
“One day at the park, I was pushing her on the swing. I made moves to pack us up but she signed ‘more’. I pushed her again. After two minutes, she signed ‘fini’or ‘all done’. That’s all she wanted: two minutes. Not 10.”
“ It has made our life much less complicated,” Montes said. “I hardly ever hear her cry”.
Whether a fad or something here to stay, the how-tos of baby sign language, books and videos can be found on numerous Web sites – just sign on to the Internet and do a search for “baby sign.”
The Web sites include words and their American sign-language counterparts in pictographs as well as instructions, including the recommendation that parents begin signing when an infant reaches about 6 months of age.
Certainly, it’s a nontraditional mode of communication for hearing infants. But speech pathologists say it facilitates learning verbal language. And, they add, signing between parent and child often makes for a more content infant.
Linda Ritchey, head of services to the deaf and hard of hearing at The Mackay Center, said while signing to hearing infants may be new, its’s a good thing. “Sign is a language,” Ritchey said. “It’s processed on the left side of the brain like all other languages.”
And, the beauty of it, she added, is that, physically, children have the necessary motor skills to sign before their oral development enables them to speak.
That said, Montes admits not everyone is as enthusiastic as she or her husband.
She said she has received plenty of dismissive looks when she tells other new parents about the advantages of teaching baby sign to hearing infants.
“I was at a birthday party two weeks ago and I got telling a mother of a 7-month-old about signing,” Montes recounted. “She looked at me like I was a weirdo.”
However, Montes notes, she feels she is anything but. Since reading the Miracle Worker at the age of 13, she said, she has always been fascinated by sign.
As actors, both she and her husband are in the business of communicating and while they are speaking to Daphne in their respective spoken languages, Spanish, French and English (Montes) and Greek, English and French (Vamvas), they have simply added another language to their repertoire.
She learned about baby sign when she was pregnant and searching the Internet for anything new about babies. Since then she has been hooked.
“I remember when I found out about it,” said Montes. “I thought ‘wow, this is so cool.’
Their fingers and hands are always moving but both the parents and Daphne make it seem effortless as little Daphne sways back and forth making the sign for music (one finger across an open palm) and dance (two fingers across an open palm).
As for Vamvas, he’s equally enthusiastic. “I was brought up Greek-fashioned. Scream and yell at the kid until they understand.” Happily, he said, his household is different.
After some initial resistance on his part, he took up the practice as zealously as his wife. When Daphne signed the word “cow” to him, he realized he had to learn.
So he started checking the list of American sign-language words and, like his wife, would take three days to Daphne’s one to learn a new sign. Her vocabulary ballooned, hitting close to 70 words.
Now 19 months old, Daphne is more and more using spoken words rather than sign. Still Vamvas added: “I’m proud. She is going to be able to speak to everyone in the world.””
Source: The Gazette, Montréal, Monday, November 17, 2003
Mackay Center proves charity can begin at work (back to top)
It’s the time of year when you know you’re going to be seriously in the red come January, yet somehow the gray and the cold spark some kind of warmth, making you able to find $5 for a total stranger.
How our sense of charity manifests itself during the holidays is usually a matter between ourselves, our conscience and our imagination.
But if there’s a thread that links all of our schemes to help those less fortunate, it’s one that’s pulled from the homespun belief that charity begins at home, even when home might be where you work.
“I’ve been here a year,” said Christine Boyle, director of the Mackay Center, a rehabilitation center that serves children with handicaps of all varieties. “So I raised the question last year that this is wonderful, but why doesn’t any of the money go to Mackay children?”
What was wonderful in Boyle’s estimation was the holiday fundraising effort of the center’s staff, effort that has been directed to the Gazette Christmas Fund.
“So,” she continued, “it was decided to give half of the money raised to the Gazette Christmas Fund and to buy a specific piece of equipment (for the center).”
All of this turns on the Mackay Center’s annual holiday lunch, which is easy enough to find on the calendar (this year’s is scheduled for Dec.17).
But the origins of the center’s raffle and silent auction are lost somewhere in the mists of the distant past. Depending on whom you ask, the beginning may have been in the early 1980s – maybe a little later.
“It started off just as a fundraising raffle for the Gazette Christmas Fund,” said center official Carolyn Grilli.
“Staff and the community would contribute a dollar and whatever money was collected was donated to the Christmas Fund. And then, in 1999, we started the combination of the raffle and the silent auction.”
Last year, $6,000 was split between two charities, one of them being the Gazette Christmas Fund.
The whole idea behind why we wanted to support the Gazette Christmas Fund is that it really supported many of the families of our children during the holiday season,” Grillli said.
Grilli and Boyle credit physiotherapist Sandra Martz with being the driving force behind the fundraising efforts.
The fact that those efforts are undertaken by staff on their own time and are focused on a center with a total staff of about 150 shows a tremendous commitment.
“It’s donations from staff in-house but we’ve approached various companies,” Grilli said.
“We’ve had our department provide a gourmet dinner for six persons. One of the therapists and her husband have a sailboat so they provide a romantic cruise and a sailing supper,” Grilli said.
Boyle describes the auction, the raffle and the lunch as being part of a larger in-house exercise that does more than just help those who receive the funds.
“I think what makes it interesting for the staff is that we all bring in something to eat and make it a holiday lunch. It’s a chance for the staff…to get together and do something good, and we all walk away really feeling great afterward.
“The staff is really special to do something like this. They give every day of the year in their job…and that they go beyond that and put on an event like this is really remarkable. I’m really proud to work with them”.”
Source: Altergo, Bulletin d’information
Viomax: partenariat avec Mackay (back to top)
Riche de son expérience au Centre de réadaptation Lucie-Bruneau où il est installé depuis sa mise sur pied il y a presque six ans, le centre d’activité physique adaptée Viomax a maintenant un petit frère dans l’Ouest de la ville. Dans son plan triennal, Viomax avait un objectif : construire un nouveau point de service pour rendre l’activité physique disponible à une plus vaste clientèle.
Donc, depuis quelques mois, un nouveau partenariat a été établi. Le Centre de réadaptation Mackay, situé dans l’Ouest de Montréal, offre son appui à Viomax en permettant aux éducateurs physiques de ce dernier d’avoir accès au gymnase et à la piscine dans le but d’offrir aux adolescents des activités physiques adaptées, selon un programme flexible pour l’horaire et accessible quant aux coûts.
JAPPA : projet-pilote
En 2000, Viomax a mis sur pied, dans les locaux de Lucie-Bruneau, le projet « journée active » pour les jeunes de 6 à 12 ans; activité qui a eu un énorme succès. De là est né le projet JAPPA – Journée d’activités physiques pour adolescents handicapés – dont l’objectif est de faire vivre aux adolescents une expérience d’activité physique positive. On les amène donc à la découverte d’un sport. Pendant quelques semaines, ils apprennent les rudiments de ce sport, ils évaluent leur intérêt et leurs capacités et rencontrent des athlètes qui le pratiquent et qui leur présentent les différentes facettes de cette activité physique. Ils ont ainsi l’opportunité de découvrir, en compagnie de leurs pairs – on connaît l’importance de la « gang » pour les adolescents – une activité stimulante qui pourra « teinter » leur vie d’adulte.
Expérience concluante
Fort des résultats et des commentaires positifs des 10 jeunes qui participent au projet-pilote, le programme JAPPA sera officiellement lancé à l’automne. Le partenariat avec le Centre Mackay sera officialisé sous peu et les organisateurs visent la participation d’une vingtaine de jeunes.
Viomax aimerait éventuellement – dans la mesure de ses ressources financières – étendre ses activités afin d’offrir aux jeunes la possibilité de faire des sorties de ski et de voile, par exemple .
Vivre au max sans obstacles, c’est pouvoir choisir les activités auxquelles on veut participer. »
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