Puddleducks Nursery and Pre School

Where learning is so much fun              telephone: 01672 562371

Community Links
 
We work closely with the local Children's centre services. Pewsey is part 

of the Spurgeons portfolio and to find out more about their services please

use the link below

www.spurgeons.org
 
Local Primary Schools
 
We liaise very closely with our main feeder school Pewsey Primary.
 We are often invited to attend their key stage one performances, Easter egg hunt and Christmas nativity. We also offer the pupils of this school breakfast and after school club facilities (please refer to school club page on this website)

Click here to re-direct to their website: www.pewsey.wilts.sch.uk
 
Pewsey community also encompasses other primary schools and the links below are to those schools we also feed into:
Woodbrough: www.woodboroughschool.org

Oare - www.oare.wilts.sch.uk

Rushall - www.rushall.wilts.sch.uk

Burbage - www.burbageprimary.org.uk

Easton Royal -  www.eroyal.wilts.sch.uk

Sing and Sign

We encourage the use of simple keyword signing alongside normal speech, using the Sing and Sign approach to enhance communication between babies, toddlers.

What is sing and sign? 

Typical speech and language development in the first three years of life is an impressive process! As part of this process, typically between 8 and 24 months while speech is becoming established, babies often use a combination of gestures and sounds in attempts to communicate. This is entirely natural.  For example babies may point, shake their heads for 'no' and wave 'bye-bye'. Sing and Sign recommends introducing some extra gestures at this time to help support and extend your little ones developing communication skills. These extra gestures can be described as baby signs and they enable babies to express themselves more clearly while speech is in the earliest stages of development.

What are the benefits to your baby?

In the early stages, when adults begin using signs your baby's attention is drawn to the key word of a sentence. You expand your baby's vocabulary and understanding and using gesture naturally encourages a more measured and calm interaction.
Signing encourages adults to label things, giving more language input and consequently you stimulate a baby's speech and language development.

 When your baby start to use signs him/herself they enjoy increased confidence from being understood which can boost self esteem and inspire even more communication! Signs can eliminate many of the frustrations of being pre-verbal and successful communication with signs encourages speech development and enriches your baby's relationships.

What if my baby already talks?

For the under 3's, anything which encourages understanding, listening and attention skills and visual awareness is a good thing! There are many additional benefits in using signs with busy toddlers, especially for those whose speech is sometimes a little unclear. They have so much to say and are not always understood! All the benefits listed above still apply and some have a special relevance.

If my baby learns to use some signs, will he still learn to talk?

Yes, of course he will! If signing interferes at all in speech development, it is by giving it a boost! Babies are greatly encouraged in verbal communication by the introduction of baby signs and not in any way discouraged. Gestures are not a replacement for speech. When using a sign, one always says the accompanying word. This is instinctive for many adults when interacting with babies, the most obvious example being the "bye-bye" wave which we all recognise helps children understand the meaning of the word "goodbye" in context. Babies typically use a lot of gesture and loving carers respond instinctively. The use of gesture is a natural form of early communication and giving your baby a larger gestural vocabulary will lead to a larger spoken vocabulary at an early age. 

Is this like British Sign Language?

Sing and Sign is largely compatible with Signalong, Makaton and other similar sign supporting systems based on British Sign Language (BSL). However BSL is a complete language in its own right and baby signing employs only the most simple keyword signing, preferably signing no more than one word in a sentence. This ties in with a natural and very gestural early stage of your baby's typical development.