Raylene Sinnett - Palmer, Alaska
Raylene became absolutely fascinated with sign language after watching an interpreter during church services. Shortly after this she met and became good friends with the mom of the family. Both the mom and dad were deaf, but all of their wonderful boys were hearing, so Raylene saw the benefits of signing with young children from an early age and enthusiastically began learning sign language herself. She learned the basic vocabulary from a set of videotapes and checked the signs with her friend until she felt comfortable enough to become one of the interpreters herself.
Since that time, Raylene has been looking for a way to use her sign language knowledge and with the birth of her youngest daughter, now 2 ½, she thought it would be great to try signing with her baby. She began signing when her daughter was about nine-months-old and her daughter started signing back at 11 months. It was a wonderful experience for the whole family and Raylene can personally attest to the benefits of language development for babies that sign.
Raylene has a degree in Human Development with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education. She's been teaching in various capacities for over the past fourteen years and she's excited to be able to share this wonderful experience with other families.
For more info e-mail Raylene at: raylene@mysmarthands.com
