Link: http://www.msn.com/en-ae/video/news/this-device-can-translate-american-sign-language/vp-AAgCV1B

Belton Elementary School fifth-grader Neil Maes, who was born deaf and uses cochlear implants to hear, won the Independent Mail Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday.

Link: http://www.independentmail.com/news/video-belton-fifth-grader-wins-spelling-bee-2d52c819-b00d-4b8e-e053-0100007f7d40-371159641.html

With cochlear implants, people can turn the noise around them on and off at will.

The capacity to communicate is the ability and desire to connect with others by exchanging ideas and feelings, both verbally and non-verbally.  Most children learn to communicate to get a need met or to establish and maintain interaction with a loved adult.

Babies communicate from birth, through sounds (crying, cooing, squealing), facial expressions (eye contact, smiling, grimacing) and gestures/body movements (moving legs in excitement or distress, and later, gestures like pointing.) Babies continue to develop communication skills when adults respond to their efforts to “tell” others about what they need or want.

Read more at the link below:

Link: http://www.zerotothree.org/early-care-education/early-language-literacy/communication-skills.html

Picture Yourself as a Successful Screener!

Link: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs154/1102782899287/archive/1123911950097.html