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MiamiHerald.com | 10/26/2006 | Deaf and hearing kids relish storytelling
Deaf and hearing families had the chance to hear great stories while learning about sign language communication during an event at the Miami Children's Museum.
The kids and parents in the room laughed delightedly when little Pierre Jebian, wearing a plastic bear nose, chased three teen girls around a makeshift cardboard ``shed.''
Four-year-old Pierre made bear-like growls as he ran, his light curls bouncing. His dad, John Paul Jebian, recited from Brenda Parkes' book Who's in the Shed? using sign language while Shakira Striker, a Miami Dade College student, read the words aloud.
The signers and their audience were just a few of the many folks who participated Friday in Family Reading Night at the Miami Children's Museum on Watson Island.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools' Parent Academy, a program which helps parents become better learning partners to their kids, and Washington Mutual Bank sponsored the event.
''The point is to have children and parents spend some quality time not just learning, but having fun together, too,'' Sandy Moise, dean of the Parent Academy, said Monday.
Jebian's interactive story hour attracted both hearing and deaf kids and parents happy to absorb exciting new knowledge while laughing.
After the bear chase, the group enacted Shel Silverstein's classic story, The Giving Tree.
Jennifer Kilzi, a junior at G. Holmes Braddock High in West Kendall and a member of the school's sign language club, narrated while classmate Georgina Rios played the titular tree, a fake vine wrapped around her arms and her pockets stuffed with leaves.
Jebian, who is Jennifer's uncle, and his crew laid out a wide assortment of small toys, each representing one letter of the alphabet.
''J is for jet,'' Braddock sophomore Jaycee Ramil said, picking up a smiley-faced Jay Jay the Jet Plane and zigzagging it in the air while Jebian repeated the motion with his hand.
When Jaycee picked up a figurine resembling The Count of Sesame Street fame, 8-year-old Joline Durand sprang up and down excitedly, imitating Jebian's sign for ''vampire.'' She poked herself in the neck with two bent fingers.
''She's having a great time,'' said Joline's mom, Rogarline Charles, a North Miami Beach resident. Joline attends Hibiscus Elementary for its ''total communication'' program for the deaf, Charles said. ``There aren't a lot of events like this for deaf kids.''
Across the room, Kendall couple Javier Mendez-Ruiz and Claudia Cosgaya did all the signs along with their kids, 3-year-old Javier and Sofía, 5. None of them are deaf.
''It's just really fun and interesting,'' Mendez-Ruiz said. ``None of us knew any sign language or anything, but the kids just love it.''
''I'm really grateful to Sandy for all her help and support for this class,'' Jebian said with his hands, while Jennifer, who learned sign language from her uncle when she was little, translated his words into spoken English.
Braddock's ASL club, which Jebian said has grown to more than 200 students, will hold a special holiday show Dec. 14.
Deaf and hearing families had the chance to hear great stories while learning about sign language communication during an event at the Miami Children's Museum.
The kids and parents in the room laughed delightedly when little Pierre Jebian, wearing a plastic bear nose, chased three teen girls around a makeshift cardboard ``shed.''
Four-year-old Pierre made bear-like growls as he ran, his light curls bouncing. His dad, John Paul Jebian, recited from Brenda Parkes' book Who's in the Shed? using sign language while Shakira Striker, a Miami Dade College student, read the words aloud.
The signers and their audience were just a few of the many folks who participated Friday in Family Reading Night at the Miami Children's Museum on Watson Island.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools' Parent Academy, a program which helps parents become better learning partners to their kids, and Washington Mutual Bank sponsored the event.
''The point is to have children and parents spend some quality time not just learning, but having fun together, too,'' Sandy Moise, dean of the Parent Academy, said Monday.
Jebian's interactive story hour attracted both hearing and deaf kids and parents happy to absorb exciting new knowledge while laughing.
After the bear chase, the group enacted Shel Silverstein's classic story, The Giving Tree.
Jennifer Kilzi, a junior at G. Holmes Braddock High in West Kendall and a member of the school's sign language club, narrated while classmate Georgina Rios played the titular tree, a fake vine wrapped around her arms and her pockets stuffed with leaves.
Jebian, who is Jennifer's uncle, and his crew laid out a wide assortment of small toys, each representing one letter of the alphabet.
''J is for jet,'' Braddock sophomore Jaycee Ramil said, picking up a smiley-faced Jay Jay the Jet Plane and zigzagging it in the air while Jebian repeated the motion with his hand.
When Jaycee picked up a figurine resembling The Count of Sesame Street fame, 8-year-old Joline Durand sprang up and down excitedly, imitating Jebian's sign for ''vampire.'' She poked herself in the neck with two bent fingers.
''She's having a great time,'' said Joline's mom, Rogarline Charles, a North Miami Beach resident. Joline attends Hibiscus Elementary for its ''total communication'' program for the deaf, Charles said. ``There aren't a lot of events like this for deaf kids.''
Across the room, Kendall couple Javier Mendez-Ruiz and Claudia Cosgaya did all the signs along with their kids, 3-year-old Javier and Sofía, 5. None of them are deaf.
''It's just really fun and interesting,'' Mendez-Ruiz said. ``None of us knew any sign language or anything, but the kids just love it.''
''I'm really grateful to Sandy for all her help and support for this class,'' Jebian said with his hands, while Jennifer, who learned sign language from her uncle when she was little, translated his words into spoken English.
Braddock's ASL club, which Jebian said has grown to more than 200 students, will hold a special holiday show Dec. 14.