Rochester day care provider grows her signing school

Rebecca Mitchell, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·4 min read

Mar. 26—ROCHESTER — Tracie Rieder talks and signs simultaneously throughout her day, whether sharing songs and books or showing children how to sign when a toy is stuck.

While meeting the needs of child care, Rieder also helps parents and young children communicate through American Sign Language. The signs, such as "shoes," "stop" and "all done," offer communication skills before children's speech skills are developed.

"(The signs) help though just when you're talking about a 1-year-old and they're done eating, what's the alternative? They either cry or kick or throw their food on the floor. So, I teach them 'all done' so I don't have to pick up such a mess at the end of the day," Rieder said with a laugh. "It's less frustration, usually."

After over 20 years in child care, Rieder said starting Circle of Friends Signing School "almost felt like it was meant to happen" in September 2022. She's always enjoyed spending time teaching sign language with her day care children, including deaf children. From her time at Rochester Public Schools and the Zumbro Education District working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing, connections helped bring her signing school to six home day cares in the area.

She also teaches community classes, works with families in their homes and hosts Sign Language Story Time at the children's museum SPARK.

"I still hear that teacher's voice in the back of my head sometimes with the way she was with the kids was just so neat," Rieder said of working with Kathy Knott at RPS in the 1990s. Knott inspired Rieder to earn her master's degree in deaf education.

On her adventures to the Rochester Public Library as a child, Rieder found her love of the beautiful and expressive nature of ASL. She circled back to sign language in her undergraduate degree when she volunteered at a school's deaf and hard of hearing resource room.

"I just really fell in love with the kids and the culture and the language," Rieder said.

The baby and family interactions drew her to working with infants and toddlers, which she continues through her day care and classes like baby signing time at Rochester Community Education.

With the sunshine peeking through the class windows at Northrop Education Center, Rieder uses her favorite books and songs to teach families about clothes. She said songs such as "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" are great for sign language. The class is designed to engage different senses, from sight to touch and sound. And wiggle time is welcome.

Family members modeled the new signs and encouraged their children to try the clothing signs. Rieder said shoes are often one of the first words children like to say and it's also an easy sign, which presses two side by side fists together. Ten children are enrolled in her 5:30 p.m. class.

Between learning the signs for shoes, shirts, socks and hats, Rieder's tip for families was to partner signing with reading. Both hand movements and facial expressions are important in sign language.

"(Teaching young kids sign language) reinforces the bonding between parent and child because when you're talking to your child you're often looking at them, but it's very easy in the busyness and chaos of having young kids to not always be looking at them when you're talking to them but when you're doing the sign language it's just there's a lot more face-to-face communication, eye contact ... sometimes hand over hand," Rieder said.

While embracing the deaf community in her early teacher years, Rieder "ended up forming just such a bond" with Robert Plaage, a preschool student who was

one of the youngest children in the United States to have a cochlear implant.

Their conversations even included Santa Claus.

"I remember explaining about what happens on Christmas and leaving out the cookies and Santa having the cookies and leaving the presents under the tree and all that," Rieder described. "I'll never forget the look on his face with his eyes ... and this big smile on his face and then he laughed so hard and hugged my neck so hard. It was so funny."

As young children learning sign language continues to grow in popularity, Rieder said signing helps kids relax to learn speech skills and communicate with family and friends.

"It's neat to have a child who maybe when they're 4 in preschool or 5 in kindergarten happen to have a child that uses sign language in their classroom, they have a few words that they can communicate with somebody later on," Rieder said. "It's nice to break down those barriers between the hearing and the deaf community."