Students at Arthur Dickman Children's Centre sing along with their teacher Kristy Woodman - but not just with their voices.
The class of about 20 three and four-year-olds sing along with their hands as well.
Arthur Dickman is one of the few pre-schools across the country which has fully integrated sign language into its curriculum - and the children love it.
“Mine is pink!" Naomi said.
“Mine is pink AND purple!" Fynley said.
“I like blue,” Samuel said.
The children clamoured over the top of each other when asked what their favourite sign was, each wanting to sign their favourite.
While one four-year-old girl has a cousin who is deaf, most of the children don't have any connection to someone with hearing loss. None of the children or teachers at the centre are deaf.
“We use them in everyday routines as well, we use signs for ‘lunch’, ‘water’, and ‘finished’," Mrs Woodman said.
“Even in the babies room they're starting to use it in there because the children are quite young when they start to pick up the signs, so even babies as young as 10 months old are (signing) ‘finished’ when they're finished or ‘more’ when they want more food.
“A lot of them are signing before they have verbal words.”
How does an early learning centre without any members of the deaf community involved become so heavily on-board with learning AUSLAN?
One of the centre’s teachers Lin Waite began teaching students and other teachers two years ago, and Mrs Woodman quickly found a spark which has since blossomed.
“I learnt what I knew from her from playing with the children and her showing me what I know,” Mrs Woodman said.
“I was teaching children what I knew and we decided to make it part of the curriculum and one of our main focusses and it's worked really well.”
“That's where I got my passion for it from. I did level one and two courses and it all stemmed from there.”
She said the benefits for students were also numerous, helping brain retention and development, mental flexibility, educational progression and improving communication skills – especially among younger children or non-verbal or less verbal older students.
Most importantly, she said, as happy children ran out to playtime, “it’s a lot of fun”.
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