The Pancha Method takes a language rich approach but with languages.
Educators know that a language rich environment in the early years is essential to strong language skills and healthy brain development. Add to that the dexterous layer of using their hands to communicate, while simultaneously learning the equivalent word in another language, is superfood for the brain during the golden window of language learning in the early years.
How is this achieved in an early childhood center setting?
The lead teacher speaking in English, continues to use their own curriculum, while supplementing their talk with baby sign language (BSL). The assistant teacher while interacting with the children, supporting and mirroring the lead teacher, but using the second, target language and also supplementing with BSL. The child is hearing the same words in English and Spanish (as an example) as well as seeing the BSL hand signs that link the two. This may sound complicated but in actuality is the epitome of the natural language learning method - the way children naturally learn languages. With this multilayered approach to a language rich setting, the child's brain is enriched as it is growing.
So without burdening the teachers, who are naturally speaking their native language, with having to learn a large amount of BSL we have created an app for the classroom for teachers to use in realtime and lesson planning to easily learn the hand signs in a stress-free way. Folders can be created to support favorite books, songs and routines in an intuitive way.
The app currently supports English, Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese. The current phase release is Phase 1 which supports infants up to 3 years old with 350 common words for the early infant, toddler and 2 year old setting. Phase 2 will support the ages of 3-5 and will be released in early 2025.
This app is also kid friendly as it is searchable by images and it also helps promote the learning of the first letter of a word!
Try it out risk-free for two weeks - it is curriculum-independent and teachers will have fun learning the signs together with the kids!