Paws

Paws Signs Stories, Codie award-winning computer software for children, contains 5 original stories and 15 educational games (3 for each story) with each signed in American Sign Language.

Stories teach important features of ASL when signed. Paws is recommended for children, ages 3-7, although we have found that older elementary-age deaf children enjoy the program as well. Linda Bove, the deaf actress on Sesame Street, dressed as Paws the dog, signs the stories, directions, and game instructions. Signing and/or audio are options for accessing information.

The five stories in Paws Signs Stories are original. They utilize strategies found successful in teaching early reading skills, such as repeated phrases, patterned language, and predictable structure. Each story also teaches something about ASL. Each story has three games (i.e., 15 in all), each focusing on a different skill, such as visual memory, visual sequencing, literacy, spelling, math, and creativity.

Paws Signs Stories comes with five sturdy books, one for each story. The storybooks won Best in Category for Excellence in Print by the Printing and Graphics Communications Association in 1998. Sign vocabulary from the stories is depicted in the back of each book.

The ASL classifier for "car" is used in the story I Love My Car. The story also focuses on opposites, like "in" and "out," "over" and "under," "wet" and "dry."

In I Like Many Things, a girl talks about all of the things that she likes. Each thing is signed using the same handshape in ASL, the "1" handshape, so some of the signs are similar and encourage the use of visual discrimination skills.

Time to Wash teaches addition, subtraction, and colors as a little girl hangs clothes on the clothesline.

And I Walked Some More follows a little boy as he explores the zoo. His descriptions of the animals shows how facial expression is crucial when using adjectives in ASL.