A good sign for caring Natasha

From: Tameside Advertiser - UK - Sept 5, 2007

Sue Carr

TEN-YEAR-OLD Natasha Hough is used to being seen and not heard.

For while most kids her age are busy chatting with their friends, the youngster prefers to communicate by sign language and has just passed a British Sign Language course.

Natasha was introduced to signing at the age of four when she joined Linden Road Primary in Denton which has a specialist unit for deaf children.

All pupils are given the chance to learn sign language at an after-school club so they can talk to their hearing-impaired peers.

Mum Tracey, of Haughton Hall Road, said: "Her teacher said she should take a course as she would easily pass level one, but it took us about 12 months to find somewhere because she is so young.

"We eventually found a course in Preston which she went to every Saturday morning for three months.

"I think because she has been doing it since being four, it has become second nature. Now she helps her teachers and the other pupils because she knows more than they do!"

As well as signing with her school friends, Natasha also put her skills to good use when she saw a deaf man in a bank and stepped in to help the cashier understand what he was trying to say.

She now plans to take level two in the series of three courses which can be taken to learn sign language.

"My friends with hearing problems think it's good and I've been teaching my cousin and my auntie," she said.

"It was a bit difficult at first to fit it in with all my other schoolwork, but I enjoy it and I'd like to work with deaf people when I'm older."

Tracey added: "It's brilliant - we're all really proud of her."

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