Children are able to communicate by signing before they develop the skills necessary for speech. By teaching simple sign language to children from as young as eight months, we can help them to convey their emotions and their needs. When children begin to talk, having sign language to fall back on provides a comforting safety net. Favourite nursery rhymes and songs, with babies and toddlers, signing and miming along. Developed with the support of Lancashire C.C. Early Years and Childcare Service, and SureStart Resources Ltd. as part of their 'Sing, Sign & Rhyme' series, these books encourage actions through mime and BSL signs.

Henry Lawson - Miles Franklin - Henry Handel Richardson - Kenneth Slessor - Eleanor Dark - Christina Stead - Kylie Tennant - Patrick White - Thomas Keneally - Mem Fox.

A fresh twenty-first century look at Australian literature in a broad, inclusive and multicultural sense.

In the years since the Second World War, Australia has seen a period of literary creativity which outshines any earlier period in the nation's literary history. This creativity has its beginnings in the arguments and alignments which emerged at the end of the War, and the changes in perceptions of art and society which occurred during the fifties and early sixties. A Question of Commitment examines the attitudes of writers as diverse as James McAuley, Frank Hardy, Judith Wright, Patrick White and A. D. Hope, as they responded to a changing Australian society during the postwar years. Through their work and that of many others, it considers the debates about literary nationalism, the artistic politics of the Cold War, the threat of technology to art in the Atomic Age, and the nature of the writer's role in the new society. It documents the way in which the political commitments of some writers and the resistance to commitment of others were challenged by political and social changes of the late fifties. Susan McKernan's lively exploration of Australia's writers in a time of innovation provides the reader with the context needed to understand the creative choices they made and, in so doing, introduces wider intellectual and cultural issues which remain relevant to this day.

Republics of Letters: Literary Communities in Australia is the first book to explore the notion of literary community or literary sociability in relation to Australian literature.

Forty years after its first publicaton and several European translations Bobbin Up, a classic of industrial fiction, is coming home. This document of urban working-class life in 1950s Australia is also a remarkably well crafted novel, combining the shifting narrative viewpoint pioneered by Modernism with a relentless realist mode. Well before the upsurge of feminism Dorothy Hewetthomed in on embattled female lives. The book abounds with portraits of working women, married and unmarried, middle-aged and young, zestful and tired. These varied existences form the collective hero(ine) of a novel whose social message has lost nothingof its urgency. Unemployment, experienced or dreaded, haunts people's lives now as then. At the end of the twentieth century the appalling working and living conditions of the poor described here in graphic detail still obtain, not only in the Third World but also in the sweatshops and depressed areas of the First - H.Gustav Klaus

This practical resource is designed to help professionals, parents and carers as they support children with vision impairments to develop independence in everyday tasks. Using the Early Years Foundation Stage framework as a basis, it provides a wealth of strategies and activities to develop key skills, including dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, eating and drinking and road safety. This is an invaluable tool that can be dipped in and out of to help make learning fun, boosting the child’s confi dence and helping create a positive ‘can- do’ attitude when faced with new challenges. This book: ◆ Addresses the main problem areas for babies and young visually impaired children and their families, by providing simple explanations of skills and offering strategies and techniques to support progression onto the next stage. ◆ Is written in a fully accessible style, with photocopiable pages and additional downloadable resources. ◆ Provides a variety of documentation to chart the child’s development and show progress over time. Research shows strong indicators that early intervention can reduce or eliminate developmental delays in children with a vision impairment. The supporting strategies in this book help busy professionals and carers to make every opportunity a learning opportunity, allowing children with a vision impairment to become confi dent and independent individuals.