HALF HOLLOW HILLS Copyright © 2014 Long Islander News, LLC
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N E W S P A P E R
VOLUME SIXTEEN, ISSUE 25
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014
24 PAGES
DIX HILLS
The Paramount Spotlight
In The Biz Of Baby-Signing Long Islander News photo/Arielle Dollinger
By Arielle Dollinger adollinger@longislandergroup.com
Hailing from Atlanta, Ga., Blackberry Smoke will make its way to The Paramount on Aug. 7.
Southern Rock Passing Through The Paramount By Andrew Wroblewski awroblewski@longislandergroup.com
Known best for their time touring with bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top, the southern rock band Blackberry Smoke is used to touring the world as a supporting act. However, now signed onto record label Southern Ground – of Zac Brown Band-fame – Blackberry Smoke will take to the spotlight of The Paramount on Aug. 7 as they headline a one-night only show. Hailing from Atlanta, Ga., and rocking microphones since 2000, Blackberry Smoke will offer fans its iconic mixture of arena rock, gospel, bluegrass, soul and outlaw country next week as the band plays the hits from its three major albums, “The Whip-
Having acquired parental permission, Linda Hees brings a box of Ritz crackers to the center of a carpeted room at the Dix Hills branch of the Half Hollow Hills Community Library. She has the attention of her audience now: four babies lock eyes with the red box. “Sometimes I’ll hold the food in my hand and sign it at the same time,” Hees said. “Once they realize that it’s going to help them get what they want, the light bulb will kind of go on.” Hees, a licensed family childcare provider, taught one of her “Baby Sign Language” classes at the library last Thursday night – an effort to teach babies to communicate before they can speak. “Being able to learn to say ‘help’ or ‘I need help’ is so much better than just sitting there whining,” said Hees, whose own children are students in the Half Hollow Hills School District. “Being able to say ‘help’ is an emotional developmental stage… It’s a step in the process of learning to take care of themselves.” The four babies – and accompanying parents – who attended the class are not hard of hearing, but for their own reasons, the parents want their children to learn to sign. One parent said that she wanted her 16month-old daughter to have a way to communicate in a three-language household. With sounds of Mandarin, Cantonese and English each entering the ears of her daughter, she said, she wanted her to have sign language. The usual reason that parents teach
Sixteen-month-old Ethan Calliste and his mother, Nancy Vielle, clap during Linda Hees’ Baby Sign Language class at the Half Hallow Hills Library. their babies to sign, Stony Brook University Professor of Linguistics Mark Aronoff said, is a matter of coordination. “The motor coordination of the hands develops, matures, more quickly than the mouth,” he said. “It’s easier to make signs
with your hands at a younger age than to speak well.” But in his mind, he said, the benefits seem to be greater for the parents. “If the kids could sign at a younger age, (Continued on page A22)
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MELVILLE
PD: Jealousy Leads To ‘Hit And Run’ By Danny Schrafel dschrafel@longislandergroup.com
A Melville teen allegedly mowed down four men with her car in Wyandanch after a fight sparked by a man’s kiss, Suffolk County police said. Police said that a man kissed Netanya Lewis, 18, of Melville at a house party on South 32nd Street in Wyandanch Ju-
ly 24, but the man’s ex-girlfriend saw the smooch. She allegedly became enraged and a fistfight broke out as Lewis tried to leave the house at approximately 4 a.m. From there, the party spilled out of the house and into the street, police said. Bottles began flying, and as Lewis drove away, she hit four people and kept driving, police said. Lewis surrendered to police July 24
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and was charged with four counts of third-degree assault and one count of leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. The victims sustained minor injuries. They were treated at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip and released. Lewis was released with a field appearance ticket and is due back in court Sept. 22.
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