Instructor Christie Witt
Nationally Certified Speech Language Pathologist
Christie is originally from a small town in Iowa. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Northern Iowa. While at UNI she was the president of the Student Reading Association and active in the Student Speech-Language Association.
After graduating from UNI she attended Northern Illinois University where she obtained a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It was at NIU that Christie began to follow the research being done on the use of sign language with hearing babies.
Following Graduation from NIU she moved to Wisconsin Rapids and worked for the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. The main focus of her caseload was to work with clients who were deaf or hard of hearing. After two years with the adult population, Christie realized that her true passion was to work with children.
She returned to graduate school, this time at the University of Wisconsin in Stevens Point. While at UW-SP she was active in the student center and taught leadership courses through a graduate internship. She was awarded the Chancellor’s Leadership Award and the Tufts Speech and Language Scholarship. She graduated with honors from UW-SP in 2000.
After working as a speech-therapist in a Minnesota school for two years, Christie found her way “home” to Wisconsin Rapids. It was here that Christie began teaching sign language. She taught in various places such as summer school for the school district, at church for interested adults and at the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum. While teaching these formal classes, she began to teach family and friends how to use sign with their babies. She was amazed to watch the babies as young as 8 months old begin to communicate meaningfully with their parents. The joy that both the parents and babies showed encouraged Christie to continue to share this gift. Soon, others were asking Christie to teach them signs to use with their children. From there…Little Signs was established.