On Friday the nation's best primary school spellers will compete in the annual Coca Cola spelling bee. But today the spotlight was on an equally competitive bout between the nation's top finger spellers.
"What's a finger speller?" you might ask...well, it's a hearing impaired child who uses sing language to show his or her proficiency in spelling.
Today they came from Stella Maris, the Cayo School for the Deaf and the Bernice York Institute for the fourth annual Finger Spelling Bee held at the Belize Elementary School auditorium as part of disability awareness week. 7NEWS was there.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Like at all the other spelling competitions this morning "A to Zee the Spelling Bee" headlined the show keeping some kids out of their chairs. And when it was down to business there was as always those tense moments.
[Finger Speller Attempting to Spell GARIFUNA]
This morning's competition may have seemed like the regular spelling contest except that this was the finger spelling bee. And yes literally the contestants who are hearing impaired were spelling with their fingers.
Erlett Thomas, Stella Maris School
"We want our children to be included in everything so as a part of disability week we plan a finger spelling bee competition whereby children from around the country they come up to Belize City and they compete in this spelling bee. The spelling bee is just like a normal spelling bee, the only difference is that the children spell the words with their fingers."
Keith Swift,
"Explain how they do that - for example if they are spelling the word 'bird.'"
Erlett Thomas,
"If they are going to spell the word 'bird', the pronouncer will sign the word 'bird' and then the child will spell using her fingers B I R D and that is the way they spell."
In the finger bee for the second year in the row the bragging rights in the junior category went to an energetic 6-year-old Christian Mora who was showing off his first place trophy this morning. And sharing in thrill of his back-to-back victory was his mother Leticia Mora.
Leticia Mora, Junior Champion's Mother
"I feel very excited and proud of him because he has worked very hard for the past couple of weeks and I think with all the effort he put into it he deserved to win."
Keith Swift,
"What kind of work goes into it?"
Leticia Mora,
"Actually every evening when he gets home from school he would go and watch a little TV and then study for like a hour everyday."
Equal hard work was put in by senior finger bee champ Britney Jex. And though these winners went home with a new TV and DVD, the teachers behind the victories say the social awareness gained from the finger bee is the real prize.
Erlett Thomas,
"I think it makes them feel good. They know they accomplished a lot by just participating because even after the spelling bee they will be able to use that word in sentences; they will be able to spell out the word for example if they are talking to you and they know that you don't understand what they are signing then they will try and spell the word out to you and that helps them to communicate much better."
For now though the nation's top finger spellers Britney and of course Christian are enjoying their time as the deftest finger spellers.
The finger spelling bee was sponsored by Crystal Water company which provided the prizes.