Make these adorable penguins with your child!

Download this Hand-y Craft now.

Additional Resources:

• Download dozens more Signing Time Hand-y Crafts – all free!
• Get new Hand-y Crafts delivered to you each month! Subscribe to our newsletter.
• Get the Signing Time Preschool and Child Care Program.

When Sara Nelson Cosmi made this post on our Facebook page, she grabbed our attention!

I just wanted to share a quick story. My husband is a firefighter/EMT and went on a call last night to a house with hearing impaired patients. He was able to communicate with them, asking them “where does it hurt” and spelling out simple words all from watching Baby Signing Time with our daughter. It’s really neat to know that not only is Signing Time teaching our children but we gain from it as well. It encourages us to keep learning ASL and hopefully our children will continue to learn it as a second language. Thank You!

• Tell us about your family. How did you get started with signing?
  Jeff and I married about 5 and 1/2 years ago and moved from Portland, OR to a little town just North called La Center. We both actually work in Longview, WA, Jeff as a firefighter and I am a letter carrier with the USPS. When we were pregnant with our daughter we were already talking about trying to teach her some basic signs.  Neither Jeff or I knew any signs, I think I remembered part of the alphabet from when I was in elementary school but that was all we knew. We had heard that signing really helped communication and that Lily would benefit from it in so many ways. So we bought a basic sign with your baby book. After Lillian was born a couple people had told us about baby signing time, so we bought the first volume to try it out. Lily loved watching baby signing time, she quickly learned a few signs and we bought volumes 2 and 3. By a year and a half Lily was a signing machine (we aren’t biased or anything).  Me and Jeff were learning a lot too, it was really cool, we knew animals and foods and colors! Lillian is now 2 1/2 and has a baby brother, Baker, who we are turning onto the DVDs. Lily sings the songs to him and is a big help in trying to teach him.
• So what happened when your husband went out on the call you posted about?
  A drunk driver had crashed into the side of someone’s house in the middle of the night and landed in a gentleman’s bedroom. The man, his wife and their daughter were all hearing impaired. When Jeff arrived on scene he found out that the family was deaf and asked the man, in sign language, “Where does it hurt?” The man promptly showed him and after they got him stable, Jeff asked, “Where is your I.D?” by signing ‘where’ and then spelling out I.D. The family was able to communicate really well, Jeff said that they were able to read lips fairly well and that they had paper and pens to write stuff out, too. The paramedics came and took over with the gentleman (he was the one in the bed when the car came through the wall) and Jeff tried talking with the wife a bit. She asked him to tell her husband to call on his phone when he got to the hospital and Jeff was able to do so.
• What was your husband’s reaction to this?
  Jeff doesn’t really feel like he did anything special. He was able to make some people feel more comfortable because he was able to communicate, however small it may have been, with them at a difficult time and it was all from watching Baby Signing Time with our daughter. Jeff never thought that he would need to use signing on the job but was excited to be able to and is ready to learn more.
• How else has signing impacted your family?
  It is really neat to us to be at a gathering or a restaurant and be able to communicate across the room. Or for us to look across the playground and tell Lily to ‘share with her friend’ or ask her to say please. Signing is an awesome way to communicate and we are anxious to learn more. Thank you for helping our family open our eyes to another world..signing!

Carissa Martos has been invited to go with the Signing Time Foundation to Ghana in January of 2012,  in partnership with Signs of Hope International to help provide tuition and supplies for students who cannot afford to attend a School for the Deaf.

“When the Ghana trip with the Signing Time Foundation presented itself, I leaped at the chance. I solicited donations from my interpreting classmates, from families I’d worked with, and from my friends and family. I set up a page on my website, explaining the purpose trip and the mission of Signs of Hope. I went to a trade show, sold DVDs and solicited donations on Black Friday weekend and the one after. My daughter Rory made a video about the trip, and we asked for money towards the trip in lieu of Christmas gifts.

The donations were eeking along, and then we received a donation from the mother of my husband’s late best friend, Tony. Tony had passed away in a diving accident 2.5 years ago, after he and my husband had been friends for 20 years, and his mother felt this was something her son would have been excited to see happen. We’ve almost made our goal, and are hopeful we’ll make it!”

As of press time, Carissa is within $1000 of her fund-raising goal.
Donate directly to Carissa’s fund:

Donors who contribute $50 or more will receive a limited edition pin!

About Signs of Hope International

About Carissa

“When Signing Time opened the door to the world for my son, Julian, I became as involved as it seemed possible to be. I joined the Signing Time Academy, became the Northwest Region’s Associate Director, and I was grateful for the opportunity to serve in that role until November of 2011. I saw children’s lives change as they were able to “talk” for the first time. I watched their families become closer, happier. When I was able to teach an older gentleman with disabilities his first 200 signs, and he was finally able to start communicating with the outside world, I felt I was reaching people.

It didn’t feel like enough, though, so I began taking more ASL classes at my local college, joined a Deaf Dragonboating team, started volunteering with our local Deaf-Hearing Outreach, and at our local School For the Deaf, and my family moved to the Deaf service at our church. It still didn’t feel like I was contributing enough to the community that was so welcoming to my son and our family. After putting on my first STA Community Concert in Seattle, and seeing the hundreds of people that event touched, I knew I’d found a way to reach more people about the usefulness of ASL as a language, and the simple fact that Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear.

As the Foundation’s Signing Time Academy Outreach coordinator, I was fortunate enough to help in the set up 12 concerts in 2011. We reached thousands of families, some for the first time, and I felt touched to be able to support the marvelous women who took on the planning of these concerts. More are in planning stages for 2012, but I realized that I still wanted to do more.

In spring I applied to the Sign Language Interpreting Program at our local college, and began the program this fall. With classes not only in ASL and interpreting, but in Linguistics, Fingerspelling and Deaf Culture, and field experience hours, I finally felt like I was able to see where I was going to fit in among the people with whom my family spends so much of our time.”

It’s Tuesday… here’s your sign of the week!

This Week’s Featured Sign: Want

Watch the Video (Click the Image Below to Play) Free QuickTime Player required

Download the Flashcard (click on the image. Print in color or black-and-white and adjust the print size according to your needs.)

Signing Time Volume 1 – My First Signs

he very first DVD in the Signing Time Series! From their magical animated treehouse, Alex (age 3), his cousin Leah (age 4) who is deaf, and host Rachel Coleman (Leah’s mom) teach beginning American Sign Language (ASL) signs with your child in a fun and playful way.

One review from teechrmom7 reads: Volume 1 is still a favorite in my classroom even after the kids have seen it dozens of times. One student with Down Syndrome has been watching it for over 4 years and always picks this one when he gets to choose. My students love to sign and sing along with Rachel, Alex and Leah.

It’s Tuesday… here’s your sign of the week!

This Week’s Featured Sign: Cold

Watch the Video (Click the Image Below to Play) Free QuickTime Player required

Download the Flashcard (click on the image. The file contains a few color and black-and-white options. Print according to your needs.)

This week’s sign comes from:

Baby Signing Time Volume 4 – Let’s Be Friends

Created specifically for babies as young as 3 months old up to 3 years, yet fun for the whole family! Features host Rachel Coleman, along with animated Baby Alex, Baby Leah, and Baby Hopkins. Baby Signing Time Vol. 4: Let’s Be Friends sets your baby’s day to music with signs for everyday things in your baby’s world: friends, emotions, fruits & veggies, opposites, and more.

Buy Now