This news release was sent out December 8, 2009, from Nickelodeon:

NICK JR. TEACHES PRESCHOOLERS SIGN LANGUAGE WITH

NEW INTERSTITIAL MUSIC SERIES,

SIGNING TIME, BEGINNING WEDNESDAY, DEC. 9

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2009 – Nick Jr., Nickelodeon’s 24-hour commercial-free, educational network, will premiere Signing Time, the network’s first interstitial music series dedicated to teaching sign language to preschoolers, on Wednesday, Dec. 9.  Three videos, starring Emmy-nominated Rachel Coleman, will be in regular rotation on Nick Jr. airing 1-2 times per day.  Two additional videos will air exclusively on Nickelodeon’s award-winning website, www.nickjr.com.

Signing Time reaches children with diverse learning styles and abilities by encouraging interaction through signing, singing, speaking and dancing.  The Signing Time series teaches American Sign Language (ASL) vocabulary-building signs that are useful in daily life.

The videos airing on Nick Jr. include: “In a House,” which introduces the signs for different family members; “Feelings,” which teaches signs for feelings such as excited or scared and “Groove with Me,” which offers signs for activities such as jumping, swimming, dancing and running. NickJr.com will air these three videos in addition to two more exclusive music videos: “Leah’s Farm,” which presents the signs for animals and “A is for Alex and Alligator,” which teaches kids how to sign the entire alphabet.

Coleman co-created Signing Time as a means to teach children to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL).  As the mother of a daughter who is deaf, and another daughter with both cerebral palsy and spina bifida, sign language has played a central role in their family. Coleman has spent the last seven years making sign language fun and accessible for all children through the Signing Time series, which includes award-winning DVDs, music CDs, books, flashcards and a former public television show. Coleman, who is also a singer and songwriter, has written all the original songs featured in the series.  In 2008, Coleman was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series.

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by Rebecca Overson,
Editor-in-Chief

Many of you have been asking for a DVD of Rachel signing some of your favorite Signing Time songs from beginning to end. Well, this is it – Sing & Sign is almost here!

Wanna take a peek at it before it’s available?

Watch this short clip of Sing & Sign being tested with a real dad in our Top Secret Product Testing Lab.

Sing & Sign includes:

* NINETY minutes of material
* Thirteen Signing Time “music videos” – favorite song segments back-to-back
* Rachel demonstrating the ASL concepts in each song
* Your favorite Signing Time songs, signed from beginning to end

Add Sing & Sign to your holiday gift list, and watch for the “official” announcement soon!

Rachel snorkeling on a family vacation.

by Linda de Azevedo, Rachel’s Mom

I guess you could say Rachel is right-smack-in-the-middle of our family. Being number five of nine children puts four siblings above her and four below her. However, she did sort-of become the oldest child when her siblings left for college and/or got married. So I guess I could say she fits anywhere and that is how she relates so well to everyone in her life.

When I Googled “middle child”, I found this reference that sounded to me like Rachel!

Middle Child: Middle children have less of a clear-cut role in the family; instead, they often make a place for themselves outside the family, creating a network of close friends, venturing away from the family physically, and breaking the mold intellectually as well.

Riding a horse in Wyoming, around 10th Grade.

Graduation from Junior High. Curly hair was "in" that year.

I was struck with how that could describe Rachel and her place in life and with Signing Time! She has created a worldwide network of friends and family, and she keeps on amazing me with her awards, her awareness, her friendships, her music and acting, and her dedication to making things happen for children of all abilities. She and her husband Aaron, and their amazing daughters, Leah and Lucy, are changing the world with their vision.

These few random snap shots of Rachel growing up might give you a glimpse of the different sides of the Rachel I know.

Waiting for a plane in Hawaii on a winter vacation. Mom (middle), Rachel to the left, sister Rebecca (right of mom) and two of their friends.

Love you and wishing you a Happy Birthday, Rachel! Love, Mom

By Lynnette Stevens,  Coordinator III, Vegas PBS

The Educational Media Services Department at Vegas PBS in Las Vegas, Nevada is utilizing Signing Time in many interesting and innovative ways which includes broadcast, video streaming, curriculum integration and community outreach events.  As a licensee of the Clark County School District, Vegas PBS provides Educational Media Services to the fifth largest school district in the nation. Signing Time is broadcast to over 350 schools on a 6 channel closed-circuit broadcast system throughout the year.  The program is aired during and after school hours to accommodate classroom teachers as well as after school programs.

A CCSD speech therapist writes, “One hard-of-hearing student with autism really enjoys the program. His only means of communication is ASL. Signing Time helped to enable the staff to learn to communicate with him.” A first grade teacher shares, “Signing Time provides another means by which my students learn new vocabulary words, teaching them how to communicate with others in the community.  The broadcast of the program provides an activity that the students engage in with enthusiasm.”

Vegas PBS also provides all teachers and students access to a computer-based Video Streaming Service which houses over 60,000 educational media clips. With over 1.7 million downloads in the past 6 years, video streaming has fast become their most popular service. Signing Time will soon be made available via this medium, offering teachers more convenient access to the program.

The Ready to Learn Department of Vegas PBS incorporates Signing Time into its literacy-based workshops designed to foster parent/child interaction. Over 400 workshops are conducted annually in Title I Tot and Pre-K classrooms. Additionally, the Ready to Learn Department has hosted local Signing Time events over the past three years in partnership with the Las Vegas Clark County Library District. The event represents a perfect collaboration of children’s programming that promotes interactive tv-viewing , outreach and innovative ways to reach a greater viewing/doing audience.