Signing with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers

[zoemama]

I had been excited about signing with my new baby even before she was born. Since I didn't know sign language myself, I sought books on the subject but I found it hard to read and learn more than a handful, and even then I wasn't 100% sure I was doing them properly.

I kept looking for more resources and I stumbled upon Signing Time. I bought the first three volumes and found that my daughter (3 months old at the time) was interested in watching the adorable kids in the DVD, but more importantly my husband and I learned from the video!!! We learned not only all of the signs inside and out, but also had some new fun songs to sing with our baby. "APPLE-PIZZA" as she says is still a commonly requested a capella tune at our house.

When my daughter was about 7 months old, she began responding to signs. Such as looking for a dog when we signed "dog", putting her arms up when I asked her "up?",etc.

When she was 10.5 months old, she signed back the first recognizable sign "more". It is possible that she had been trying before that but this is when it was unmistakeable.

After that, she learned signs relatively quickly and by her first birthday she had about 25-30 signs including "everyday" signs like more, milk, eat, etc. but also tiger, lion, elephant and other things that surprised us. She was able to "read" picture books at her first birthday party by telling everyone there was a tiger.

Another interesting note is that we are trying to raise her bilingual with French. My husband is Canadian and was raised to speak French at school, as was his entire family. I speak French as do a few other members of my family so it was a natural fit.

Anyway- we have been using sign language as a bridge to French. By her first birthday we could confirm her French comprehension with sign language- so for example- if I asked her about her shoes in French, she would sign back shoes.

It has also provided us a means of explaining what we are asking in French without changing to spoken English. This has been very valuable!

When volumes 4,5,6 came out I noticed there were many more songs that were integrated into the video and it was amazing the difference. I loved 1,2,3, but 3,4,5 make the message even "stickier". I had recently read the "Tipping Point" and few books about the engineering of children's programming such as Sesame Street, and 4,5,6 truly tapped into that. The songs are catchy, fun and packed with vocabulary- regardless of their sign language application they are great songs for kids!

Within a month, our daughter (then about 13 months) was signing all of the colors, walk, run, sit, etc. Though her fine motor is a little to undeveloped to make all of the letter signs, she recognizes EVERY SINGLE letter of the alphabet in sign, including in a Melissa and Doug Wooden puzzle we have that has a drawn hand making the letter. She also knew house, home, family, and feelings.

When Baby Signing time came out, I thought that it would be too "baby" for her since she was already about 18 months, but I got it anyway and figured I could always save it for baby #2. But she LOVED IT. Again, the songs are amazing and entertaining and fun for adults. I do wish I had them when she was about 9 months old, but now we are prepared for #2.

Now that 7,8,9 are in our house and she is about 22 months old. She is at the point where she can immediately sign back once Rachel introduces the sign, and she uses it in conversation. Wonderful for general vocabulary as well.

When friends of mine who are pregnant for the first time ask for advice about what I learned from my first baby I always say that the #1 thing that made a huge difference was sign language. What an amazing thing for an 11 month old being able to tell you what is making her upset by signing "Milk' or "Diaper". I have been around small children who get frustrated and squeal and scream while their parents fumble, or continue to shove food in their mouths all day for lack of better understanding.

I also see that it has given her power to move forward faster than her peers. Because she can ask questions and confirm comprehension with sign, we can move on past the things that she has mastered. For example, we don't do too much with the alphabet anymore, since I know that she knows each letter. Now we can move on to looking at whole words. Also with colors- red, orange, yellow, etc she knows inside and out so we can talk about a broader range of colors or something else entirely.

Children are capable of so much more than we usually recognize. With sign language we are able to give them that credit since they can tell us they understand.

My daughter at 22 months speaks in full sentences, albeit simple ones. Anything she garbles or cannot say clearly, we understand because she signs along with her speech- so even though her spoken vocabulary is about 200 words, we still depend on sign language to ease any frustration.

The older generation of our family was concerned that she would never learn to speak if we did sign language, but all of their fears have been put to rest when she comes up to them and says "More brown cookies, please" or "Daddy's got yellow shoes" or "reads" their license plate letter by letter, number by number.

Most of all- it is fun. Just like finger games only with deeper meaning. Nobody thinks its weird to teach a baby how to blow a kiss or wave bye-bye or do the itsy-bitsy spider. It is the same thing, only to the next level, much more powerful.

One other thing to mention is that from the time my daughter was 5 months old she was in daycare part time. My daycare is out in the country and the baby sign language boom has not hit this county just yet. So she received no sign language exposure at daycare. When she was about 12 months old, her time at daycare increased to about 3/4 time.

The point is- that even though she didn't have someone signing to her all day that she still picked up sign language quickly and completely. Every sign I've taught her, and that Signing Time has taught her was still learned. Signing Time has amazing staying power and the songs give us a chance to practice everywhere- in the car, at the park, etc.

People say to me- "I could never do this because..."
"I don't know sign language"
"It seems too hard"
"She won't learn to talk if I do"
"She'll be at daycare"
etc

But with Signing Time as a resource, all of those issues disappear.

Thank you for Signing Time. I truly feel that Signing Time has helped me in my mission to use Sign Language with my baby, and because of the background stories and mission of Signing Time, what I once thought would be a temporary language until she was about 2, will last with us forever. I will continue to teach her as many signs as their are in Signing Time Videos!!

Kind of a long story- but it just came out :)

[mom2two]

I decided to do signing with my baby before she was born, in 2002. To my frustration, I couldn't find any materials- books I bought said "make up signs" but I wanted him/her to learn ASL because I figured what good is it if I'm the only one that understands! I don't even remember how I found Signing Time materials, but am so glad I did! The rest of my family was skeptical, but was convinced when my baby daughter signed up a storm, had few tantrums (because she could tell us what she wanted!) and has an unbelievable vocabulary at now 3 years old.

I started signing with my next baby (also a girl) as well, and she signed "milk" at about 7 1/2 months. She's now 10 months and we haven't seen a whole bunch more YET, but I have no doubt she will!

Oh, and I also bought the Baby Signing Time videos, and BOTH kids (and mom and dad) love watching them too! I tell everyone I see about these materials- they're awesome!

Bethany

[jwpines]

I adopted my daughter, Lela, from China on January 25, 2005, five days after her first birthday. Any langauge skills she had from her first year were thrown out the window and she had to learn English from scratch. At the recomendation of another mom in my travel group, I began using ST 1-3 when we had been home 2 months. Wow. Sudddenly Lela could ask for things she wanted, rather than pointing and grunting in frustration. She even made little signing jokes, like signing,"milk, milk, milk" really fast so that I would say it really fast. Once she got the idea, she made up her a few of her own signs for things not on the ST DVDs, like brush teeth (which turned out to be pretty darn close to the actual sign)
I quickly ordered 4-6, though they were a little to advanced for her initially, now at almost 2, she asks for the rainbow and alphabet. These are the best DVDs for teaching English, let alone Sign, that I have found. I tried other "baby" products, but they have no where near the visual and verbal reenforcement of ST.
I have been tracking her language acquisition as part of a study on international adoptees. By 18 months she had about 60 words, half signed and half spoken. Then she went through a huge vocabulary jump and by 20 months had over 300 words. She is way out ahead of her peer group thanks in large part to ST.
We got BST as soon as they came out, and she loves them. We're at my sister's for Christmas (and brought all the DVD's with us) and one of her presents was ST7-9. Big hit. Everyone in the family has been watching and for the first time, Lela is naming animals, rather than using their sounds (a horse was a neigh and a cow was a moo.)
I recomend ST to other adoptive parents for language building and bonding too. It's a fun activity for us to share as I am learning along with her.

[dmmetler]

Well, our story isn't nearly as impressive.

I started signing with Alli almost from birth, and found ST when she was 6 months old, and since then her language has really grown, and grown in ways I hadn't expected. Whether it was her asking for MORE CHEESE at 8 months old, or correctly identifying a TIGER at the San Diego zoo at 13 months, or telling birds to COME BIRD COME (and they did), it's been amazing to see the thought processes, and to see words that I know she's picked up from ST.

In addition, while I have some background in sign language, ST has really motivated me to improve my skills, too and made me more confident in my own signing. While I used sign as a tool to help with my speech difficulties, the attitiude I got while growing up was that this was something to minimize-that "normal" people didn't do it-so in general, I avoided it where possible. This past week, we were in a resort in California for Christmas, and I was signing Christmas carols to Alli-only to have a preschooler run up to me-she was deaf, and was very excited to see someone sign! So, I got to try to translate the reading of "How the grinch stole Christmas" for not only my 13 month old, but for a deaf child-how cool is that?? And I don't think I ever would have taken signing with Alli beyond the "baby signs, few words as a bridge to speech" to the point of trying to sign whole books and stories without ST and the ST discussions.

[mommytozoe]

I had heard about signing with your baby when my daughter was just born. I started signing 'milk' to her when she was three months very consistently. At 8 months she picked up a few signs 'milk, flower, dog' but we were watching another video at the time and they weren't ASL signs. I learned about the ST dvd's and bought volume 1 and within two days she learned 'more, drink and eat'. Now, at 13 months, she knows all of the signs from volumes 1-3, I guess that's about 75 signs! The shows are fantastic and Zoe has now learned to sign 'please, more' and say 'tiki' for TV! And then to be sure we know what she wants to watch she signs 'play' for the signing time song!

The most amazing thing is all of my friends and family kept saying how she wouldn't talk because she would use sign language instead. Well, she now speaks over 20 words and all of those words are from the ST videos so I definitely think there is a link between signing and early speech development. My father who is mostly hearing impaired but wears a hearing aid came to visit for the first time when Zoe was 11 months. He could understand her easily once he learned the signs. He never learned ASL but he has since bought the dvd's for all of his other grandchildren to learn.

I recommend the programs to everyone and it is surprising how many parents still hesitate to teach them for fear of speech delays.

We are eager to see the rest of the volumes! Great work!

[Jamie]

We also discovered ST at the library. We are a hearing family. My son was in pre-school last year and during one of their inside days, they learned the manual alphabet. I caught him practicing one day and asked him about it. We then started reviewing the letters. I told him that it wasn't just letters that he could do, but it was a whole language and I showed him the VERY FEW words that I knew. The light went off in him and he couldn't get enough! He told us he wanted to "talk with his mouth and hands." While at the library I found a couple books and then Volume 2 of ST. As soon as we put it in, both my boys were glued to the tv--the younger one had just turned 1. I can't tell you how many times we watched the video that day, but my oldest picked up all the signs almost immediately.

This fall, my husband, older son and myself took some signing classes at our local rec center. He was the youngest one there, but knew more than any of us. Everyone was very impressed at what he knew and we tell everyone we meet about signing time.

For Christmas this year, they got 1-6. My youngest seems to pick up a new sign everyday and it's amazing what he can tell us. We can't wait to get 7-9 since both boys are completely into animals. I am also very excited about the other episodes that will be coming out, hopfully, soon. In the few months that we've known ST, I can't believe how big it has gotten.

[lbouk]

My daughter, Alex, thinks it's too cool that the boy on the videos is also Alex.

I started signing with her at about 6 months and she truly attempted it at 8 months. Before she was a year, she had all the basics and could request a cracker, a cookie, and CHEESE!

Recently, I purchased the CD that has the first two DVD's songs on it. Alex requests it every time we get into the car by signing HER OWN NAME! I'm so proud and love that I can communicate with her.

Much like some others who have posted, many people ask me if I'm not doing something detrimental by supplying my child with a nonverbal way of speaking. They are worried that she will resist speaking outloud. Well, that is the least of my worries as at 16 months, she can speak very well - and signs at the same time!

Thank you Signing Time!

[abbysmom]

The following is the testimonial I shared with Oprah for a show idea (thanks to the suggestion of another thread).

Whether it's a show about the benefits of teaching infants and toddlers American Sign Language (ASL) or thanking people who have made a difference in the lives of others, I believe the creators of Signing Time! (Rachel de Azevedo Coleman and her sister Emilie de Azevedo Brown) have an incredibly compelling story to tell. They have turned their personal struggle into triumph for thousands of other families. http://www.signingtime.com/ourstory/

Without question, Signing Time! (ST), and ASL have been the greatest gifts to my family since the birth of my daughter, Abigail. After a few weeks of sleepless nights and many failed attempts to discern the cries of a newborn, I concluded that I was not prepared to guess the needs of my child for the next 2 or more years. It was just more than I could imagine. So, I began researching programs designed to teach sign language to babies. Although there are many, I decided upon ST because it's one of the few programs that actually teaches ASL (rather than made up signs). So, when Abigail was ready, we taught her the signs for ‘more’ and ‘milk’. She was only 9 months old when she signed ‘milk’ for the first time.

Abigail is now 18 months old and her ASL vocabulary is 100+ words. She has recently learned her colors, most of the alphabet, and is signing phrases like ‘apples please’. And, her English vocabulary is even greater. Now, the only problem is that our family is having to keep up with her growing vocabulary – we have to watch and know the videos too.

We also have to be as observant…did you know there was a lion at the deli counter at Kroger? Well, according to Abigail there is. After a lengthy search, I discovered the Boar’s Head logo looks a lot like a lion - at least to a toddler. While this can make for marathon grocery shopping outings / I-Spy games, it’s an amazing thing - to truly be able to see the world through my child’s eyes. I will be forever grateful for that gift.

[Mplus1]

I was going to school for ASL when Faith was just a twinkle in my eye. When she was born, I taught her. Dropped out of school to have her, but I brushed up on my ASL by teaching her. I will be starting school again in August, but ST! has helped me to remember a lot that I had forgotton and to teach Faith all of the common words that she should know. Now we sign all the time!

[janinek]

It's 'Colors' week in my daughter's daycare class. She is 17 months old (children in her room range from 12 mo - 24mo). It has been so exciting for her to learn her colors...yesterday it was 'Red' day so all the children wore red to school. When we asked her what color her shirt was, she signed 'RED'! Yeah!! When my husband dropped her off, I told him to make sure her teachers knew the sign so they could reinforce it and teach the other children (they are sloooow to adopt signing at her school, even though I talk about it every day!)
Today was 'Green' day and before she left for school she was signing GREEN like her hand was going to fall off!! She was so proud running around the house signing GREEN GREEN GREEN and kind of saying it too (gee -- gee -- gee)!!

Oh, and since she was up at 5:30 this morning, we watched My Favorite Things a few times, greatly helping her to learn her colors!!

Tomorrow is Blue day!

[meredith_tiffany]

We have two daughters, Erica, 4, and Olivia, 2. They both love Signing Time, but Olivia in particular cannot get enough signing. Each day when she gets home from preschool they first thing she asks for is "Alex and Leah." Her favorite DVD is Leah's Farm. The girls shared their love of signing with their cousin Michael - 13 months- a few months ago by giving him his very own Baby Signing Time DVD! My sister says that he loves learning to sign. My husband and I love to watch the DVDs with our girls and learn to sign along with them.

[j_a_a_zavala]

My sons first language was spanish. Even though we have been teaching him to speek both english and spanish since birth we were in Mexico for a year right before he turned 2 untill he was almost 3 and he lost almost all of his english as I was the only one to speek it with him. When we came back my family had a very hard time communicating with him. He has also been learning Mexican Sign Language since he was little as he has 2 aunts and 2 uncles in Mexico that are deaf. The problem with that is they do not know very many signs. There is no school for the deaf and they have all went to a regular school. (If you can even call it that. They go for 5 hrs a day and have almost an hr for lunch.) Anyways when we came back to the United States my Mom told me about a new show on PBS - Signing Time. I thought it would be great for my son and me to learn some more signs that we could teach my in-laws (alot of the signs are the same in both sign languages) but what I really found was that not only was he learning ASL he was also learning english. We have been using Signing Time for 5months now and his english is almost as good as any other 3yr old. He still says some spanish words with his english but is begining to understand that they are two seperate languages. I am going to continue teaching him ASL with english and I hope to find a program that we can use to teach him Mexican Sign Language with spanish. I dont think that we would have been able to come as far as we have without Signing Time. It has been a blessing for my family. Now my son is able to communicate with his family that only speaks english as well as his family that only speaks spanish and his aunts and uncles that use signs. He also has a cousin his own age here that has apraxia (I think that is what it is) and is also learning ASL with Signing Time.

Ashley

[Lynja_the_ninja]

I love to read these stories. Thanks for sharing:)

[sherry3995]

My daughter, Stephanie is 5 yrs old. We purchased our fist ST video when she was 1 yr. old. She is hearing, however we have an appointment with an audioligst because her left ear has failed the Kindergarden hearning test. Dr. Says it is minimal hearing loss, but it still needs to be checked.

Today her teacher told me that she is using sign in thier class time. If the teacher is talking about the letter or a color or any other thing she knows a sign for, she tells the teacher how to sign it. Then the teacher encourages her to show the other students.

Thank you ST!

[janinek]

We were having Easter Brunch with some family friends yesterday. I didn't witness this, but my husband did and shared the story with me on our way home. Our friend's son is 15 months old and signed 'milk' for his mom. Well, even before my friend could flag down the waitress to let her know, the waitress brought a cup of milk and said 'I saw him sign it, it was my son's first sign too!'

Isn't that cool? I wish I knew about it before we left the restaurant or I would have engaged the waitress in a conversation about ST!

[jenml]

....Well, even before my friend could flag down the waitress to let her know, the waitress brought a cup of milk and said 'I saw him sign it, it was my son's first sign too!'


How cool is that!!!?? Awesome!

[5TAL55]

Well, even before my friend could flag down the waitress to let her know, the waitress brought a cup of milk and said 'I saw him sign it, it was my son's first sign too!'


I sure hope the waitress got a big tip for being so intune to all her customers at that table; even the small ones!!!

[mandible]

I learned the ASL alphabet sometime in school... probably in high school but I never learned any signs beyond that.

When I was earning my M.Ed in special education, I had to learn 50 signs for a class- any 50. That got up my interest and I tried to learn from books but... that wasn't engaging. I gave up. When I got pregnant, I knew I wanted to teach my baby to sign since I've read the research on how it helps kids develop but I still didn't want to read the dull books on signing.

Then, one fateful morning, I was flipping channels and there was Rachel! I wish I could say I tuned into Signing Time for my son that first time but nope... he was in bed! I was enthralled and impressed. Here was a perfect example of everything I had been taught and trained as a special ed teacher... clear instruction, repeated examples, memorable music, context... awesome. I set the TiVo to record it so I could watch it again later.

Now, I'm addicted to Signing Time and I've asked the amazing hearing-impairment teacher at my school to teach me a sign every time she comes. I'm learning and loving it!

And my son, Nathan... well, he loves Signing Time too. He won't usually watch tv but he loves loves loves Rachel. He can spin that eversaucer around in the blink of an eye when he hears, "Hi, I'm Rachel." He's almost 7 months old and his babbling has improved like gangbusters since we've been watching ST. And, I honestly think that his enagement in watching all those precious kids demonstrate the signs has made him more social... he is way more interested in the other babies at daycare than he has been and way more interactive with them than the babies older than him!

Thank you Signing Time!

[TarheelTuckers]

My son, Dallin, who is now 18 months had chronic ear infections as an infant with constant fluid on both ears. While he now has tubes and can hear great, he couldn't hear well those first 15 months of his life. He signs over 60 signs now and it has been a total lifesaver for is! He is now beginning to say a few words that are understandable, but without his signs early on, we would have been so lost!

[mandible]

OK, this morning, Nathan and I went to the Mommy & Me at the mall because they were offering a baby sign session. So, Nathan is, of course, mesmerized by the signing and I'm having a good time too. OK, at the end of the session, they had a signing contest where the mommies got up 2 at a time and the first to recognize the sign got to stay up and the other mommy was out... I won the whole contest! We won some baby sign flash cards :)

AND, the leader told everybody to watch ST! on Saturday mornings to learn to sign with their babies and after I won the contest, I told everybody it was because we watch ST! every day.

I'm a ST! dork.
mandi

[jenml]

I'm a ST! dork.
mandi

Self-professed... that's okay!! hahaha

Well, what did you win? :) Just the glory? :p

[mandible]

Oh, more than glory! We won a set of baby sign flash cards in a little album that Nathan is enjoying chewing on.

Sweet sweet victory... :p

[jenml]

Nathan...
Sweet sweet victory... :p

Just read your signature... congratulations on your pregnancy!

[mandible]

Thanks! :)

[noeonend]

Hi! Signing time addict here! I have always been interested in ASL, and even bought a sign dictionary when I was in hs. I then heard about using it with babies when I was in college in some of my ed classes. I became a nanny after graduation, and used a little of it with the family I worked for. WHen I became a mommy, I knew that I wanted to use it with dd. I started the basics with her at 3 months, and then a friend introduced me to BST when she was 7 months. I am pretty tight when it comes to her watching tv, so we watched the bst only once or twice until she was about 11 months old.

I started letting her watch volume one while I was doing things like making dinner or times when I needed a distraction for her. Within 3 weeks she went from signing only "milk" and "all done" to 10 more words. She has not slowed down from that point. within 3 to 4 weeks of learning a sign, she was speaking the word. She is now 18 months, and according to the speech milestones, is at least 8 to 10 months ahead in her speech development. She knows over 50 signs, can speak over 60 words, and is putting together 2 word sentences.

Amazingly, she will also show me the signs for things that she has learned from the dvds that we don't use in everyday life. (ex, we don't give her juice, just water. About 2 weeks ago, she was sick and would not drink her water. I put a little juice in her cup trying to get liquids in her. I said, "K, here is some juice for you." She looked at me, signed "juice", and took her cup.) SHe picks up new words daily(now both sign and spoken), and the only thing holding back her signing is that I don't know enough to keep up with her!

The interesting thing is that my dh has become one of the biggest proponents of signing. He has never been able to listen to a cry or just look at her and tell what she needs, but since she began to use her signs, they have a whole new relationship. He is the first one to tell other dads that signing is awesome!

Something else that i have noticed, is that she has learned that communication is not only done through the mouth. Because she is 18 months, there are points when she gets frustrated. Instead of throwing a fit or screaming, she will make up signs and use her body to express what she needs to say. Even if we don't always get it, it alleviates a TON of the stress of miscommunication.

BTW, this is with only owning 4 st dvds!!!!! (BST 1, BST 2, ST 4, ST 6) We do dvr st on pbs, but the dvr is in a room that is not condusive to little hands, so we watch those sparingly!

[hollmil]

I love Signing Time (maybe even more than my toddler)! I began teaching her the basic "baby signs" when she was 5.5 months old. She started signing at 7.5 months. From there she gradually added signs until she had twelve on her 1st birthday. I loved being able to communicate with her, so I started looking for better ways to teach her sign. I discovered Signing Time and I made a world of difference. Now she is 17 months and knows over 200 signs. She also says close to 50 words.

The problem is--I've become an addict! I think about sign language all the time. I love learning it. I want to learn more and more and more! I've joined a sign language group for adults, and I've started my own playgroup. The problem is, I still feel a little weird about my addiction, because I want my daughter to learn the language along with me. She's still signing, but it has decreased now that she can talk. And now that she goes to daycare with non-signing children.

So, I'm looking for sign language nuts to talk to so I feel less weird! Also, I'm looking for people who have made the transition with their child from signing only, to signing even though they talk. How did you do it?

Help me! I just want to fit in somewhere. :)

[5TAL55]

I love Signing Time (maybe even more than my toddler)!

I've become an addict!

Help me! I just want to fit in somewhere. :)


You have come to the right place!! We are all Signing Time! addicts here and are proud to confess our healthy addiction to the love of teaching our children this wonderful language.

Please join us on Wednesday nights for the ST! chat in the chatroom starting at 7PM MST

[hollmil]

I'm glad to find other addicts. I will try to join the chat next week.

Tonight my daughter signed PICNIC. I didn't even prompt her with the sign. I just asked if she wanted to have a picnic. So cool. Just when I get scared she's losing interest in signing she starts doing more signs. I guess she needs to take processing breaks with all the words and signs she acquiring at once!

Holly

[Lynja_the_ninja]

we are all definitely addicts here. I have three kids and they are all different in the amount of sign vs. English they use. just keep signing and remember that your DD will go back and forth, that is natural. my oldest even took about 3 years off and said he hated sign. I told him he could chose what language he communicated in and I would chose the language I communicate in. he is now coming around and is using sign a lot more. I'm glad to here you started a play group and joined a class for adults. good for you . keep it up. :)

[Grandma Mary818]

Hello everyone, This is my first time to post, a Granmother checking in here. I started teaching my grandsons (now 2 and 4) a bit over a year ago originally upon finding talking hands on my son and daughter in law's cable in demand section. The older grandson started picking up the sign very quickly. I had almost a year off from watching my grandson's full time due to an injury, but as soon as I started watching them again in September of this year, I started getting several of the signing time videos from the library. My 4 year old grandson has been eating the videos up big time and his vocabulary has exploded, he's even been teaching his father, my son sign . The 2 year old started signing within the past few weeks (proud grandma here let me tell ya)
My oldest grandson knows Rachel by name when the videos come on and says, "Grandma, that's Rachel Coleman!" I don't know if it's a coincidence that within the last couple weeks that we got Baby Signing Time at the library if that's why my 2 year old grandson has started signing or not, but they love the dvd's we've been able to watch (Vol.s 1-6 and Baby Signing Time). We are learning ASL as a second language and to help the younger of the two be able to tell me what he wants during the day. One thing I've noticed is that he's actually using more "verbal" words too since we've been working with the sign. One of the best warm fuzzy moments was my son telling me the older grandson has been teaching him sign and then when he signed "I love you" to me the first time. A big step that happened in the past couple days, my 2 year old grandson said and signed "I love you" to mommy and daddy for the very first time.
I've enjoyed reading the success stories and it was fun hearing that many children have done the same as my grandsons. I try to use the sign and words for all the signs we know when I physically can (if I'm cooking or something of course it doesn't work too well) My oldest grandson has started making up nonsense sentences at lunch, "Grandma, eat car" to which I quickly would sign in answer "No, Silly! No eat car LOL" He often now asks his younger brother to sign certain words and says excitedly "Grandma, Steven signed milk!" (etc) The 4 year old Thomas has had quite the verbal vocabulary since he was his brother's age and although I wasn't specifically concerned that the younger brother wasn't speaking much, I knew he was frustrated a lot of the time trying to communicate. I don't regret taking the time to learn.
One thing my daughter in law said last night at the store was that the 2 year old (who was in the cart she was pushing) kept asking (and signing) Momma, apple please! The other grandparents were amazed at the recent birthday parties to see how much the oldest was signing (wait till they see the youngest!):D
Thank you so much Rachel, you've given me something special to teach my grandchildren that will be helpful to them and myself in years to come as they continue into school eventually.
Grandma Mary

[CEVmommy]

We have been signing with my daughter since she was born. We asked for and got Baby Signing Time as a shower gift, and have continued to get other ST DVDs! My daughter started really signing well around 11 months, things like "eat", "more", "finished", and "milk". By 18 months, she had 70 words/signs, and now, at almost 20 months, she has over 110! When she speaks, her words usually sound mostly alike, so it's really helpful that she signs while she speaks so we can understand what she's saying! This morning she said to me "wa dada", and I don't think I would have known what she was saying if she hadn't been signing "where daddy" at the same time!

My daughter really loves watching Signing Time at home, but last week we decided to bring Signing Time to daycare with her (a home care environment with 4 kids). Her daycare teacher knows some signs and does them with the kids, mostly eating signs. The teacher loves the ST DVDs and has been learning all kinds of new signs to use with my daughter and the other kids! It really helps my daughter to be able to use her signs at home and at daycare. We have started bringing a different one each day and they are watching it after nap every day. Another parent at the daycare asked me to borrow one for the weekend because her son was asking to watch it (he signs "signing time" and says "time! time!"). She says if she likes it, she will be buying ST for her family too! It's a big hit!

[jzayara]

I started signing with Molly from about 4 months. She signed "milk" at 6 months and all-done/more at 9 months. We tried to do other signs with her, but she didn't really get it.

We decided to get signing time (BST 1,2 and ST 4-6) for her birthday, and opened it early. Immediately she began signing more, and over the course of about 5 weeks went from saying/signing 4 words to saying and/or signing over 25 words. She is now almost 13 months and is learning 2-4 new words a week. I need to order volumes 3&4 of BST :-p

She now requests BST by name, singing and signing "Baby" over and over again until I put it on. The theme is her new favorite song. :-p

A couple cool stories:

Last week, she amazed me when my mother came over for dinner. She looked at my mom and said and signed "Grandma" (Mah-Maw :) She'd never done it before, and we did not promt her.

A few weeks ago, when we went to pick out a pumpkin, she looked at them for a minute, looked at me, and signed/said "ball" in a questioning voice. So cute!

About a week after we got the videos, Molly was having a fit in her high chair. I asked if she was all done and she signed more. I gave her more of whatever she was eating, and she threw it on the floor. I asked her what she wanted and she proceeded to say/sign "banana". (There was no banana in sight, though I luckily had one on hand)

Sorry about the long post! I just want to say thank you so much for your wonderful videos. I tell everyone about them!

[ST! LeeAnn]

We love hearing success stories.
LeeAnn

[jackie0109]

I have a niece who is a preschoolers and for its a great challenge to be with him. As guardian of the child, I always make sure that she is in good health and always do good in school. Sometimes we cannot understand the attitudes but we always do our best to love him as the best we can. She is the only child in our house that give us smile and happiness. I love him much.

[krisiemuns]

Before my son was born in 2005 I had a friend that suggested signing to me and my child and she explained the benefits of signing. Of course I thought that this was a wonderful idea and starting picking up books to teach myself and my son after he was born. Then someone told us about signing time I guess when he was about a year old or so. I bought a few here and there and Ryan just loved them. We moved to the Houston area when Ryan was about 16 months old and had to find a new day care. I found this wonderful in home day care (to a point) that worked really hard with him. The provider taught him all about his colors, letters and numbers and he started talking so good. I was teaching Ryan signing at home because the day care provider did not believe that he should sign but speak instead. That was hard for me. Shortly around his 3rd birthday I found another day care. They welcomed signing time! They bought the whole series and is incorporating them into their preschool curriculum! I just love it! Now Ryan comes home and asks me how to finger spell words or while we are reading he signs any of the things that he knows. I love it.

Kris Munson
Work At Home United
No Parties, No Inventory, No Risk
www.workathomeunited.com/krismunson
(832) 407-2930

[bubbles1893]

I currently work with 3-5 year olds. I love teaching them signs as it makes life in the classroom so much easier. I was turned on to signing time by a parent who's husband is deaf and thier daughter is in my room. I kids adore the DVD'S and so do I. It's such a pleasure to watch their faces light up when I play the ST cd and they hear the theme song. And watching the DVD'S are a blessing, it's so quite for half an hour and they remember the signs so well that they are reminding me of them. I'm hoping to save up enough this year to get the curriculumn. Hopefully before summer starts I'll have it.

[AlixandLevi]

bubbles have you check into Signing Time Academy. The Baby Signing Time curriculum you get would be perfect for your group.