Nice To Meet You!

[Teresa Jo]

Thought it might be nice if we introduce ourselves here on the new forum. :D


Hello! I am Teresa Jo. I have a son named Daniel who will be 16 months soon. I have been signing with him since birth. He did his first sign at 9 months and now has 65 signs. I am hard of hearing and wear two hearing aids which is where my interest in sign language stems from. I have taken several ASL classes and plan to continue my own studies this coming spring.

[colleencondon]

Hi! I'm Colleen, mom to Meghan 18 months.

I have been signing to Meghan since birth, as I worked at a Deaf school in Boston as an Americorps member from '93-'95. Since then I have taken many sign language classes and worked as a Disability Inclusion Advocate for 13 years. I am currently the volunteer Director at a Hospital and am going back to school to get fluent in ASL and then go on to become an interpreter.

[Christene]

i'm Christene...i have a 4 year old daughter named Lexi

i was about 10 when i first became interested in signing...i've never had the chance to take a class, but i've learned little bits here and there since then...which is diffucult when you don't know anyone fluent in ASL! LOL

i was adamant about teaching my dd sign from the time she was an infant and dh agreed...family and friends thought it was a silly idea, but i knew better ;) ...she started signing at 7 months and is still loving it too...she's even teaching it to her preschool class

so...none of us need sign, but we choose to sign and to keep learning...and it goes without saying we all love Signing Time

[gottahavdietcoke]

My name is Stacy. I have 2 children. My son is 11yrs and my daughter is 9 months.
I have a brother who has nerve damage in both ears and has used hearing aides since the age of 3. My mother was told by doctors not to teach him sign as it would hinder his speech, in other words he wouldn't speak. He is now almost 22 yrs old. He does sign a little It is very English since he learned at school and from some of the deaf students there. What is wierd is that my mom had taught me the manual alphabet before he was even a thought.
I started what was supposed to be a three year program to become an interpreter about 4 yrs ago. I am still hanging in there. I decided that I would if I had any more kids teach them to sign. I was kind of young when I had my son so, I of course didn't stick with it. He does fingerspell kind of well. Expressive any way. I hope that through this experience we will all learn together and become closer as a family.
Well I said it would be a little guess I rambled on Sorry.
Stacy

[kaidensmommy]

Hello I am a mom of two children ages four and 18 months. My son, the youngest was diagnosed at one year with progressive hearing loss, at first only deaf in the high frequencies but in the last six months has lost the majority of his hearing in all frequencies. We are attemting to teach him sign, however his a busy little guy and I am finding it very hard some days, however he had caught on to one sign: EAT, should I say boys will be boys? haha :) Does anyone have any suggestions on teaching more sign to him, by the way I should note, my four year old has learned around twenty signs in a VERY short time, she is doing awesome with it, in hopes she will get my son more interested in it!

[andrealynnj]

My interest in ASL comes from my daughter Imani. I'd always been interested in ASL, although I'd not learned more than the alphabet and the odd word. When I was pregnant, I heard of baby signs and borrowed a book when Imani was about 6 months. At a year, Imani was signing but not talking at all. At about 14 months, she was making up signs trying to communicate. That was when I realized we needed to learn more ASL so we could speak the same language. Her ernest gesticulations were cute but I didn't know what most of her made up signs meant! So that was when I went online to look for tools to learn ASL and found Signing Time. I was hesitant to put out so much money on an unknown product so I checked them out of my local library and found a Deaf Services Center. Soon we were visiting the center every week. We have now bought every video ST has made, but we continue our frequent visits to the library. Imani continues to learn signs almost as fast as I do so she keeps me on my toes.

We live in San Francisco. Imani is now 20 months old. She signs beautifully and she has some English words some Spanish words and is starting to make sounds with more of her signs. Tonight she said "UUu!" As she signed BLUE.

Hoorah!

[Krista]

Hi there!
I started learning sign as a kid (SEE). I am hard of hearing, and went to a deaf elementary school once a week to learn sign starting in 3rd grade. My hearing loss was gradual, so I have language and mostly rely on lip reading when I'm out in the world. I started signing with my first child since her birth but it was in SEE, and she didn't really seem interested. I found ST just before she turned two, and we've been using ASL at our house ever since. Now she is 5 and we have conversation in sign. :) So all of my children have been exposed to signing since birth. Our last child is now 17 months old and has nearly 70 signs and words. My middle daughter has special needs, she can understand sign quite well, and she tries to sign but it's difficult due to poor fine motor skills. I'm so excited to be at this new forum! :p

[emschwar]

Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a ST-aholic :)

My son, Noah, is 18 months old. We've been signing with him since about 6 months old, but we didn't really get serious until we got ST 1-3 when he was ~9 or 10 months old. Now, he has 81 signs.

[Katrina]

I'm Katrina, mom to Kristina who is 4 1/2 and Brant who is 2 years 3 months. Brant has Down syndrome and has speech delays which is why we decided to start with sign with him (although I was thinking of signing with him before we knew he was going to have Down syndrome since we had heard that it was beneficial to typical children as well). I heard about the Signing Time series on the trisomy21online forum (there are a lot of fans of ST over there ;) ) and we purchased volumes 1-6. Kristina loved them but Brant wasn't all that interested; it still benefitted us though because I learned the signs as did Kristina and we were able to model them to Brant. Then the Baby Signing Time series came out and Brant's signing vocabulary has just exploded since we got them! He loves them and starts laughing when they start! (I'm hoping there are plans to continue this series!) We are now expecting #3 and hope to sign with the new baby as well :)

[WeeSign]

Terese here from Wee Sign in Canada. I was Yahoo id:

red_pink2001

I don't get much time to post as I am busy teaching sign classes and packaging up Signing Time DVD's to ship to parents who can't wait to view them!

Signing has changed my life forever and I am thankful that Signing Time has added quality and fun to our signing experiences!

Enjoy the journey.

Terese

[woodsy9999]

I've joined a couple of months ago and this is my first post! :) My name is Belen and I am mom to Reece who is 5. Reece was born with Down Syndrome and has delays in his speech. We are using sign and I look foward to getting to know you all. BTW I am also mom to Roy(20) and Ryan(17 going on 18 soon)We live in Northern Ca along with my wonderful dh!! :D Nice to meet everyone!

Hi Kei!!!

Belen

[signsofearlylife]

Hi!! I'm Emma and I'm a SAHM/WAHM of Jacob (3 in Dec.), and Jaina (1 in Dec.) who are both hearing. I have been interested in ASL for years and have taken a variety of ASL classes. I am a Signing Time! retailer and teach parent/caregiver ASL classes a couple hours a week in the Sacramento, CA area, in addition to doing some weekly private sessions.

We really started signing with Jacob when he was a little over 8 months old (using the Joseph Garcia "Sign with your Baby" book/video). He started signing MILK back at 10 months and his signing vocabulary quickly took off. Now he knows at least 350 signs and I have lost count beyond that.

We started signing with 11 month old daughter, Jaina, from birth, and she started signing MILK back at 6 months. She now has 10 signs, her favorite being MORE.

We've had Signing Time! for close to a year and my children are both IN LOVE with it (okay, so am I)!!! I use the songs in my classes and the families usually end up buying ST as soon as they get a glimpse of it. We think it is absolutely FABULOUS!!!

Emma Biedenbender
www.signsofearlylife.com

[TarheelTuckers]

So, here's my quick introduction...
My name is Gina Tucker. I am a SAHM to my 2 year old daughter, Kylie, and 6 week old son, Dallin. My husband and I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where my husband is attending dental school. He will be graduating in May, but will begin a residency in Orthodontics after graduation. We began signing with Kylie from birth and she signed her first sign at 10 months. She now knows hundreds of signs and loves to "teach" her baby brother how to sign. We came across Signing Time through a magazine article and immediately bought Volumes 1-3 in 2003. We loved them and were totally hooked from the very beginning! We love Rachel and are so grateful to her and her family for creating such a wonderful tool for communication.

~Gina Tucker

[joriejeffries]

JoRie from Phoenix. I became interested in the signing time when my neice was born. I am one semester away from my sign language certification from Phoenix College. I love to sign & can't wait until my neice is old enough to particpate. She loves the colors in baby sign so far, because she is only 3 months old....guess you can't start too early right?

JoRie

[andrealynnj]

I've joined a couple of months ago and this is my first post! :) My name is Belen and I am mom to Reece who is 5. We live in Northern Ca along with my wonderful dh!! :D Nice to meet everyone!


Belen

Where in Northern Calif.?

[andrealynnj]

I tried putting Imani in a signature. So far no go. But let me see if I can post her here.

[carah]

I'm Cara, and I am a mom to Jack, who just turned 3, and Leia, who is 15 months, and we live in freezing cold Alaska (it's been about 0 degrees out for over a week now- very unusual for this time of year, ugh!) I teach parenting classes here in Alaska, from childbirth education to infant and toddler sign language. My son knows hundreds of signs, and my daughter knows about 35. She's learning new ones every day. I first heard of Signing Time when my son was almost 1, ordered them, and LOVE them! We can't wait for volumes 7-9- Christmas present for my kids! I think the coolest thing about signing with babies is that they grow up thinking it's natural to sign- they have no idea that other children don't sign. Nice to meet you all!

Cara

[Devlyn16]

Hello everyone! I have 1 son, age 2 and a baby due next month. I'm a CODA, so my wife & I find Signing Time a good reenforcement for helping our son to sign with his Grandparents.
As a sweet side benifit I have noticed my Hearing In-Laws have started to learn more signs due to the Signing Time DVDs than they did in all the years before my son came along.

[Aivlys]

Hello to all,

My name is Aivlys and I got hooked up with ST about 4 months ago while surfing through the web. I bought volumes 1-6 and CD's for my beautiful niece, who is 2yrs old. She just loves the DVD's and has learned so much so soon.

I have always been interested in learning sign language but each time I signed up for a class, it was later dismissed for not having enough quorum. So through these DVD's I have also learned a lot. I have pre-ordered volumes 7-9 and am interested in the board book gift set.

I would like to know if there is anybody else from Puerto Rico interested in creating a PlayGroup....let me know!!!

Nice to meet you all!!!

[woodsy9999]

Where in Northern Calif.?


I am in Stockton. :D

Belen

[taylorcamel]

I am a mom to 2 boys age 12 and 3 and have a new baby girl on the way 2-5-06. I have been married to Jeff for 13 years. We met when we were 15 so we have been friends for most of our lives.
When I was a kid I struggled in school and had some really bad experiences with some teachers who were not very helpful. Turns out I have dyslexia and a slight hearing loss that sometimes made it difficult for me to learn in a typical classroom environment. I had tubes put in my ears to help clear up some of the trouble and now hear pretty well except in noisy rooms. I also learned how to overcome my learning differences and went on to be a successful student. I look at all of these experiences as a blessing because it made me very understanding of others who have to work a little harder in life. Also it encouraged my mother to go back to school and become a special education teacher so she could help others. I wanted to help others as well so I worked in Special Education for several years before I became the director of a child care center. I am so impressed with how far schools have come in the last 20 years in helping children of all different abilities. There is still alot of work to be done though.

I had planned to return to school this year to become a sign language interpreter but I was put on bedrest with baby 3 so that has been delayed for now. I started learning ASL while working in special ed. My son, Taylor, started learning ASL in kindergarten because he was lucky enough to have a classmate who is Deaf. We decided to teach Cameron ASL as a baby because I had heard of all the wonderful benefits. He started signing back at 6 months. I found signing time later through an internet search for ASL products and we have been hooked ever since. They only had volumes 1-3 then but we have since collected all things signing time as they become available. I have been on the Yahoo group since there were only a few hundred members and have enjoyed watching the membership grow right along with signing time. I love the new forum and look forward to getting to know all the new members.

[mediashooz]

Hello everyone. I am Christine. My daughter Julia is almost three. We have been signing to her since she was 6 months. She knows all the words from the 6 signing times DVDs and many other words too. She has a trach and some cranio-facial anomolies the prevent her from talking. I'm currently enrolled in an ASL class one night a week. We live in central Mass. would love to meet others from this area who would want to get together to sign with other adults and/or kids.

We are huge signing times' fans! I tell everyone we meet that want to sign to their kids that they must get these CDs.

-Christine

[kerryann]

Hi I'm Kerry, mom to a charming 2+ year old, Nathan, I got started with ST in July, because my son who is HOH was picking up the sign faster than speech. But my DH has picked up a lot more sign through ST and is starting to feel a little better about using ASL.

[musictchr1]

Hi all! My name is Heather, and I'm the Mom to Corinne, the doll in the siggy below who is growing up way too fast! :)

I'm a 6/7 SAHM and a 1/7 general music teacher to 102 kids in a K-8 country school in north-central Illinois.

I took a sign language course at a local community college a few years ago and we learned 500+ signs. At the time I thought that when we had kids it would be great to sign with them, but hadn't heard about signing with babies.

I've signed with DD since she was about 6 months old, and she's just starting to sign back now, at almost a year. It took a bit longer than I had hoped for, but I'm trying to remain patient. Her favorite sign is "light".

I'm LOVING the new forums, and can't wait for them to take off!

Heather

[Kei_as_in_K]

I'm Kei (which is pronounced 'K'), wife of Robert (love of my life/best friend/soul mate/confidant), and momma of 6 great kids~ Jim (24) Mariko (21) Steve (19) Doug (15) Sarah (8) and William (5). We live in Western Massachusetts. William has Trisomy 21/aka Down syndrome~ he's the reason we got into signing.

We love Signing Time and can't wait for the new ones!

[kimberly]

Hi, everyone!

My name is Kimberly and I am a SAHM to Carter 11/01, Jacob 4/03, and Allison 3/05. Alex Brown is my nephew, so we - of course - are HUGE fans of Signing Time. My husband and I met and married in Utah, but have since moved to central Ohio where my hubby works as an attorney. I volunteer as a music teacher at a charity run preschool and have begun to teach them signing as well. It's amazing how quickly children grasp onto signing.

Both of my boys have grown up with Signing Time. Carter got the first set for Christmas 2002, right after his first birthday. At 14 months old he was already signing "help" for dilemmas that would normally have had him in a tantrum. At 2 1/2 years Jacob is still relying heavily on sign. He can speak, but his words are still very hard to understand. We're so glad he has a way to communicate.

We are so grateful for Signing Time and for Emilie and Rachel. They've created such a wonderful resource for so many of us!

Kimberly

[MomofJBN]

Hello! I used to follow the yahoo group, but eventually stopped plowing through the e-mails. I'm thrilled to see the new boards!

I'm Schenley. I have 3 sons - Jonathan (9), Benjamin (7), and Nicholas (5). DH is Jeff. Jonathan has mild to moderate bilateral sensironeural hearing loss due to Connexin 26 defect. At the moment he is fully oral, but I would like all of us to learn ASL just in case his hearing gets worse. (So far it's been stable.)

I'm looking forward to watching these boards develop and grow!

[momgael]

It is so fun to see all the pictures and bios on the board.

My name is Nickie. My husband, Tony, and I have been married for 14 years and we have two sons, Andy (12) and Alex (9). They are a little older than the average, but thanks for letting me participate anyway!

Alex had CAP-D (Central Auditory Processing Disorder), SI (sensory integration), and fine/gross motor delays. It was an interesting journey, but we are on the other side now. We used sign language to help him with his receptive, expressive and fine motor development.

I have worked with people with developmental issues for 15 years in one way or another. For the last 7 years, I have worked in the Early Intervention field...and love it! Once upon a time (before children) I was an educational interpreter with a school in Nebraska. Now I put all of that experience as a mom, EI career and signing into providing services (speech therapy, specialized instruction, playgroups, sign language classes, educational workshops for families, EI providers and childcare providers) for families with young children (special needs and typically developing).

Can't wait to get to know you all better!

[c01dunlap]

My name is Chris, I have been married for 9 years. 5 years ago, we decided to build our own log home from a "kit" (made by the Original Lincoln Logs :D ). Building a home together inspired us to build a family, so along came Sophie, born just a few months after we moved in to our new home. We've been signing with her since birth, both wanting to teach her a second language (she's hearing) and to ensure she can communicate well with my husband's cousin, Joy, who is deaf.

It has been neat - Sophie was definitely more 'fluent' with signs than speech early on. As parents, our ASL is what I would call "halting" at best. We took ASL 1 & 2 for adults several years ago, and had been relying on dictionaries and the weekly interactions with Joy and her husband (we play Dartball together Sept-May). We found the Signing Time videos through a friend of Sophie's, and they are fantastic! I was just stunned at how well done they are. I have learned a lot myself, as many parents have mentioned here.

Good to see and meet you all here, old (aka alexandleah group-ies) and new!

[c01dunlap]

Would the moderator of this group consider this thread & the "Intro" candidates for "sticky" threads so they sort to the top for us? In this case, "newbies" will get a chance to "meet" everybody in these threads, so even if they haven't had a post for a while, they're at the top don't get lost in the traffic. It would also encourage them to add their intro here too! I like "meeting" everybody this way.

Thanks!!

[taylorcamel]

Would the moderator of this group consider this thread & the "Intro" candidates for "sticky" threads so they sort to the top for us? In this case, "newbies" will get a chance to "meet" everybody in these threads, so even if they haven't had a post for a while, they're at the top don't get lost in the traffic. It would also encourage them to add their intro here too! I like "meeting" everybody this way.

Thanks!!


Great suggestion and it is done.

[deafmom of twins]

my name is kenyatah wellman and i am deafmom to my twins , they are 5 1/2 yrs old now i hope that will get know each well or met new face i know i not post not much i just read post etc i hope meet new face. i love signing time much


kenyatah wellman :)

[sharonkf98]

Hi,

I'm Sharon, mom to Cameron who is 2 years old. I've always had an interest in ASL, but never had any good opportunities to learn it as a child. When I was pregnant with Cameron, I knew that I wanted to teach him ASL. We used the Garcia kit and started signing to Cameron from birth. When he was about a year old we found ST and his signing exploded! By 15 months, he had about one hundred signs. I always felt so amazed to get to know this little person before he could speak! One of my favorite stories -- when Cameron was 18 months old, he saw a girl with a pierced lip and eyebrow. He signed "Scary! Girl hurt!" At age two, Cameron is talking up a storm and still uses hundreds of signs. I want him to continue to learn and grow up knowing ASL as a second language. We can't WAIT to get ST 7-9!

Sharon

[sherry3995]

Hi,
My name is Sherry, I live in Nothern CA. I have always had an interest in ASL. Now as an adult I am learing it along with my kids! My ultimate long term goal will be to become a certified interpreter.
My kids are learning ASL too.

Sherry

[amiller]

Jessalynis 8 and in the 2nd grade. Anyka is 3 and in preschool. She was born with Pierre Robin sequence and has had a tough time at life, but is now doing great! Both girls sign like crazy! We live in San Antonio.

[earthdaymommy]

Hi I'm Marla from San Diego, CA my husband is in the Navy and currently deployed. My DD Katrina is 18 mo old and currently adores her Signing Time videos. I have recently become interested in getting into an ASL class to work in translation...Other than that I'm a SAHM to my sweet little girl.

[kimberly]

One of my favorite stories -- when Cameron was 18 months old, he saw a girl with a pierced lip and eyebrow. He signed "Scary! Girl hurt!"
This is one of the best benefits that our family has experienced with ST! Even very young children can share their thoughts if they are given the tools. I'll never forget the time I set my 17 month old Jacob up on the counter for a split-second and he signed "scared". That's when I knew he would be a ST! boy just like his older brother.

[AJandSeansMommy]

My yahoo id is ajandseansmommy. I've changed it here to AJandSeansMommy (read: AJ and Sean's Mommy). Hopefully the caps make it a little easier to read. :)

I was introduced to ST! about a year and a half ago from a friend. I was immediately hooked on them, and talked my in-laws into buying them for my younger son's 1st b-day. Best thing I ever did. It took away Sean's "girl screech" (you know, that ear-piercing, make-you-wish-you-were-deaf, nails-on-a-chalkboard screech a lot of girls do), and gave AJ a means of communication. We were so impressed with them, that I began selling them about 3 months later - a little over a year ago. We've never looked back.

Sean's now 2 y 5 mo, signing up a storm, and beginning to talk. He's definitely a typical boy (and I mean ALL BOY). Sign has helped us understand him as his vocab continues to grow orally.

AJ is now 5 3/4 (will be 6 the end of Jan) and is in Sped K. He's doing phenominally well - can't believe the work his teacher is getting out of him. He was born 16 weeks prematurely (yes, he was born at 23 6/7 weeks gestation - normal is 40). He has mild CP, microcephaly (small head circumferance), global developmental delays, gross and fine motor delays, and severe verbal apraxia (along with undiagnosed motor and oral dyspraxia/apraxia).

I could go on, but will stop here before this is a novel. I've posted my business's website if anyone is interested in looking at the other things I sell (Discovery Toys and Usborne books). I'm also hoping to add an "our story" link soon, but don't know when DH will have time to get that added for me.

Christy

[HopesMommy]

Hi! My name is Amy. I'm 21 and I'm a SAHM of 1 hearing daughter, Hope McKenna, who is 15 months old. We started signing with her at 6 months, but after she learned "more" and "eat" at 10 months, we stopped (not entirely sure why then--she was catching on for pete's sake) signing with her. We started again a week ago when she got positively irate that we didn't know what "gook" meant. She now signs "more", "eat", "shoes", and "help" (she learned the last two in one night)! She has even put together "shoes, help" when she wanted help putting my houseshoes on her feet! She has also tried to sign "train" but hasn't quite gotten it down yet. I'm so excited about getting Hope ST for Christmas...until then we've been watching the previews and she's completely spellbound. Can't wait to get to know everyone!

[c01dunlap]

my name is kenyatah wellman and i am deafmom to my twins , they are 5 1/2 yrs old now i hope that will get know each well or met new face i know i not post not much i just read post etc i hope meet new face. i love signing time much
kenyatah wellman :)
Hi! Don't know how you (and others) manage twins! My 2 year old is a lot to handle all by herself :p Not sure what state/location you're in, but there are many SigningTime playgroups (see the Playgroups forum) starting up. Maybe you could come meet some 'new faces' in person some day.

Glad you introduced yourself!

[kimberly]

She now signs "more", "eat", "shoes", and "help" (she learned the last two in one night)! She has even put together "shoes, help" when she wanted help putting my houseshoes on her feet!
I'm so glad you started signing with her again! My "Aha" moment with Signing Time! is pretty similar to yours -- my little guy put "ball" and "help" together instead of throwing a tantrum. It's just amazing. And, by the way, your little Hope is just adorable!

[deafmom of twins]

Hi! Don't know how you (and others) manage twins! My 2 year old is a lot to handle all by herself :p Not sure what state/location you're in, but there are many SigningTime playgroups (see the Playgroups forum) starting up. Maybe you could come meet some 'new faces' in person some day.

Glad you introduced yourself!
thanks chris;

i am live in utah, orem

yes it hard to handle twins as babies but little easy to handle twins they get older yeah i hope i can meet more new face in person soon i will foward playgroup

kenyatah wellman :)

[amiller]

thanks chris;

i am live in utah, orem

yes it hard to handle twins as babies but little easy to handle twins they get older yeah i hope i can meet more new face in person soon i will foward playgroup

kenyatah wellman :)

Are the twins hearing? Or Deaf?

[deafmom of twins]

Are the twins hearing? Or Deaf?
hi my twins are hearing and know sign language well so i am deaf mom and my hubby is hard of hearing


kenyatah wellman :)

[amiller]

hi my twins are hearing and know sign language well so i am deaf mom and my hubby is hard of hearing


kenyatah wellman :)

I was just wondering. Your children are very lucky! They will get to grow up bilingual. How old are they?

[deafmom of twins]

I was just wondering. Your children are very lucky! They will get to grow up bilingual. How old are they?
my twins are mixed i am black and my hubby white so they are 5 1/2 yrs old ;)

[schip2mylou]

Hi everyone!

I'm Leann, mom to Emily and Ian who are now 23 months old.

Emily is just about on target now with everything, but was 30% behind in speech and developmental skills before we started therapy earlier this year.

Ian is behind in a few areas yet, and only uses about four or five words but signs pretty much everything on the ST and BST videos.

We love Signing time!

Leann

[amiller]

Emily is just about on target now with everything, but was 30% behind in speech and developmental skills before we started therapy earlier this year.

Ian is behind in a few areas yet, and only uses about four or five words but signs pretty much everything on the ST and BST videos.


Just remember, kids are individuals and while doing everything possible to develop their skills is advisable, try not to let the docs get you too hung up on "deadlines" - because as "Shine" says - they will do what they will do when they are ready!

[Mommy to Jaiden & Donovan]

Hello. As you can all guess I am mommy to Jaiden & Donovan.
My name is Kendra and I am a single mom. My children love signing time! Jaiden is my sweet baby girl at 14 months, she has many signs and words as well. My son Donovan is turning three in January. Donovan recieves EI services. ST for speech delay and OT for sensory problems. Also his theripists believe that he has auditory processing problems as well. We live in Westfield MA. I hope to get to know you all through your posts as I enjoy reading them. By the way.. I'm new to this Forum thing and would like to know how you have all gotten pictures of your kids at the bottom of your posts.

[colleencondon]

Welcome Kendra. I live in Feeding Hills MA, so we are neighbors! I am bad at the technical things here, so I have not even tried yet to attach a pic tomy signature, but I am sure that there are people here who can help you!

[MomofJBN]

Directions for posting pictures have been posted a few times. What we need is for a moderator to sticky a post with the directions so they don't get lost. There are gettting to be lots of stickies. This is why we need a separate forum for technical issues.

To any moderators - you have permission to find one of my posts on how to add pictures to your siggy or text and copy it to a sticky thread.

[andrealynnj]

This is why we need a separate forum for technical issues.

To any moderators - you have permission to find one of my posts on how to add pictures to your siggy or text and copy it to a sticky thread.

There is a thread for technical issues but it is hard to find sometimes. Still not quite sure why.

[sayitwithsign]

Hi everyone I'm Tina Bartell. I'm new to the Signing Time forum, but not to Signing Time. I am the mom of two very special and loving boys and the wife of a wonderful husband (James). My oldest son Niall is 4 years old and Griffin is 7 months.

Although I was skeptical I began teaching Niall sign when he was 9 months old, with the help of the Sign With Your Baby program. Within a few weeks he surprised me with his first sign, "more"-with that said I became a believer :D .

My husband is credited with bringing Signing Time into our lives and we are so glad he did! Once Niall was signing a few words James and I decided that we had to have more. That is when my husband stumbled upon Signing Time through our local library. Niall immediately fell in love with Rachel, Alex and Leah and the rest is Bartell history. Now that Niall is older he still loves to watch the DVD's. He'll even watch Baby Signing Time with his little brother :o ! Recently, he took a Signing Time CD to school to share with his class-it was a BIG hit and he was thrilled.

I am the younger sister of a physically challeged brother who was born with CP. Thanks to my brother I had the opportunity to grow up around a lot of different people with "special abilities", although I'd never had a deaf or HOH friend. For most of my childhood I remember wanting to be a part of the lives of children that were different like my brother (and me). When I was in grade school I learned the manual alphabet (or at least most of it :) ), but I didn't take a real interest in sign language until I was in college. I was supposed to get my degree in Deaf Ed., but took an alternate route. I graduated from college and then decided that I would go back to school to become a sign language interpreter. Currently, I work from home and am taking time to enjoy motherhood and although school is on hold for a little while, I am happy to say that sign language remains to be a big part of our family's everyday life :) .

I really enjoyed reading about everyone and look forward to sharing thoughts and idea's with you all.

Tina

[devoefamily]

Hi Everyone,
My name is Lori DeVoe and I am a mother of five. My oldest is Robert 16, Zachary 11, Kristy 9, Harley (boy) 7, and Thomas 2. :cool:
We live in PA. I actually live in Bohemia, some consider it Upper Lackawaxen. I am 30 minutes up the mountain from Hawley. As some say the boonies! My neighbors are the skunks, deer, bear and the occassional cougar. :eek: (Except for my new neighbor a nice elderly man recently retired)
I work for our local newspaper The News Eagle as a writer. I love my job and they are very flexable with my schedule of doctor appointments.
I am married to a wonderful man, Scott and we have been together for 10 years. We were friends and even dated when we were teens, went our separate ways, became best friends and then married.
We started using signs for Thomas. He was born cleft lip and palette. He went through five surgeries to correct the lip and palette and four sets of tubes. He is also diagnosed with failure to thrive.
We don't worry about his height because we are small but his weight is a problem. He will be 3 in June and only weighs 20 pounds 14 ounces. Everytime he went under the knife he lost more weight and when he even gets a cold he loses weight. The doctors say he has a rare disorder and now it is trying to find the rare disease. :confused:
He really doesn't speak. He says ma and da and the occassional baba and he tries to say more but can't. His tubes are out and they are suggesting fitting him for more but can't guarantee he will hear better.
I told them he had good sets in and still had problems and with the weight issue we have to be careful.
We have a wonderful teacher for the deaf that comes to us and now we are starting to transistion him to education department. He transitions at 3. The reason we are starting early is out here in the boonies our school district doesn't have a teacher for the deaf. The school that he can go to if we want is 1.5 hours away (one way). I feel that is a lot of traveling for someone so young.
Although he isn't deaf, he uses sign language because he can't speak, don't hear well at all, (hears high pitches only & hardly at all in Left ear), and needs a way to communicate. I was told the local school does have someone who signs. My worry is if she doesn't have to for the other children how often would my son get a sign and does she sign right. I am not trying to be picky but I need to make sure my son learns and is communicated with and at the same time not take away from other children.
Our school district I informed them that they have 2 years to hire a teacher for the deaf. I was asked well doesn't he hear? I told them yes, but not right and the hearing aids will only aid him, (He is getting them Jan. 2006) he still needs signs.
I want to say the DVD are great, and we are ordering sets 4 through 9.
Anyway I am sooooo sorry for the length of this post. :D

Take care Lori

[rmorrow]

I'm Cara, and I am a mom to Jack, who just turned 3, and Leia, who is 15 months. My son knows hundreds of signs, and my daughter knows about 35. She's learning new ones every day.

Cara


Isn't it great how they soak them up at this age? My sons are 3 1/2 and nearly 15 months and the little one signed 2 new words yesterday (dog & horse) and we finally figured out what one of his gestures meant. He was signing (of all things) the word SIGNING! I felt so silly when I finally got it!

Robyn

[alyssasmommie]

I finally have time to introduce myself. My name is Gina and my DD is Alyssa. We got Signing Time when Alyssa was 8 months old and she LOVES watching them. I thought it would be nice to be able to talk to her before she could use vocal words and it's working great! They are her favorite videos and she asks for them by signing the word "signing". She learned that from the intro song.

I can't believe how MUCH she loves these DVD's. She now knows 15 signs and she is 13 months old. She has just started signing so many things now. She has shown me 6 new signs in the last 2 days!!! :eek: I didn't know they would just all of a sudden come out like that. She is doing so great and I'm so excited.

[SJCSue]

I was born mildly hard of hearing (a mild hearing loss). I started to learn sign language when I was three years old. However, my hearing parents thought I did not need it. :mad: I learned a tiny bit of ASL in high school. I brought the first dvd to help me remember the signs I learned and help me to learn more signs. I am trying to teach my baby nephew (age 20 months) to sign because the signing will help me to understand him when he is speaking. I am also teaching my older nephews (ages 5 and 7.5 years old) because I do not want them to feel left out of learning sign language. I live on the south shore of Long Island, NY.

[amiller]

I was born mildly hard of hearing (a mild hearing loss). I started to learn sign language when I was three years old. However, my hearing parents thought I did not need it.

Isn't that sad? I kind of feel it is not my decision whether Anyka "needs" sign language. It is my gift to her, and like all gifts it will eventually be up to her how much she uses it.

[pbg&g]

We have two beautiful little girls, ages 26 months and 10 months, and we live in Northern California. We taught sign to our oldest beginning when she was about 9 months old, and introduced her to ST at about 18 months. They both watch the DVDs nightly before bed and love them.

-Bob

[JoyJoy]

Well I learned the alphabet and a few signs as a child like boy, girl, I love you,dog,baby,some I forgot. I read the Joy of Signing and a sesame street book. I just never used the signs as my parents never learned them. Since I was only hard of hearing everyone expected me to adapt. Well as a baby I was born deaf and had tubes and now I have scar tissue so bad they say its amazing I can hear at all. So now years later I am adopting a baby girl who is 19 months old. She was born addicted to meth and needless to say has delays one major in speech. She only says mamma and daddada. So through child development program and these videos we are all learning to sign. I actually like it when my older two sign things its like no guessing what they said. I am amazed you can start so young. I never knew that I always read those books on my own as a child trying to hear was not always easy and the adults in my life never encouraged it. I wish I had learned more but nice thing is that some signs I know from my previous studies. I really love the internet it has been so nice I love to chat with friends online too couse well its so much better then the phone where I struggle to hear what they say or often mix up things. I want one of those special phones so bad but never been able to get one as you must have a much severe loss. I really need hearing aids but as the expense of them has made them just a dream. I am hoping to one day have some. I am just glad I can hear what I can and thankful each day for what I have. When the fluid builds up in my ears as it does when I am sick because my ears don't drain right I often find myself nearly deaf for sure. I know when that happens couse everything I can feel so much more like vibrations and things like that like I am warped into a world where all sound is cutt off or sounds muffled. Truthfully it scares me to death. But now that I see they can teach children sign and we are all learning I am not scared. I guess I am afraid of not being able to communicate with the world. This whole program is so wonderful to bridge the gap and not make us who are inbetween world choose hearing or sign but both used together. Wonderful. Joy

[LuvBeingAMom]

Hi, my name is Karen and I introduced myself on the other post too. I am the Mom of Triplet girls who are almost 2. We have been using ST for about 11 months now and love it. Our Developmental and Speech therapists both recommended it. All of our girls can hear but they do have speech delays, particularly one, and ST has been invaluable to us.

[Jennifer3141]

Hi! I'm Jen, a 34 year old mom to a DD who is 21 months and a DS who is 7 months.

Like other moms here, we are fortunate in that we don't "need" to sign but we do choose to sign. I've been intermittently signing with DD since her birth but (Baby Signs and part of an ASL class) the ST DVDs are making things so much easier and fun!

My little brag is that last night while nursing both babies to sleep, my DD tried to teach my DS to sign "milk." I melted. :)

Jen

[Darlene, NC]

I am new to this forum & just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Darlene Underwood and I currently live in North Carolina (My hubby is in the Coast Guard, so we move every 4 years). We have been signing with our two hearing children since they were each a few months old. Gracie is now 2.5 and Joshua is 15 months. We love languages, and also wanted to give our children the gift of ASL so they could communicate with us before they could talk. We basically use words in ASL to enhance their spoken words. I'm also newly certified by sign2me to teach classes based on Dr. Garcia's book Sign with your Baby. I look forward to learning from each one of you. Happy Signing!

Darlene Underwood
Graceful Expressions: Signing with Style
www.sign2me.com/profile.php?ID=1406
Camden, NC

[amiller]

My sister is in Durham, where are you located?

[crissy]

My name is Crissy and I just started watching ST on my local PBS station a few weeks ago adn I am hooked. I am slightly HOH, but never learned sign language, not sure why exactly. But I have learned so much in the past few weeks. I have two boys ages 3 and 1, and I am expecting a new baby in June. My boys are both learning the signs so well, the oldest especially. I didn't even realize that the younger one was learning anything until one night when we were out to dinner he spilled some water on himself and then signed "cold". We live in Phoenix but are hoping to relocate to Utah eventually. Hopefully sooner than later.

[Rachel]

Chrissy,
Welcome!
That is so great that you caught us on PBS! I can't tell you how many times MY own children have signed things that were pretty much only reinforced on Signing Time. Some of the signs may seem unimportant from an adults perspective. But inevitably, those are the signs you child will surprise you with. Proof our kids are JUST SO smart!

[emtpooh35]

My name is Jennifer. I am hard of hearing due to nerve damage in my left ear, and have been interested in ASL most of my life. I have 2 year old triplets and began using ST with them when they were 7 months old. They are now amazing communicators and have convinced the speech therapist to use ST with some of her other clients.

Jennifer

Mom to Jamie, Jacob and Jason

[fia's mom]

Hello there. I'm Bridget from Elkton, MD. Our family got into ST by way of recommendation from a woman who is deaf at the ice rink where my daughter, Shiori, skates. While BST was bought mainly for our almost 9 month-old, Sophia, who has hearing loss in her left ear, our 2 year-old, Sabrina, has fallen in love with the series. We watch it everyday, and listen to the music in the car. Our whole family enjoys watching the DVDs, and our audiologist really backs the video series. Sabrina has really taken to signing, especially please and thank you. BST has really brought us together and given us something we can learn as a family. I plan on taking ASL classes as soon as the next series is available again at our local community college. I speak several different languages and ASL is one that I have always wanted to learn ever since I was young. I find language barriers to be bothersome, and as a kid was quite frustrated that there were kids I wanted to get to know, but could never because I was english "speaking" only, and they could only sign. I am glad this video series was created.


Bridget Eaton
mom of Shiori, Emily, Sabrina, and Sophia

[mightyoaks]

This is x-posted in the children with special needs forum...

Hi everyone! I am so happy I finally decided to come by the website. We discovered the ST videos at our public library and we're hooked! Well, except maybe dh who is probably tired of even Mommy singing the catchy tunes all the time! :D

My name is Becky and I'm the mother of four beautiful children. My oldest had a rough start with first being misdiagnosed with Spina Bifida and later nearly diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. It was in surgery at 17 hours old that the doctors found my dd (now 7yo) merely had a subcataneous hemangioma over her lower spine. They removed what they could and after a week of recovery we went home.

Three years later we found ourselves on the austism roller coaster ride only to find out once again the experts aren't always right. Though she did have a severe language disorder and significant difficult with self-regulation, she did not have an ASD. She has come a long, long way from those early rough starts. Most of her development is age appropriate and she is doing very well in school. Though unable to do so earlier, she is now quickly and easily learning sign language.

We also taught our second child by birth (now 5yo) sign language in infancy. He was understanding sign by 6 months and using it by 9 months. Once he was able to verbalize, he stopped signing. It's all coming back to him now that we have the ST videos and CDs.

Our third child by birth (now 2yo) was able to understand sign by 6 months but has never used sign in spontaneous communication. She is currently with a diagnosis of severe speech impairment and in speech therapy. She understands sign but seems unable to use her hands for communication and struggles to speak though she knows the words for what she wants to say. Dyspraxia is a term tossed around but we're waiting until she's older to allow any dx given our history with our oldest dd. Her therapy is the same regardless of the dx given.

We recently adopted a boy from another country so he is learning English as a second language. He turned 7yo last week and was learning English relatively well, but the ST videos have helped his acquisition of English tremendously. He loves the videos as much as our other children and the signs are bridging the gap between his first language and his second.

We're adopting two more children from our adopted son's country and plan to use sign language with them as well.

Whew! So that's what led us to sign language and Signing Time.

[3Beez]

Does anyone have suggestions other than community colleges where I could learn as much asl as possible in person fast? I've done tons of google searches and not having any luck.

[smh3534]

I am a SAHM of 4 children ages, 12..10..soon to be 3 and 2 yrs. Last two share bdays :) My last baby Konnor was born w/two true knots in his cord, and has hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, possible CP..among other issues. That's why we started signing with him, since we're not sure yet whether he'll be able to speak or not. We're in No. California..any moms around no cal?

[fia's mom]

Does anyone have suggestions other than community colleges where I could learn as much asl as possible in person fast? I've done tons of google searches and not having any luck.


I don't know if you ever got an answer, but have you tried your local school for the deaf (if you have one)? They may be able to assist. You may want to check with the hospital audiologist and see what they recommend. HTH

[sonnababy]

hello I'm sondra I have 3 kids ages 9mo to 5yrs. I have always been interested in sign language. I'm home schooling my kids because we live in the city. So I thought it would be good to teach them sign language. We just got the first three books yesterday and the two older boys are already signing 10 different words and tring to put them together in small sentences.

[Emilys_Mommy]

I have already posted a little about my family in the "Children with Special Needs" Forum, but I thought I would post here too. My name is Sandy and I have a beautiful 15 month old daughter named Emily. Her father (Steve) and I consider ourself very blessed to have Emily.

We were overjoyed when we found out we were pregnant with Emily. At 20 weeks gestation, we were informed that Emily had a cyst on her lung and that she had hydrocephalus. We were advised by 2 different doctors to terminate the pregnancy :( We decided that, no matter what the outcome, Emily would be ours and she would be loved. The doctors prepared us for the worst and we expected the worst when she was born.

Thankfully, Emily beat a lot of the odds! She was born a hefty 8lbs 10ozs, with the strength and courage of a lion! We found out later on that Emily has Pierre Robin Sequence and was also born with a heart defect. Knowing all of her conditions, we took her home and waited. We knew that many surgeries would be in her future.

The first surgery was done at 2 months. The doctors attempted to do a jaw distraction but they were unsuccessful. A tracheostomy was placed the following day to assist Emily with her breathing. A few months later, a shunt was placed in her head to correct the hydrocephalus.

She now is 15 months old...... 9 surgeries later and at least 3 more to go :eek: But we are all happy and relatively healthy right now. We started signing with Emily when she was 6 months old. Her first sign was 'Mommy' :D At the age of 11 months, we got the ST videos. What a wonderful teaching tool! Emily loves to watch the Baby Signing Time videos and has picked up almost 30 signs in the past 5 months! We take them everywhere with us!

We are headed for surgery on Monday (3/20) so we are packing the hospital bags tomorrow night :( One thing that we always bring along is her BST videos. Hopefully we will have a speedy recovery and Emily will do well with the surgery.

I look forward to meeting more of the forum members! We love sharing pictures of Emily. Take care and God Bless all of you!

[gran2sophie]

Hi Sandy,

Prayers and positive thoughts are going out for little Emily and for you and your husband. Hope her surgery tomorrow goes well.

Jill

[JAIRATRACI]

Hi! My Name Is Jaira-traci(j-air-a). I Have A 4 Year Old Named Thour(thor).
I Live In San Antonio. My Son Can Hear But Does Have Some Problems With Talking. The Signing Time Dvds Have Helped Him With Talking As Well As Signing.

[Signing_Hearts]

Hi my name is Amanda. I am 30, married and have a 2 1/2 year old son. I began to teach both my husband and son ASL when he was around 6 months old. He picked it up fast and had an amazingly large vocab of modified signs by 12 and 15 months. By 18 months he was talking so much that I began decreasing the signs I use (makes me sad now). He still understands if I sign to him but he rarely signs back. I'm anxious to do things differently with a next child.
ASL is my foriegn language but I also know SEE sign. I've been signing forever but always feel more comfortable with children than the speed of adults. :-)

[c01dunlap]

...By 18 months he was talking so much that I began decreasing the signs I use (makes me sad now). He still understands if I sign to him but he rarely signs back. I'm anxious to do things differently with a next child....
Amanda,

Take heart - a lot of us have experienced the same drop in signing as voicing increases. Keep signing with him and you will find he has not only retained what he knew, but absorbing the signs you give him. For Sophie, after her speech became more sure (though I won't say terribly clear!), she started signing again. Going to a ST playgroup or being around others signing in any environment outside home usually is followed by a signing frenzy. :D You should have seen her also after ST vol. 7-9 arrived!!

[MegsMom]

Hi! I am Katie, SAHM to Meghan (2 1/2 years old going on 30!) I have been interested in sign language most of my life, although I have never really learned ASL well enough to have a conversation. My Grandmother was profoundly deaf starting at about age 9 or 10 years. The school she went to didn't understand why she was having trouble and labled her as "slow" or learning disabled. (This was in the early 1930's) She wound up having to quit school in the 9th or 10th grade. It wasn't until my Mother was a small child that she got a hearing aid, and it was so huge and made so much noise she couldn't wear it! Years later she got one, but at that point she had learned to lip read quite well. She never used sign language and I don't think she really thought of herself as "deaf", but I grew up hearing stories about all this and so I have always had a special interest in sign language.
I was introduced to Signing Time by my Sis-In-Law and my daughter LOVES it!! She walks around singing the songs and doing most of the signs from the DVD we found at our local library (Volume 3) and we are getting Volume one for her for Easter. Can't wait to get more!
Sorry to ramble on so much! :) It is nice to meet you all.
-Katie

[Trinhtrin]

Hello Everyone!
I'm new to ST, I only discovered it a few months ago when my sister introduced it to me. She has a 21 month son who is adorable. I am 16 going on 17, in May!, and even though I don't have any kids (thank God) I love the show. My nephew,Tre, is currently at the "more, more" stage. He says please and thank you as well, usually after a bit of coaxing. Just wanted to say Hi. So, "Hi!" :D
- Trinity

[Luv2bemommy]

Hi!

My name is Candice, I am a married SAHM to 3 kids ages 7, 5 and 8 months. I never signed with my first two (didn't know people did that actually) but I am currently signing with my 8mo old, Meghan. I have been signing since she was 6 months old and she only knows "milk". I just started using "more food" reciently, I can't wait until she signs more! I am also looking into taking classes myself to learn more signing but its hard finding them in my area..

If anyone wants to chat please feel free to add me to yahoo or AIM: Luv2bemommy2001

[c01dunlap]

Hi!

...If anyone wants to chat please feel free to add me to yahoo or AIM: Luv2bemommy2001
Candice,

Do keep an eye on the ChatRoom thread http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=21 too, because it is definitely fun to get chats going with several ST fans at once! Wednesday nights Rachel is usually there, and Fridays we have a standing chat also for those who can't make it Wednesday, or just like to chat. :p

In terms of learning, parents learn a LOT from ST also, of course. There are a few threads about online courses. The one I've looked at is http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/index.htm .

Happy signing!!

[hruss31]

My name is Heidi and today is my 30th birthday *big sigh*! My husband and I have 16 month old (hearing) daughter Emma Rose, and we've been signing with her since she was about 5 months. (I have always been interested in learning ASL, even taken a class or two, but never really retained anything until ST!) Anyway, Emma's first sign was "milk" at 9 months and since then her signs and spoken language have blossomed. Currently she probably knows 60+ signs and has even spontaneously made up her own signs when she didn't know one, which of course I as her mommy, think is pretty incredible! :D We heard about Signing Time! when Emma was about 10 months, and we began borrowing it from the library and eventually purchased it, and she has been GLUED to it from the start! It is the ONLY thing, video, TV, or otherwise that she will sit still for!! In fact, having her watch it each morning is the only way I'm able to brush and fix her hair each morning, LOL! It has been so incredible to be able to communicate with my daughter before she even had words. I absolutely love you Rachel, Leah, Alex, and the rest of ST!!! Emma's grandparents think it is really cool too, and of course think their grandchild is the smartest baby on earth--but don't all grandparents?!? ;) We've only gotten one negative response by a friend who is a psychologist and thinks we're bizarre for teaching a hearing child to sign, who knows no one in the Deaf or HOH community. I've tried explaining the benefits, etc, but we have had to just agree to disagree...oh well, can't win them all. :rolleyes: It really is awesome though--I am a working mom and have to take my daughter to her babysitter each morning. Since I started bringing the ST! videos with her, my babysitter's kids (ages 2 and 5) have begun to love them and sign up a storm too, which their family loves also. I can't say enough good things or thank ST! enough for their huge part in our family's life! :)

[Jungleland]

Hi, I am brand new here. My 2 year old adopted daughter Jayme is the one who brought me here. I was giving a Signing Time DVD as a gift when Jayme first arrived in our home as a foster child when she was 3 months old. I started watching it with her when she was about 6 months old, LONG before we found out that she has Severe Apraxia of Speech.

She now knows about 50 signs and is able to say a few words. She just loves the video and I have just ordered the next 2 in the series along with the Board Books.

We have already dealt with a child who has extreme developmental delays but she spoke very clearly at a young age. I feel so sad for Jayme because of her being a BIG girl, about the size of a Kindergartner, and she has little speech. People expect her to be able to talk with them and she just looks blankly at them.

She is beyond adorable, with long, long curly hair and the sweetest smile on earth. Yes, we are IN LOVE!! LOL!!

I still need to figure out how to maneuver around here. Thanks for having this sight!

Anyone else have kidlets with Apraxia?

Hugs,
Vickie

[aligreat]

Anyone else have kidlets with Apraxia?

Welcome!

Check out the Children with Special Needs Forum, and ask about Apraxia. Actually, I'll go ahead and start a thread there for you.

So, where in Northern California are you? We have several people in the Bay Area as well as the Sacramento area.

[Jungleland]

Hi, thanks for the welcome! We are in the Sierra Foothills, just north west of Chico, in a small town called Paradise. I will check out the Special Needs forum!

Thanks,
Vickie

[abbysmom]

My name is Heather and I am a SAHM to Abigail (10/04). When I was pregnant I saw a segment about signing with your baby on the Today Show. So, I started to do some internet research and decided that it was definitely something I wanted to do. And I didn't want to make up signs that no one else would understand, so I looked for programs teaching ASL. That's when I found Signing Time. My family thought I was pretty crazy, since no one in our family is HOH or Deaf.

So, when Abigail was about 6 months old we started renting the ST videos from the library. She loved them...mostly for the other babies and kids in them. But when she was about 8 months old, she signed 'milk'. Shortly followed by 'more' and 'ball'. Now, she's 18 month old and we are flirting with the 100 mark. I honestly don't know how many she knows, since last night she signed grapes for the first time. So, there are probably plenty from the videos she knows, but just doesn't have an opportunity to sign regularly. However, she's now requesting ST (by walking to the tv and saying and signing 'signing') more than Elmo! That's pretty huge in our house. We currently own 1-9 with the cds. We especially love Leah's farm, Zoo Train, and Favorite Things.

We are huge fans! And thanks to Signing Time, both sets of grandparents, her Auntie & Uncle, along with any future siblings and cousins will all know at least some ASL.

[Hopkins the Frog]

Hi my name is Nic and I'm working with autistic preschoolers in a classroom. One is nearly Deaf and Signing Time is paid for for his benefit, but the others (most inspiring when it is the lower-functioning children who do not even speak), sign along and actively use signing for multisensory interaction with their environment, helping to ease them out of their little worlds. I am proud of their struggle and the struggles of all with impairments and disabilities - proud that there are people who suffer from them and those not directly affected who fight for a better life for them and are strong enough to carry on.

[c01dunlap]

aka Nic,

Thanks for posting! I wondered where you had run into ST, and about your passion for autistic children. With your experience, you might have some insights to add to threads in the Children with Special Needs forum. Perhaps adding your thoughts to Help with Autism and Signing (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=531).

[mom2Abby]

My name is Catherine, and I'm a SAHM in Cedar Park, TX- just north of Austin. My daughter, Abby, is an avid ST fan. Every day, several times a day, she signs "time" to ask for a dvd. I have to divert her with other things, otherwise ST would be on in our house during all waking hours. ;) Anyway, she just turned 2 on April 14, and she is speech delayed. We've been signing with her since September or October. I don't know how many signs she has, but she has a lot. The only word she verbally expresses regularly is "mama," so I'm very grateful that she can communicate more effectively through sign.

[Sally6473]

I am new to this forum and thought I would take a minute to introduce myself.

My name is Sally and I am mom to Darren who will be a year old in one Month! The time has flown by I just can't believe it.

We started watching Signing Time a few months ago and my husband, my son and I are all hooked. Whenever there is a song that comes on my son sits on his butt and dances. It's so cute. He waves/signs milk though I'm pretty sure he thinks it's actually "bye bye" but will see me sign milk and sign it that way. I don't think he knows it is milk yet. It is so neat to see him learning though.

I recently checked out a Baby Signign Time DVD at the library and I cannot get the songs out of my head. They are all so catchy. It's fun and ds has a fun time watching it.

I live in Taylorsville/West Jordan Utah and look forward to meeting some of you in chat soon!

[christy1246]

I have a non verbal hearing 2 year old, and a 7 and 9 year old. I am so amazed at how much things have changed, when the two older guys were babies I never heard of this sign language stuff for babies.

My 2 year old was 10 months without sitting up. We have been through OT and now she is on track for a 2 year old. We are still dealing with eating/verbal issues. She is only coming out at 6 months for these areas. I can't say how much I love the signing time videos and they are even broadcasted twice a week through cable. We have the sets 1-3 and 4-6 each with the music CD's.

[c01dunlap]

... We are still dealing with eating/verbal issues...
If you are interested in ideas exchanges, be sure to check out and post in the Children With Special Needs (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9) forum. Welcome, welcome! Glad you have found ST! to be helpful.

[IvysMom]

Hi, my name is Mindy. I live in Southern California. I'm a SAHM of 2 very busy toddlers: Ivy, 3 1/2 yrs, and Collin, 21 months, who have no hearing problems.

I bought ST (1-6) a few weeks ago mainly for Collin. Recommended by a friend of mine w/2 little girls. A little background on Collin: he knows words and has said over 15 words but, for some odd reason (unknown to me), he just doesn't choose to say much. :confused: He babbles a lot though. The pediatrician doesn't care, since Collin meets the standard # of verbal words for an 18 month old boy (at his 18 month checkup).

My husband and I are about at our wits end trying to figure out what Collin wants (ie. when he's hungry, what he wants to eat--changes every day, when he's tired--I just give him a nap at a set time, etc.) Very frustrating since Ivy had more verbal communication when she was as old as Collin (plus, she made up her own signs for a few months before Collin was born, to supplement her verbal skills). Collin is a very active boy climbing on everything and running around, normal in every other way. He doesn't like to slow down, but he will sit still for reading books, and watching ST & VeggieTales.

I also got ST partly because he started biting other kids at church & Ivy too :eek: (he was biting mostly out of frustration since he can't express himself very well verbally). The biting has pretty much stopped, and now it is just Ivy that he bites (but she pushes him around a LOT).

So far, after having ST, he is saying "more" and "mama" a lot more than he has in awhile. Also just started shaking his head "no"--when I ask him if all the foods in Silly Pizza Song really go on pizzas (he never really did this before that I can remember, although he has verbally said "no"). He has also told me, when I pause a movie "it's stuck"--only said it twice and not again since.

No ASL signs from him yet. I try to help him move his hands with the signs in each dvd. Ivy has picked up a ton though, me too.

Am I better off trying BST with Collin or just keep it up with ST and hope for a sign w/in the next couple months(we show him at least 1 ST dvd a day)? :confused:

[c01dunlap]

Hi, my name is Mindy. I live in Southern California. I'm a SAHM of 2 very busy toddlers: Ivy, 3 1/2 yrs, and Collin, 21 months, who have no hearing problems.

...No ASL signs from him yet. I try to help him move his hands with the signs in each dvd. Ivy has picked up a ton though, me too.

Am I better off trying BST with Collin or just keep it up with ST and hope for a sign w/in the next couple months(we show him at least 1 ST dvd a day)? :confused:
Welcome, Mindy!

It is hard to be patient, for sure! Lots of kiddos watch and absorb, and for a while don't sign back. But then it comes, all of a sudden! We do not have BST, although Sophie regularly asks for "Diaper Dance" clip when she realizes I'm on the ST website, so we may have to get it. LOL. I have seen many, many posts about how wonderful BST is, especially for kiddos under 3 (but even for older ones). See the Baby Signing Time forum (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3) for more detailed discussions of BST (like the ST vs. BST (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1145) thread). You can buy them individually or as a set.

Happy Signing!

[mommyto9]

HI, I'm Mindy and a SAHM. My dh and I foster also. We have 4 bio. children and 4 foster sons. Two of my foster sons are hearing but have deaf parents. "R" has been with us since 1/04 and his baby brother "T" has been with us since he was 2 days old. He's now 15 months old. We are hoping to adopt both boys. We will continue to teach them sign. We love BST!!!!

[abbysmom]

You sure have your hands full - but kudos to you on fostering. There are so many needy kids out there who just need a chance. Welcome to the ST forum! We'd love to hear more about all of your kiddos as they grow.

Just out of curiosity, your id is 'mommyto9'...if there are 4 bio and 4 foster...where's #9? :)

[mommyto9]

When I first decided on that "name" we had 5 foster. I've been a mommy to 4,6,8,9, and 10. LOL Ya, just never know....

[UpNorthMum]

Hi! My name is Nicole and I'm new here. I had the pleasure of learning more about the forum here while meeting Rachel yesterday in Duluth, Minnesota at our PBS Kids Club Circus. She was wonderful and my 4.5 year old, Olivia, had a blast. She was quite star struck. :) Olivia got to be the color blue. She's still talking about it!

I have another child, Charlie, 18 months. We've been using more signs with him than we did with Olivia. Every Saturday morning we're up and watching Signing Time as a family, learning this wonderful language to break down barriers.

I am a special education teacher for students with learning disabilities. I also service other special education students as that fit in my groups. I have a student with profound hearing loss that relies on a FM system as well as an interpreter in school. I have become friends with his interpreter and am learning more sign myself.

I look forward to getting to know you and learn from you all!

Nicole

[c01dunlap]

Hi Nicole!

How exciting that you got to go to the event and meet Rachel! AND that you've seen ST! on TV. Not on our PBS station here yet... :( (But, at least we own all of the DVDs! LOL) Wecome to the forums! If you have any pics of the event to share, we'd all love to see them! Folks have been posting 'event' pics in the Where's Rachel (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22) forum - start a "Duluth, Minnesota event" thread for us if you get a chance.

Look forward to seeing more posts from you.

[Oceanlily]

HI... I'm known as Oceanlily.. deaf mother to a hearing daughter named Lily..shes 2.5 yrs old.. we r from the south of South Carolina~~
we bought first siging times dvd when Lily was 6 months old and she is stillll watching part 1-7 DvD today~ she loves and think world of signing times... I'm grateful to discover this~ :D

[Cees]

Hello! I'm originally from Wisconsin but have lived in Utah most of the past ten years. I have a 7 year old girl, 5 year old boy and 3 year old girl. My kids discovered a Signing Time DVD at the library about two months ago and it was instant love at first watch. At first the younger two children wouldn't watch or do the signs, but halfway through the first DVD they started to get interested in spite of themselves and were hooked from there on in.

[Shell&Huntersmom]

Hi my name is Michele and I am loving signing times! I started making up signs when my son was a baby to tell me when he was "done" or "full". Imagine my delight when I caught signing times on PBS for the first time! We have been hooked ever since. It seemed I could never find the show on at a specific time, so I found the web site and ordered him a set. Now my son, daughter, and my self are loving it. Hunter knows more words than me and even corrects me when I sign wrong (he is 2 1/2 years). None of us "need" to learn signing, but we all should. What a wonderful thing! Thank you!

[ElLi]

Hi! My name is also Michelle. I have two children. Ellie is almost 2 and a half and Lila is 10 weeks old. I had read about signing and wanted to do it with Ellie but never got around to it. But now I am very keen to learn so that I can start it with Lila.

Look forward to getting to know you all :D

[c01dunlap]

So glad to see new members introducing themselves!

Oceanlily (waht a beautiful name!), glad to see you posted in the Playgroups forum. Keep an eye out there, and check back. Sometimes it takes people a while to see your post. I know in our playgroup here in Ohio, we are all very excited that Vonnie (Deaf mom) and Jelani (Deaf toddler) have joined. We learn so much from them!

Cees, how fun to have a 3 kids interested! I love how you put it, that the younger ones "started to get interested in spite of themselves". Isn't that so true? Since I'm on a "Playgroups (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6)" theme, I think there are several active ones in Utah. What drew you to check ST! out of the library?

Michele, isn't it neat how quickly the little ones absorb things? My daughter (almost 3 now) corrects me sometimes too. I've made the mistake of letting her watch a new ST! DVD alone before I see it. She got mad that I didn't know the new signs she was using. LOL. (She saw a "squirrel" outside our window & was signing).

Michelle, popular name! Hee hee. How neat that you will be teaching Lila "from the start". You will find that Ellie can learn it, and should very much enjoy the ST! videos too! Perhaps she will be little Lila's teacher. :p

Look forward to seeing more posts from each of you!

[fia's mom]

Welcome to all of our most recent members! We are so happy that you are all here. It's amazing that we all get here by different means but we're here for the same reason. Looking forward to seeing more posts from all of you soon. Welcome to the "family." :D

[tara30us]

HI my name is Early, and I have 2 daughters Alyssa (5) and Lindsey (3). We are in Arizona. We all started signing several months ago, when Alyssa became enthralled with the ABC sign language chart at our daycare. I ordered a few different signing videos, and ST became a QUICK favorite. We have most of the videos, and both girls know most of the explicitly taught words, and we are now trying to learn all the "hidden" signs. Here is some pics of my youngest practicing her signs during a photo shoot...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/tbarney999/jessie/8.jpg

Here are few more...
http://photobucket.com/practice.php?id=4geht

[c01dunlap]

Welcome, Early! Looks like you have quite a performer on your hands. Loved all the pics! :p What a cutie pie! Don't know if you've caught the "ST! on Oprah (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=835)" thread, but some of us are working on (and some have already sent) video clips of our kiddos to send to Oprah. Your DD (Dear Daughter) looks like a great candidate... :D

Look forward to seeing more posts, and to getting to know you and your girls. Happy Signing!

[fia's mom]

Welcome, and your daughter is indeed a cutie! It's always good to see new faces on here. Hope to see you more on the forums.

[tara30us]

Thanks for the welcome, I am excited to be here.

[Mplus1]

Hello! I'm very excited to have finally logged on to the site. I have been a ST! fan since I discovered it one Sunday morning over a year ago.

My daughter Faith who is nearly two (DOB 7/31/04), was taught ASL from birth. I was an ASL student before she was born. Now I'm back in the game, continuing my ASL classes. Although now I"m making a career out of it. Faith does not talk yet, but her knowlege of ASL has greatly helped me understand her needs without speech. I love it. She is so good and never gets frustrated trying to 'tell' me what she needs. The terrible two's are going to be anything but terrible.

:D

[fia's mom]

Welcome, we're glad you are here! ST! has been wonderful for so many of us! I, myself, will be taking classes in the Fall.

Again, welcome aboard!

[c01dunlap]

Hello! I'm very excited to have finally logged on to the site. I have been a ST! fan since I discovered it one Sunday morning over a year ago.

My daughter Faith who is nearly two (DOB 7/31/04), was taught ASL from birth. I was an ASL student before she was born. Now I'm back in the game, continuing my ASL classes. Although now I"m making a career out of it. Faith does not talk yet, but her knowlege of ASL has greatly helped me understand her needs without speech. I love it. She is so good and never gets frustrated trying to 'tell' me what she needs. The terrible two's are going to be anything but terrible.

:D
Welcome! So glad you found the chatroom, then forums, and decided to post!! We have lots of 'guests' online, and I always love it when someone joins up and shares a bit about themselves, family, etc. Look forward to many more posts from you!

Keep us up to speed on how the career path goes - I think there are probably many of us who have considered pursuing ASL to that degree, but not yet sure if that is a fit.

[NevillesLostToad]

I fell in love with ST when it was still only 3 volumes. My 7 year old and I started watching them and learning to sign. When I delieverd my second child at 33 weeks, I knew I wanted to sign with him to give him every advantage. I was also looking forward to that lovely "reduces tantrums" part. Although my baby (now 20 months) can sign, it hasn't helped with his tantrums at all. He currently goes to Occupational Therapy to help with sensory issues. He's not officially diagnosed with it but we're thinking he has Sensory Integration Disorder (Dysfunction). It's very very hard to deal with him every day. He's hard to get close to because he hits, kicks, and throws everything in sight. He has only slept through the night 11 times in his life and we're exhausted. After seeing a sleep specialist, we discovered he has obstructive sleep apnea but some central apnea as well. He had his tonsils and adenoids removed, and his uvula clipped to help with that. He's currently on a pulse/ox monitor and blow-by oxygen as needed. When he was in the hospital, we took ST Zoo Train with us. That was the only one he would watch because he loves fish and sharks. We also have Baby Signing Time and we love them all!! Now I'm saving up for the next 4. Someday I might actually get them! :)

Well it's late and the child won't sleep so I'm off to bed.

Aprilyn

[fia's mom]

Welcome, Neville'sLostToad! Happy to have you aboard! Check out the Children with Special Needs thread. There is tons of information there from many of us who have children with Special Needs. I know that I personally have found this to be of great resource, especially recently.

Again, welcome aboard! Love your handle. Harry Potter fan by chance?

[Mplus1]

Thanks Chris (Ha! I'm already on first name basis!). You will definately be seeing more posts from me! I used to be a moderator for a pregnancy website (Pregnancylounge), and loved being a part of that kind of 'family' (as I considered it). And now that I have found ST! online, I will definately be a regular. I'm already addicted!

[JeniJJ]

Hi everyone,
My name is Jeni. :p I am not blessed enough to be married or have a family yet to share this program or beliefs (values). But, I have a passion for children and am a teacher in the Los Angeles School District. I have taught typically developing students in general education for over a decade and for the past 5 years students with special needs. These students are diverse with disabilities and with their backgrounds.

When I was in pre-school, our teachers taught solely in sign language. I don't really remember that (it was in the 70's), but my mom has told me about it as I grew up. I have certainly been interested in signing all through my life. I thus did a wish list search on my TIVO and found signing time (I am addicted). I try to teach signing in my classroom but with all the standards I"m required to teach I find myself running out of time :( My students certainly seem to respond better when I fit it in...especially my kids with auditory processing delays, autism, or other moderate to severe disabilties.

I'm very excited about these forums! Thanks everyone!

[c01dunlap]

Welcome Jeni!!

I am so excited that you found ST! and are enthused enough to work hard to fit in in with "your kids". (When teaching, you definitely have a family!!) That is terrific!!

There are other Spec Needs teachers on here - check out the "In the Classroom" forum too!! We'd love to have you share more about what is happening with your kiddos there too!!

[Mplus1]

Welcome to forum Jeni!!!!

[momofjandr]

Hello,

I just joined and am already loving it here. I found out about ST from a mom in another group I was in about a year ago and have been hooked ever since. My husband and I had been taking ASL classes before we had children and began teaching our first son signs from early on. But with ST, it has been a lot more fun and I am learning new signs too! :)

Now that we have two boys, we sign in our house all the time. Our four year old knows many many signs. Our 20 month old is stubburn and only signs a couple things so far. But I think he is starting to like it when I understand him more. He is not much of a talker yet.

I am getting ready to go back to school to get my ASL interpreting certificate. I have always loved to sign, so why not make a career of it?

I am thrilled to have found this group. I am looking forward to getting to know the rest of you.

Christy
mom of:
Jonathan 4
Riley 20 months

[Mplus1]

I am getting ready to go back to school to get my ASL interpreting certificate. I have always loved to sign, so why not make a career of it?


Seriously! That is what I'm doing. I love ASL so much that I'm dedicating a portion of my life to it. My daughter is a huge ST! fan. She is 23 months and isn't talking much either. But the ASL does help, doesn't it?

Anyway, welcome to the forum and I'll be seeing you around! Good luck with the carrer choice! It's a rewarding one!

[GandPsMom]

Hi, I'm Lea Anne. My children and I have recently discovered Signing Time and we're loving it!

I had started using some sign language with my son when he turned one. He used milk, more, and eat. I was surprised one Saturday morning when Signing Time came on. We watched it and loved it. I soon found that there were DVD's! :D :D

I ordered vol. 1-3 just a couple of weeks ago and we've just about got them memorized. My five year old, Grace, has really picked up on the signs and is now constantly asking, "Mom, what's the sign for -----?" I just ordered some more today!

Philip, my 16 month old, is picking up more signs now too. This morning he signed dog when our dog walked in his room. Philip is still very non verbal meaning he doesn't have a lot of words but babbles quite a bit. I'm hoping that signing will help us communicate.

I am an educator and former music teacher and I am enjoying the songs so very much! I'm already plotting how to get my teachers to incorporate ASL in their classrooms. Looking forward to learning a lot!

[c01dunlap]

Great to meet you, Lee Anne!

I'm always excited when people find ST! through their PBS station - that always warms my heart. How neat that Grace is such an active little sponge for ASL/signing!! Don't know if you've found it yet, but there is a thread (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154) under "How Do You Sign..." that lists several online dictionaries. That has been a lifesaver for me when my DD launches into the "What's the sign for...". As many have cautioned, it is good to use several sources to cross-check sign meaning (e.g. "run" as in jog, fridge 'running', etc.) and consistency.

Have fun -- I look forward to more posts from you. Perhaps you can also join us for one of the regular chats (see the calendar (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/calendar.php?)). Thursday nights (not on calendar, but same time as Wednesday nights - 9pm Eastern time zone) are the one that Rachel drops in on right now.


Hi, I'm Lea Anne....I am an educator and former music teacher and I am enjoying the songs so very much! I'm already plotting how to get my teachers to incorporate ASL in their classrooms. Looking forward to learning a lot!
Oh, and plot away!! Someone after my own heart. :p

[j25lovesSTtoo]

Hey all, I just joined like... yesterday.

I don't have any children as of yet, though I do plan on adopting 4 when the time is right. I do, however, teach a daycare class of two year olds. We started basic signing in the class about 8 months ago when one of the kids started speech therapy. His therapist told us as his teachers it was our job to help him communicate. So we picked up signing with the whole class... and boy what a difference that makes!

I started signing at age 8 when I saw a man who couldn't order in McDonalds because he was deaf. They wouldn't give him a pen or pad either, and it frustrated me as much as him. It was then I asked my mum to explain signing to me and she set me up with a "tutor" of sorts.

All in all, I recently found signing time through a Livejournal parents forum and am excited to order my first set to help me help me help the kids learn. I think the catchy tunes and exposure to all types of signs will help everyone to understand eachother.

Yay for creating such.

Later,
Joshua

[stefwvu]

Hi Everybody! My name is Stefanie and live in MD. I am teaching my hearing son who is 15 monthes old ASL using the signing time videos. WE LOVE THE VIDEOS. I also love this website - and the discussions that occur. I would really like to become fluent in sign language. My best friend has a son who was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome. He was born with no ears - just earlobe buds. It's almost like Alex and Leah - they are being raised as cousins. My best friend and I went to high school together, went away to different colleges and ended up in the same place in MD. I am currently staying at home with our son and have a part time job as a church choir director - of course I incorporate as much sign as possible. Before we had our son I taught middle school orchestra. Anyways glad to be a part of the ST group!!!! :)

[boingo82]

Hi! My name is Emily and I have 2 sons. Blake is nearly 28 months and Gavin is 3 months.
By his 2nd birthday, Blake hadn't had the language explosion, though we'd waited and waited, sure it would arrive any day. At that point he had around 10 words - fan, flower, cat, dog, and a few more. He didn't point, didn't say yes or no. His primary form of communication was screaming.
Curiously, by the same age he knew all the capital letters of the alphabet, several numbers, and he was just starting to learn his colors.
We started working with Early Intervention and he tested at an 11 month level for receptive and expressive speech.
Along with his therapy we have been doing sign language. He is picking up signs and speech so quickly now! One of my favorite things about the signing time videos is that they teach both the sign AND reinforce the spoken word.

He LOVES the videos and is constantly pointing at the TV and saying "Times? Times?"

[Kei_as_in_K]

Hi! My name is Emily and I have 2 sons. Blake is nearly 28 months and Gavin is 3 months.
By his 2nd birthday, Blake hadn't had the language explosion, though we'd waited and waited, sure it would arrive any day. At that point he had around 10 words - fan, flower, cat, dog, and a few more. He didn't point, didn't say yes or no. His primary form of communication was screaming.
Curiously, by the same age he knew all the capital letters of the alphabet, several numbers, and he was just starting to learn his colors.
We started working with Early Intervention and he tested at an 11 month level for receptive and expressive speech.
Along with his therapy we have been doing sign language. He is picking up signs and speech so quickly now! One of my favorite things about the signing time videos is that they teach both the sign AND reinforce the spoken word.

He LOVES the videos and is constantly pointing at the TV and saying "Times? Times?"
Welcome Emily. Another added bonus you will find is that Signing Time will also help put him on the road to reading!

[randtyork]

Hi there from hot muggy SC. We found ST at our local library. But my love of asl goes back much farther. When I was 9yo my mother took a beginner ASL class. She taught me to fingerspell and I would look at her book and try to learn signs. No one thought that it would be worth it to teach me anything else. One year at summer church camp a deaf kid came. There was an interpreter but no other kids could sign. He was pretty lonely. I practiced my fingerspelling on him. I think he was just glad to communicate w/ someone his age! It was hard fingerspelling everything. I became a nurse and would meet deaf patients occationally but could not find any opportunities to learn ASL. I have been interested for several years in interpreting but again unable to find classes. Then we found ST last year. Of course my dc want to sign everything so I found ASL University/handspeak/ASLPro websites and we have been plugging along. Now my church is offering a class tought by a deaf man. I am looking forward to it. It starts tomorrow. Sunday night I was able to talk to 2 deaf people briefly and they understood me!!!! I am still jazzed about that.

Tricia
mom to Elizabeth 5yo/Caleb 3yo

[jsgittens]

I recently started using ST with my 6 and 3 year old girls. We are all hearing. We are also homeschoolers. After watching the first three ST videos we were in love with signing. Since my six year old took such a shine to it I decided to make that our big summer adventure. We introduced the grandparents to ST and found that sign language is around us more than we knew the more we used it. We saw it on Blue's Clues, in books at the library, people at the park or the store were signing, there were asl signs posted at a nearby school for the deaf. The biggest event for signing was at Kid's Crusade at a church in our neighborhood. A woman was signing for a group of children in the front row. There were other people there that must have been learning sign language too. It was great. Especially for me. My daughter was seated apart from my with kids her age. As I watched her she wasn't watching the people talking in the play...she was watching and mimicking the woman signing to the deaf children. I knew that she knew some of the signs that the woman was using but there were tons that we never used and since she was hearing them and seeing them and signing them she was learning them. Not all but some. I almost cried. I'm mushy that way.

Jackie

[jenml]

......there were asl signs posted at a nearby school for the deaf. The biggest event for signing was at Kid's Crusade at a church in our neighborhood.....
Jackie
Hi Jackie... welcome!
Where are you in NY? In the city? There are so many Deaf schools around NY (but there are some far upstate, so I'm wondering if you're in the city or up there.... :p
If you are near the city, I can direct you to some wonderful Deaf events... you just missed the BIG Deaf awareness event at South Street Seaport this past weekend, but there are so many. There's a wonderful event in Long Island in October (and apple festival on the beautiful campus of a Deaf school).

Let me know if you're interested in more adventures...
Welcome...

[boingo82]

Welcome Emily. Another added bonus you will find is that Signing Time will also help put him on the road to reading!

Thanks! It has helped him a lot. He's "said" 3 sentences now, signing "make pizza", signing "candy" while saying "want? want?" and saying "shirt off". Right now he is communicating with a combination of sign and speech, which is such a positive change from not communicating at all.

He LOVES the videos, and signs along with some, sings with others. Saying "don't forget the extra...." always gets him to say "CHEESE!"

I love that the videos don't just teach sign, but teach spoken vocabulary and written words too. They are repetitive enough that they really have helped my husband pick up signs, and me remember them. (I took a semester of sign in 8th grade.)

[NevillesLostToad]

Hey, I joined but forgot about it for a while. I kept thinking about it but forgot by the time I got to my computer. Thanks for the welcome. I am a Harry Potter fan. My 7 yr old Nathan and I like to read it together (when he will sit still and listen long enough). I will look into that special needs group. I need some support about now. A doctor confirmed our suspicions that Marshall probably has SID, ADHD, or Asperger's Syndrome or all of the above. He also has some OCD behaviors. :( Evenings are the worst but we'll manage.

Aprilyn

[amyable]

I'm Amy, mom to four girls who are 8, 6, 3, and 1. My 6yo has a recently diagnosed unilateral, mixed mod-severe hearing loss, but we have been interested in signing and Signing Time since before we found out. My girls are far outpacing me in acquiring sign language! We homeschool and are enjoying the startup of a new year. :)

(hoping this doesn't double post, I'm getting errors! :o )

[Orah]

Hi, I'm Deborah. I'm married to Phil and we have two beautiful children. They are both hearing. Emily is 19 months and Walter is 5 months, pretty close huh?
Emily started signing at 5 months old with "more", and has been adding more and more ever since. She has a huge vocabulary because of ST in both verbal and ASL. We are looking forward to Walter joining in here soon.

Also, other than the chat at 7pm, is there any other way to talk with those on line in the forums?

[c01dunlap]

I'm Amy, mom to four girls who are 8, 6, 3, and 1. My 6yo has a recently diagnosed unilateral, mixed mod-severe hearing loss, but we have been interested in signing and Signing Time since before we found out. My girls are far outpacing me in acquiring sign language! We homeschool and are enjoying the startup of a new year. :)

(hoping this doesn't double post, I'm getting errors! :o )
Hi Amy,

Nice to meet you! That is great that you are using Signing Time and that the girls are learning Sign Language together. Yay! BTW, if you are interested, we do have an online ASL Study group here on the forums. You can read about it here (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1673). We are in Lesson 5, but go at a very slow pace. If you're using ST!, you have much of the vocabulary as a head start. ;) If you want to join us, please do -- we love to add folks, and we have a lot of fun in our chats.

Have a terrific year of homeschooling!!

[c01dunlap]

Hi, I'm Deborah. I'm married to Phil and we have two beautiful children. They are both hearing. Emily is 19 months and Walter is 5 months, pretty close huh?
Emily started signing at 5 months old with "more", and has been adding more and more ever since. She has a huge vocabulary because of ST in both verbal and ASL. We are looking forward to Walter joining in here soon.

Also, other than the chat at 7pm, is there any other way to talk with those on line in the forums?
Hi Deborah,

What a darling picture of your little ones! Glad you introduced yourself. If you want to get a chat going anytime, follow the directions in "Chatrooms Active, Come Join In! (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1348)". Be sure to delete your post there when you're done (go in to edit, and deleting is one of the options), so people know you've left the chatroom. My experience is it may take 15-30 minutes for folks to work their way down to your post, so you also have to be patient.

There are several regularly-scheduled chats listed on the calendar (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/calendar.php?) - many of them are the ASL Study group I mentioned in my post above to Amy. You're more than welcome to drop in on any of those, of course. After the heads-down study hour (which sometimes is a bit chatty anyway), we often roll into regular chit chat.

If you're trying to catch someone in particular, you may want to send them a Private Message or email suggesting a time.

Hope that is helpful! Believe you made it to the Rachel chat last night, right? Good seeing so many new "faces" there.

[Bill]

Hi, I am Rainny and from China. I am deaf and recently married and honeymooned in Hawaii.

Hi, I am Lenny from Indonesia. Gracy (Bill) and are best
friends. I graduated from the University of Washington
with a degree in Biology. I am 2 months pregnant and
excited about my first child.

[amyable]

BTW, if you are interested, we do have an online ASL Study group here on the forums. You can read about it here (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1673). We are in Lesson 5, but go at a very slow pace. If you're using ST!, you have much of the vocabulary as a head start. ;) If you want to join us, please do -- we love to add folks, and we have a lot of fun in our chats.

Have a terrific year of homeschooling!!

Thank you, Chris! I will definitely look into it - I need the push to study sign language myself (trying to carve out time! Did you know it's hard to learn sign language when you are only *listening* to the ST videos that the kids are watching, but you are looking at your own computer, lol :D ) and I'd love to be AHEAD of them in what I know, so I can help teach them instead of the other way around! :o

[c01dunlap]

Thank you, Chris! ...Did you know it's hard to learn sign language when you are only *listening* to the ST videos that the kids are watching, but you are looking at your own computer, lol :D ) ...
Your welcome!

And, yes, I TOTALLY know -- we're usually looking at the road instead of a computer (hour commute each way to town for daycare/office). BUT, since Sophie's now entranced with the alphabet, I can add "LMNO" to the background music in my dreams (it was Colors of the Rainbow).

[c01dunlap]

Hi, I am Rainny and from China. I am deaf and recently married and honeymooned in Hawaii.

Hi, I am Lenny from Indonesia. Gracy (Bill) and are best
friends. I graduated from the University of Washington
with a degree in Biology. I am 2 months pregnant and
excited about my first child.
Welcome again to all 3 of you! Glad to get to know you individually a bit more. See you in ASL Study Chat Friday!

[joesmom]

Hi everyone! I thought I'd introduce myself real quick... My son Joe & I were watching tv LATE last night (like 1am late, we are night owls! ) Anyway I saw in the TV guide a show called Signing Time. I thought, naahhhh, couldn't be sign language- but it was- & so eye catching & fun.

Joe was mesmerized, & actually, I was too. My best friend has a daughter with autism & developmental delays, & she is completely nonverbal. When she was born her parents were told to put her in an institution because she would never do anything except lay in the corner... she is nine now & SO amazing. She can walk, & understands very complex instructions. She is able to LOVE, & she does so with all her might. She is strong!

She has been signing for a little over a year. To be honest when she first started I thought it was a waste of time- even though she is nonverbal, she is VERY adept at getting her point across. (If you know kids with autism I bet you know what I mean!!) She will take my hand & put it where she wants me to go. I am so close to her though that I can kind of SENSE what she needs, so I thought, why make her sign?

BUT- it is so amazing- she has about 30 signs now & she is learning more. It has been such a miracle to see this happen- it made me realize that it opened up a whole new world. She can communicate in a much broader way now. She just started signing 'sorry' ON HER OWN when she hits someone. Miracle enough that she can sign it, but to also understand an abstract concept like that... I just think it is so wonderful.

My son does not have special needs but he has been around my friend's daughter since he was born. (He is seven.) He loves her so much & doesn't care that she is "different." I don't think he even notices.

I was so glad to find this forum. I can't wait to read more & get to know you all. :cool:

[JoJo]

What a great story! I'm glad you came by and shared, and we're all looking forward to hearing how things go in your two families.

:-)
jojo

[joesmom]

Thanks JoJo~ I will keep you all updated! :)

[thespouseandi]

Hi I'm Amy
I'm a SAHM to a DD Nataile, 3, and DS Topher, 1. I have purchased ASL books since before they were born hoping to teach them. But I was never good at it and never got more than a handful of signs across. One day while watching PBS we saw this wonderful show and they were immediatley in love with it! They ask for it daily and can't get enough of 'Alex and Leah'. We have all learned so much in a short period, I am so grateful to ST and all the work that goes into it.
I am looking forward to learning more to teach them, and love watching them sign! Hopefully soon, I'll be able to make a few purchases and have them ready for the watching! :)

[sacmom]

She has been signing for a little over a year. To be honest when she first started I thought it was a waste of time- even though she is nonverbal, she is VERY adept at getting her point across. (If you know kids with autism I bet you know what I mean!!)

I know exactly what you mean! :p

[stefwvu]

Thanks to Chris's post in the technical thread - ya'll can finally see my baby boy!!!!!!!!!!!
[hugs Chris]

[sacmom]

Thanks to Chris's post in the technical thread - ya'll can finally see my baby boy!!!!!!!!!!!

What a cutie! :)

[c01dunlap]

Thanks to Chris's post in the technical thread - ya'll can finally see my baby boy!!!!!!!!!!!
[hugs Chris]
My post was sorta selfish, though. I love seeing new kiddo pics!! What a cutie! And fun to see the "Buddies" pic of Cole & Sarah together. :)

[archer210]

alway's nice to hear from new families I live in a ttown where my daughter iss the only HOH in the area. This makes it hard to get her involved with the deaf community becouse we (her mother and father) are not part of that culture and have no or little contact with deaf persons. The school she attends is her link to tha deaf community and culture and I give them great praise for their work.

[brenkachika]

Hi, I am new to this forum. My name is Kerry and I live in Hawaii. I have four kids. Brenna is 7 and has been signing since she was 6 months old. Just simple signs that a baby needs to know to get what she wants! 15 months after Brenna we had Katie-Jayne. She is now 6 and has also been signing since 6 months old. It really came in handy with her frequent ear infections. 19 months after Katie-Jayne Christian came along! He was a very different baby from the start. Never picked up sign, never really talked well either. By the time he was three he was dx with autism. He avoids eye contact, and that is why signing is so hard for him. Now we have a little foster son who will be our forever son in March. He signs a little too, but has hit the language explosion and talks a lot now at 18 months old! I am excited to have found this forum. We saw Rachel here in Hawaii on Saturday. It was a lot of fun!
-Kerry

[joolee]

I'm waving at you from Maui... so we have Oahu and Hawaii checking in - anybody else from Maui?

[brenkachika]

I should clarify - I live on Oahu! But I'll be on the Big Island the end of Feb!
-Kerry

[stefwvu]

I am excited to have found this forum.
-Kerry

Welcome to the forum! We are always excited to have new ST friends. Thanks for letting us know a litte about your family. Hope to see you around!
Stefanie - mom to Cole :)

[learning2sign]

:) Hi everyone...
I am Carri from Indiana.
My husband Mark and I have seven children and another baby
on the way. We Enjoy ST.
We have the whole set and have pre-ordered
the practice dvd's.
I am thankful for a group to share with and I know
I will learn a lot while I am visiting here.
I hope to make new friends here!
Have a great day,
Carri

[mom2rorynbree]

Hello! My name is Dawn. My husband (Mike) and two children(Aurora 4 yo and Cambria 12 months) are from Orange County CA. This is Signing Time round two for me :D . I signed with my first dd four years ago using Signing Time. We were on the Yahoo group back then under "dawnnmichiel".

My second dd is now 12 months old and we are signing with her and hopefully our first one will continue this time. We kept up the signing with my oldest, but once she got in preschool she quit using it. I was very sad that she refused to use it. She still understands it though and now with the second baby here she is starting to use it again. Yay!! I'm going to check out the playgroups and see if there are any close to us.

We are also learning Spanish together. The sign language is helping us with the Spanish a little because we use it with the both English and the Spanish we are learning so I feel it helps connect the languages and makes it easier for them to remember it. So far it has been fun. So Rachel planning any trilingual videos any time soon?? ;)

Dawn

[FairyLover]

Hello my name is Davia and I'm from Indiana

I have a 8 yr old daughter and a 4 yr old daughter...my 4 yr old was born with hearing loss and has had hearing aids for both ear ever since she was only a few months old.

I'm glad my daughters doctor told us about signing time...we love it and have learned so many signs from it.

I even told my daughters speech therapist about it.

nice to meet you all ;)

[kelly4me]

My name is Kelly and I stay home with my son Cameron, who is 15 months old. When I was pregnant I saw a feature on one of the morning news programs about baby signing. It made total sense to me. I could really see how it could save a child a lot of frustration. I decided at that time that it was something that I really wanted to do for/with my child.

When he turned 7 months old, we tried a signing class, but there wasn't enough attendance and it got cancelled. We had a couple of other (non ST) signing videos that he watched from time to time. We were signing mostly at meal times and around 9 months he picked up milk and more, then all done.

At the recommendation of someone in my Mom's group, I then picked up ST 7-9 since Cameron's very interested in animals. I felt they were too advanced at the time. I then purchased BST 1&2 and that's when Cameron's signing really took off. We rotate through all of his signing videos during the week, but the BST DVDs are definitely his favorites. He'll ask for them by "name". He signs "baby" and then points to the DVD player.

I just purchased ST 3-6 to try to add more signs to our vocabularies. Cameron's gotten so good at signing that my husband, Patrick, has started learning along with us as well. Whenever Cameron learns a new sign, we teach it to Daddy as well. I think he was a little hesitant at first, but he really enjoys it now.

Cameron's now 15 months and knows over 40 signs. He's starting to combine signs more regularly. It's produced some humorous results. After a long day of errands, we were in the grocery store and he signed "all done" and then "car" - essentially, "get me out of here, Mom". He'll sign "sleep" and run to his room when he's ready for a nap. He signs "more" and then something more specific if he knows the sign for what he wants more of.

Cameron's been slow to start talking and I know that signing has opened up a whole world for us. I'm so very thankful that a couple of people mentioned Signing Time to me. It's made such a difference for us!

[jensmom]

Your little Cameron is PRECIOUS! Thanks for sharing your story.

[kelly4me]

Your little Cameron is PRECIOUS! Thanks for sharing your story.

Thanks Vickie! He's my little buddy. :)

[stefwvu]

Hi Kelly! Sometimes I get behind on reading the NIce to Meet you post! Welcome to the group - a litte late. Cameron is sooo cute! Cole is 18 monthes old so they aren't too far apart. I see you live in central VA. I think sometime towards the beginning of the year we are going to have to plan a gathering of ST fans in our area - Baltimore. There are quite a few of us in the general area. :)
Stefanie

[kelly4me]

Hi Kelly! Sometimes I get behind on reading the NIce to Meet you post! Welcome to the group - a litte late. Cameron is sooo cute! Cole is 18 monthes old so they aren't too far apart. I see you live in central VA. I think sometime towards the beginning of the year we are going to have to plan a gathering of ST fans in our area - Baltimore. There are quite a few of us in the general area. :)
Stefanie

That would be a lot of fun and we could probably pull it off. Let me know! Thanks for the welcome!

[Shell]

Ok ... I'm Shell. I have 3 wonderful kids - Jared is 15, Jonah is 10, and Jaydin is 13 months. We are signing with Jaydin and have been since she was 3 months old. We live in Georgia and always have. I homeschool the boys and will homeschool Jaydin as well. I think that's about it. Oh ... Jaydin is signing about 52 words right now (counted last night) and we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE signing time. They are the BEST signing videos EVER.

[Brian Grindrod]

I should have done this when I first registered a while ago but better late than never!

My name is Brian Grindrod and I reside in Montreal, Canada. My wife, Amelie, and I are the proud parents of a 2 year old girl. Amelie and I both operate a residential home for people who suffer from mental illness. This operation allows us to be with our daughter every minute of the day. Our little family has been learning sign language for the past 18 months.

It all started after we had finished viewing the film, Meet The Fockers, in which the character of Robert deNiro interacts with his grandson via sign language. Curiosity got the better of me and I did some research to see if any of what was mentioned in the film about infants being able to communicate in sign language had any truth to it or if it was fiction. I came across your wonderful site and decided that I had all to gain and nothing to lose by ordering the first set of the Signing Time DVDs.

With a healthy amount of time and effort fused with an even greater dose of love, Catherine started to sign her first words. Today, our daughter can communicate with us in french, english and sign language.

Signing Time forms part of our daughter's educational formation to not only be able to communicate with greater ease but to respect as well as understand that people do not have limitations but rather that each person posseses unique gifts that they want to share with one & all.

Best,
- Brian

[stefwvu]

Welcome Brian! We are glad that you decided to take the chance and research what you saw in Meet the Fockers. We hope that you enjoy the forums and make as many friends as all of us have made here. You will find that not only are we here for ST but we become a family you can turn to for anything. Welcome to our Signing Time family and congrats on your singing find!

[mommyhugz]

Hi! I'm a newbie, and excited to be a part of this forum. We have a very slow internet connection (dial-up, ugh) but I hope to catch up on all the wonderful topics that have been posted already.

My name is Heather, I'm 28, married for 4.5 years, and we have one son, Isaac. Isaac is 3.5 and was diagnosed with autism in December 2005. I've always been interested in learning ASL but never had the opportunity. When our son was showing language delays, he was a year old when the Early Intervention folks recommended teaching him ASL. He's up to nearly 100 signs now! We didn't hear about Signing Time videos until last year, but they've been a great tool in helping our son learn more signs as well as us learning at the same time.

Since it is so difficult to find people fluent or even familiar with ASL in our area (our son knows more signs than all his teachers put together), I'm looking into going back to school and getting a degree to become an interpreter. :D

[c01dunlap]

Heather,

Glad to see your intro! I love to meet new ST! parents here on the forum. I'm glad you came across the ST! videos (and forum) - they are a wonderful resource for family and friends to learn ASL too. I know some parents here have given or loaned our their ST! DVDs to teachers, even.

Look forward to catching up on posts myself (I've been 'offline' for the holidays, and missing my friends here), and eager to see your other posts.

Take care,

[Lynja_the_ninja]

thanks for posting newbies. I love to read about all the people useing ST. enjoy the form and all the friends here.

[janinek]

Welcome Brian! Glad you discovered ST! How exciting that your daughter will be tri-lingual! Did you know that the little boy (actually twins) from Meet the Fockers are in ST!? I believe they are friends with Rachel's family - but I'll let someone who knows more respond just in case I'm wrong.

[hrobinson]

Hello!!! New to all this.
My name is Heather and I have a 21 month old girl.
I started getting concerned about her speech when she was about 6 months old and didn't have any words. Doctor was not too worried. I brought it up to his attention at her 9 month appointment, still not concerned. Finally at her 1 year appointment when she was only saying mama and dada, he referred us for speech. She has been receiving speech now for 6 months, and seems to be speaking a little more, but not much. My mother is afraid she has apraxia.
The speech therapist just told us this week, that she is very concerned becuase my daughter (Shelby) is not gaining as much as she should. We have taught her a few signs, which she uses until she can get the words out, then she drops the signs. The therapist just suggested ST, so I am excited to get our first copy and see how she does.
I am hoping that while picking up the signs, she also picks up more vocabulary.

[ShortCake's Mama]

Hi I am new here. I am a mom of 3 girls. Two of them are HOH. I am HOH, myself. I am from Canada. Been trying to connect with other parents that have children who are Deaf or HOH. I think it's so important to have a network of support. I found out when my youngest was 8 months old and my middlest daughter was almost 3. We just got the new ilink hearing aids with the FM system for at home. We are totally loving it!

I can't wait to get mine - should be in next week sometime.

Anyhow I hope to meet all kind of people here. I really enjoy meeting other parents.

Hope to hear from you soon.

SM

[mom2E&G]

Hi
Glad you joined the forum. I too have two HOH daughters. We're hooked on Signing Time. Can you tell me a little about your fm system at home. My 5 year old has a personal one at school but we hadn't thought of getting one for at home too...any info you can give me would be appreciated...such as when and how you use yours. Thanks
Chrisann
ps..your girls are beautiful.

[ShortCake's Mama]

http://www.phonak.com/com_028_0023-xx_fm_collection_brochure_professional.pdf

http://www.phonak.com/consumer/products/ilink-intro-2.htm

I had this whole thing typed out..grr and then I exited it by accident looking for the sites LOL.

Anyhow it's great they can hear it directly into their hearing aids. They can hear the TV, computer, MP3. We go to the mall and it's really noisy - they can still hear us without us having to raise our voice. Signing we do but sometimes they just don't give us their attention. So they do hear with us when we speak through the headset.

It's wonderful, it has really opened up a lot of doors for us. We work with them on school stuff too with FM setting only on their aids. It's wonderful.

I provided the links for what aids and FM system they have. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me.

If you have MSN, you can add me too mine is kat26800@aol.com

Hope to see you soon!!!!!

Thanks for the compliment about my girls.

[mom2E&G]

Wow...this could open up some doors for us too. I'm going to look into getting one for our household. Thanks so much for the info.

[ngaiosmum]

Hello! My name is Pacasha and I have a 3 month old baby girl named Ngaio (N+eye - oh). I've been signing to her since birth and eagerly await her first sign! She's not deaf or hoh (that i know of!) but I've always loved and respected deaf culture and the beauty of sign language! I'm so happy that signingtime! exsists! i've been in love with it since i saw it on PBS a few mionths ago. I took ASL in college, but intending on using it as a way to communicate with chimpanzees! That didn't work out, so know I'm a mom, and using it with my little monkey!

[c01dunlap]

Hello! My name is Pacasha and I have a 3 month old baby girl named Ngaio (N+eye - oh). I've been signing to her since birth and eagerly await her first sign! She's not deaf or hoh (that i know of!) but I've always loved and respected deaf culture and the beauty of sign language! I'm so happy that signingtime! exsists! i've been in love with it since i saw it on PBS a few mionths ago. I took ASL in college, but intending on using it as a way to communicate with chimpanzees! That didn't work out, so know I'm a mom, and using it with my little monkey!
Pacasha,

Great to meet you! That is so neat that you already know ASL from college - I bet your little Ngaio watches your every move. Be sure to tell us all about it in the Baby Signing Time (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3) forums as she does her first signs! Look forward to more posts from you! :D

[Willsmommy]

Hi! I'm Andrea and I have a 22 mth old son William and a 16 year old daughter Leslie. I have been signing with William on and off since he was a few months old and he has been learning at daycare. About 3-4 months ago I bought the signing time videos because of a friend of mine who raved about them and WOW! William's language has taken off and not only that his signing has grown by leaps and bounds.

So, anyways, I'm here to share and hopefully learn lots from other signing moms to be able to teach my kids (Yes my daughter watches and learns too) and learn myself!


DUUH, LOL guess this introduction belongs here. :)

[raley]

Hi I have been ST fan for the past 2 yrs. Mydaughter Anna is 5and loves ST. For some reason signing has always been special to me and I love that my daughter is so interested. My dream is to one day to go back to school to interprete. I pass along information on ST all the time. I look forward to more ST

[Mom2ckc]

Hi Nice to meet you and your dd. :)
I'm Mary mom to
Caitlyn 4hrs, Kyle 3yrs and Carmelle 18 months.
We are big signing time fans here too.

[CoolLikeThat]

Hi,

My name is Jemma. I wanted to introduce myself to you all. I have no idea if i am doing this right.

I am 26 years old and I have two boys, Isaac(4) & Liam(16 months).

There is so much information to take in and learn from here! We started watching our Signing Time DVD's last October, so we are beginners.

I hope to get to know you all better! I already know Sally & Liljen. I also have met tweejy from another forum that I love.

[liljen801]

I havent really introduced myself yet. My name is Jenny. I work full time and am a mother to four lil ones. Daniel is 7 1/2, Alexa is 6, Benjamin is 4 and Cristian is 2 months. I decided when Cristian was born that I wanted to teach him Sign Language. I received a ST DVD as a baby shower gift and my four year old especially loves it. He has actually caught on to a lot of the signs. :) They also love to listen to the DVD in the car! I am a beginner so I will take any advice anyone can give!

[strykersmommy]

Hey hey Jenny! good to see you here. :)

[alrdy_tkn]

:D Hello everyone, My name is Kate. I have 2 boys, both have had speech issues while young. My oldest who is 8, had lost part of his hearing for about 2 years before having tubes put in. If i had known then i would need sign language i would have learned then. By the time we found out he was having surgery and on his way to learning to speak. My youngest has perfect hearing altho he cannot seem to talk very well. He still only says about 10 words total, altho in sign we have almost 100. I was told about ST by a friend who saw it on TV. I have been trying to teach him on my own up until about 2 weeks ago. That is when christian, my 2 yr old, found ST. He loves it, and is picking it up fast. I think today alone i have watched our single tape 6 times..lol... I am so happy I dont think words can express it. I only wish i had it with my oldest. I just wanted to say hi and hello to eveyone and thanks for letting me be apart of what seems to be an amazing group. [/SIZE]

[sweetness6667]

My name is Tiffany...I have a 3 yr old son Bastian! My DH and I started teaching our son how to sign when he was 6 months and he started signing back about 9 months! We taught him because we found it to be an easier way to figure out his wants and needs! And my hubby loves to show him off when people see us signing... :D! I discovered Signing Time a few years ago when at the library and my son LOVES THEM!!! :D I was trying to figure out the sign or if there was one for You're Welcome...

I am excited to be apart of this group and would love for us to learn more and continue on. I WILL continue signing with future children as well!!! :D

[Sally6473]

Woohoo! Welcome to all the mommies from SLCM (saltlakecitymommies.com) it's so great to see so many of you popping up over here. Welcome to everybody else too.

[moms~bubby]

Hello! my name is Brandi, i am married to Thomas and have a son named Bubby... Thomas II. Bubby has many "issues" which we are trying to give him the skills to deal with... he is very special to us, and is such a happy child! he can be very difficult at times though... i may need advice sometimes from you more mature, more experienced ladies and fathers!... Thank-you so much in advance for the help!

[ambersmom]

Hi,
My name is Vickie. I have 2 daughters Alison is 11 and Amber is 8. Amber has a severe hearing loss and has Down Syndrome.
She did get a coclear implant 3 yrs ago. Amber loves watching the Signing Time videos. She does have a very large signing vocabulary. We found out at birth she was deaf so I went out and bought books to learn. We are very proud of her.
Vickie

[Motherhood]

Hi! My name is Jennifer. My husband and I have 2 girls, Eliana and Evangeline. We are all hearing, but I knew I wanted to use ASL with my children even before I was married. I have always had an interest in ASL and had heard of the benefits of signing with hearing children. My oldest daughter is three-years-old, knows a ton of signs, and is a huge ST! fan. Even my 9-month-old loves to dance to ST! songs. I have been taking ASL classes for a while now through the New Mexico School for the Deaf. Our family loves ASL and plans to continue learning indefinitely! :)

[TLit]

HELLO from colorful CO.
My name is Teresa I am married to a wounderful man (5 years) In January we (God willing) will have our first baby. I do have a dog & yes he knows some sign language. I also have a turtle but she doesn't know sign:p ha ha. I am a preschool teacher teaching for 18 wounderful years and loving it!!! I started teaching some sign to my school children about 5 years ago two years ago the kids started asking more questions about sign language that I couldn't answer so back to school I went. WOW did I learn a lot and I am still learning. My teacher Mrs. E showed me ST :) Thank you!!! ST has opened up a great new world to myself and the children at our school. I am so Happy To meet all of YOU!!!!

[Baby2youandme]

Hi Everyone - I am Tammy and I am from Sandusky OHIO. My husband and I have 2 daughters. Candace who will be 2 in July and MIchelle who is 5 months. We are learning a lot of signing as Candace has down syndrome and at 16 months she finally showed us she was ready to learn sign language. In this short time she has learned 25 words! She eats it right up.

Tammy

[JoeyMom]

Hi! I'm Manda, and I'm the mom of Joey, 5, and Andy, 3. Joey is autisitc, apraxic and has auditory processing issues. Andy has an articulatin dysfunction. We are learning to sign to lessen the stress and frustration of communication in our house- and it is working beautifully, thanks to Signing Time! I'm a WAHM, mostly online teaching and scoring standardized tests online. Gotta love jobs you can do in your pajamas. :)

[Ibby]

I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Ibby, SAHM to 11 wonderful children. My youngest, AJ, has Down Syndrome. He is the light of our lives and holds a very special place in our hearts. We have been signing to AJ since birth. At 10 months, he could sign Mama, Daddy and love. Our little girls are wonderful little signers! I've always wanted to learn sign language...I'm so glad I've finally started!!

For you parents out there with children with Down Syndrome, I belong to a wonderful forum to parent support and friendship. I would encourage you to PM me and I'll send you the link. I'm afraid I'm not certain if it is okay to post the link here.

Ibby http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/ibbyrussell/ww-possible.gif

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/ibbyrussell/scan.jpg

[ST! Carrie]

I've read on and off here for a few years, but have never jumped in. My name is Carrie and I'm Rachel and Emilie's and Rebecca's oldest sister. (Name a sibling in my family...I'm their oldest sister.) My youngest daughter's voice and face show up on just about every episode of Signing Time, and I've been involved with Two Little Hands in various ways over the years. I'm excited to have just begun working for the world's best company yet again, and am enjoying the enthusiasm and inspiration here on the forum.

I'll be working with our institutional customers (schools of all kinds, libraries, hospitals, early childhood centers, etc.) learning how we can help our existing customers use Signing Time to their best advantage, and developing ways to reach new organizations. (If any of you have experience in these areas and would like to share your insights and ideas feel free to email me!)

[Psychoceramic]

Hi, my name is bill and my wife is bethann ( I only mention her cause she will be talked about a lot, well ok not talked about in a bad sense.. = : > )

I am a SAHD, with three kids, a ten year old, a 2 1/2 year old and a ten month old. We started teaching our 2 year old sign since day one having read that it helps to decrease frustrations and yes it does.

Our ten year old took ASl in her third grade class as an extra school activity. So she was a great help since day one. We are now teaching our youngest signing also.

All my children are hearing, Des, (ten) loves to sign because she has a neighbor that is deaf and she can talk to him when others can't. Kay (2) loves to sign because then she can tell us what she wants with out having to talk (she loves to talk) she also enjoys the attention she gets from strangers when she signs. Emmie (10m) loves the signs she knows cause we jump to our feet and succumb to her ever need. = :>


in Jesus,
bill

[Tia]

Hi im Tia~
I have 3 children I love ST i got started with my daughter who was having hearing issues due to ear infections. She didn't speek at all and was frustrated thanks to ST she learned to comunicate with others and calm her frustrations. It is such a great product. I have used it with my older daughter who is 5 and started it with my son 6 months. All my children just love watching the DVDs.

[crystaljcarney]

My name is Crystal and we live in California. We have 3 boys..Christian 10 Aiden who is almost 3 (and acts every part of it) and Noah who just turned 1. Noah was born profoundly deaf. We have learned so much from Signing Time and honestly don't know what we would have done without it. We have every video and flash cards from ST and can't wait to buy all the books as well. What a great program to get started. ST has blessed out family!!! And my family LOVES IT!!!

[taylorcamel]

Jennifer-Mom to 3. Taylor 14, Cameron 5, and baby Kaylynne 20 months. Wife of 15 years to Jeff. I have been a member forever. Came over from the old yahoo group back when we had less than 300 members. Cameron is in BST 1 and 2 and Taylor and Cameron have pictures in the ST coloring books. Baby Kay hasn't made an appearance yet (hope she gets the chance) but she did get to meet Rachel in Utah when she was 6 weeks old.

I have been trying to keep up with the group I just haven't posted much since around November of 2005. I was having a difficult pregnancy with baby Kay and had been on bed rest and lots of expensive meds and testing were needed. We cancelled our home internet connection to save money. I have been able to keep up with most of the posts by using computers at school but don't usually have time to post my own thoughts.

We finally have home internet again but only because we were lucky enough to move near a wireless connection in late June. I have been looking forward to posting again. I have really missed talking with all my old friends.

It has been so long though I thought I better give an update. We still live in central Oklahoma. I survived my last pregnancy and we now have a beautiful and very special little girl. We are still signing and it has been such a blessing for so many reasons.

Cameron had some trouble with hearing loss due to some very bad ear infections that ruptured his eardrums. He has recovered now but during that time we felt so lucky that we had already taught him sign. He was still able to communicate with us and had no language delays from the situation.

Kaylynne made it through the pregnancy and beat all the odds. I was told by several doctors that I would miscarry. She is way too strong to let that happen. She has been a fighter from the beginning. Her birth went very well and other than a clubfoot (they thought her ankle may have actually been broken) she was healthy. We noticed she was taking a little longer to reach milestones than her brothers had but she was still doing everything she should. We tried not to worry too much.

Her clubfoot had mostly corrected itself with exercise. She would not support weight on her legs though. They did x-rays and ruled out hip displasia but could not figure out the trouble. When she turned one and was not attempting to pull up she was classified as developmentally delayed in her gross motor skills and qualified for early intervention services. She has been working with a PT ever since.

In all other areas she seemed to be developing typically. She was fitted for bilateral SMO's to support her feet/ankles in May. During a visit with her orthopedic doctor he told us he thought she had mild hypotonic cerebral palsy. Her pediatrician confirmed she suspected it as well. We are still waiting for insurance to give us the OK to see the neurologist for a MRI.

Once again we were so thankful that we had been using ST from the start with her. The pediatrician felt she was severely speech delayed and probably would have told us she was mentally delayed as well. We know better. She has shown us how smart she is because she can sign to us. She may be slightly speech delayed but we know she can catch up.

It is so wonderful to be able to prove that the light we see in her eyes is more than just our bias as parents. It is her happiness and intelligence showing through. She may not be able to show us verbally all the time but she can sign and that gives us proof. She just started to walk at 20 months. We are so happy for her. What a wonderful gift she is!

[Baby2youandme]

Hi - I am Tammy and my husband Mike and I have 2 girls. Candace who is 26 months and is a high functioning Downs Syndrome child and we love extremely, and Candace has an 8 month old sister Michelle who is all about her sister and they love to chat back and forth. We are blessed to have loving, energetic and well behanved girls! We took them on a 3 day trip this past weekend and they were awesome!!! Really love this and we cannot wait to go more places with them. :D

Tammy

[hollmil]

Our daughter is 16 mos. old. She started signing at 7.5 months. At 12 mos she had 12 signs. But then we discoverd ST! She loves it and asks to watch it all the time. Now she has somewhere around 175 signs! Crazy! I didn't start out planning to have her sign more than a few things. . .But I fell in love with signing. I've joined a signing group for adults--great fun! And I've started my own playgroup for kids.

I was really concerned when we had to send our daughter to daycare. She has been able to communicate most of her desires for so long--to be throw into a situation where no one signs and she couldn't communicate, except for a few words--anyway, my concerns were for nothing. Her teacher is fluent in sign language (her relatives are deaf) so she understands our daughter and is even teaching her more! Now our daughter is teaching her little classmates to sign. They've figured out that she gets more food when she does the MORE sign, so they're doing it, too. And some of them now sign PLEASE and THANK YOU. It's so cute!

[NickysMom]

I started using a book and signed to my infant while I was in Guatemala fostering him myself while waiting for our adoption to be approved and finalized. I learned through reading Guatemalan Adoption newsgroups about BST. I immediately ordered the DVDs and they were waiting for us once we arrived home in December when my son was 8 months old. He is now 17 months, we have graduated from BST to ST, and he actually asks that I put on the DVDs! When we're in the car, he'll ask that I put on the CDs and when I peak in the back, I see him signing to the music!!

Once home and settled, I began coming to the ST website and now have joined the forum and also participated in the wonderful chats on Wednesdays. I learn more and more each day and I hope to start a ST playgroup and would also like to teach ASL in my son's preschool. :)

Renee
Mom to Nicky
Age 17 1/2 months
Born in Guatemala
Home 4-ever 12/06 at 8 months

[KatieD0408]

Hi everyone!
My name is Katie, and I became deaf at 17, during my senior year of high school. After 3 surgeries within a year and a half, I was classified as hard of hearing/ impared.
I am now 24, and the proud stay-at-home mom to a 2-year-old little girl.
My husband and daughter both watch Signing Time, and have made it a lot easier to communicate when I don't have my hearing aids in!
I look forward to chatting with everyone,
Katie
Dayton, OH

[colletteski]

My name is Collette, I have a 2 year old daughter named Dawnah, I was introduced to sign language when I was very young, my cousin who is the same age as I am is deaf and he and I are very close if not best friends. So when I had my 1st little baby girl I KNEW that she needed to be fluent in sign language, Dereck (my cousin) was on an LDS mission when she was born and he just got home about 4 months ago, Dawnah can sign well over 100 words, I can't even count them all, we sign a lot in our home, my husband is even learning along with Dawnah. Last night when Dereck was over for dinner, he said something and I wasn't paying full attention to him and I asked him to repeat the sign, and my husband actually told me what he had said, I laughed hysterically after that because 2 years ago when Dereck left my husband had no clue any of the signs and now he's interpeting for me when I'm not watching, lol! It was great, he didn't even know that he had paid that much attention to signing time, he surprised himself. Anyway now i'm completely off topic, but that's a little about me, I am active on a few forums and I would love to add this one to my every day list! I can't wait to get to know everyone! :D

[MamaL]

Hey Everybody,

I have been lurking here for awhile now, but finally decided to post! My name is Lori, and I live in the NC mountains near Asheville with my 2 children and husband.
My daughter, Caitriona, LOVES signing time! We found it by chance on our local PBS station when she was a little over 1 year old, and have since collected the DVD's. All of us have learned a ton of signs since then, and she has an amazing vocabulary. When she started speech therapy in the spring, everyone was amazed at her signing ability. I tell everyone about the series, and show them whenever I get a chance! She is now saying some words, but still uses signs in a major way. We are so THANKFUL for Signing Time! Cat is turning 2 in November, and I have thought about having a ST birthday party theme... just not sure how to make a cake to match! I can do basic cake decorating, but that is about it. Any ideas out there?
I do wish that Rachel and crew would come out to the East! I bet we could get a turnout here in the NC Mountains! :)

[KatiesMom]

Hey Everybody,

I do wish that Rachel and crew would come out to the East! I bet we could get a turnout here in the NC Mountains! :)

I know I'd drive to anywhere in NC, or VA for that matter.

[Jacksfamily]

I don't think I've introduced myself anywhere on these forums yet. I'm Marie and I am very glad to be the mother of 2.5 year old Jack. I had heard of signing with babies prior to Jack's birth and knew that I wanted to do it. Jack was born with Apert syndrome and that brought its own special set of challenges. One of those challenges is that Jack's fingers and toes were fused together at birth. He has since had surgeries to release his fingers and toes so he has all 5 digits on each hand and foot. He does not have knuckles so his fingers do not bend except where they meet the hand and even there they don't bend much YET. We (mostly me at first) started signing with Jack when he was only a few weeks old. It took a really long time before we ever saw him sign back but it was very clear that he understood the signs. I don't remember how I learned about Signing Time but the Baby Signing Time videos were the first "movies" Jack would ever watch. At 2.5 years old, he is now considered speech delayed but he communicates very well using sign language. Because he is unable to bend his fingers like most children it takes a little extra effort to see what he is signing sometimes but the sheer joy on his face when we get it makes it so worth continuing to teach signs even so very many of them look similiar when he does them. So that's our story for now.

[beenwaitingalongtime]

Hi, there! My name is Erika. I'm glad to have found a group of people equally enthusiastic about signing w/ their kids as I am :)

I'm a teacher for the Deaf in Northern California--I work with multiply handicapped Deaf children w/ disabilities such as autism, visual impairments, CP, ED, ADHD and MR. I did my grad. school thesis on the benefits of signing w/ Hearing babies and always knew I'd sign w/ mine.

Everywhere we go, people are in awe of my 21 m/o DD, Ramie. Her vocab. is ginormous and the complex thoughts she's able to express w/ sign and some barely intelligible speech are astounding. I've signed w/ her from day #1 and saw understanding at just a few months, as I'd sign BUTTERFLY and watch her eyes go straight to the light-up butterfly I'd use during diaper changing time.

I'm a bit of a hippie mama so we don't do TV much here, but the one show Ramie watches is ST (is a bit of an addict, I believe). Even by looking at this forum page, she recognized it immediately :) It's been wonderful in teaching our former nanny, my MIL and DH some of the basics and I'm impressed every time DD walks away from the TV having learned something new. (Yesterday I was sick, so I popped on her Christmas gift: Nice to Meet You--she's been saying/signing 'Nice meet you!' all day!)

My students watch ST as the 'Viewing' portion of the ASL curriculum (watching for a purpose, and summarizing what they've seen)--we bought the whole Vol. 1 set after growing/selling organic herb boxes for a whole year!

I also WAH at night sewing for my business which includes cloth diaper-related items, girly tutus and bows and some ASL-inspired goodies. ASL has had a part in my life since I was 4 y/o, so it's wonderful to see it popping up in both my career and family life.

Thx for having me. Can't wait to dive on in!

[luvmy2gals]

Hi - my name is Jodi. I'm a 38 year old college freshman with a hearing loss in my left ear. I learned some sign in 4th grade but always wanted to learn more. I took some local classes at a deaf college 2 years ago, and just decided to go back to school for my degree in sign language interpreting. I am so happy to find this site! I actually started watching Signing Time to learn myself. My kids said, "Mommy you can't learn from a kid movie!" I said yes I sure can! I ended up having my test to test out of ASL 1 the week after I found Signing Time, and I remembered the sign for "farm" from the first tape I watched :) I have been using them to get my kids into signing, we have a large deaf community in my town.

[elizabethsmom]

Hello,
My name is Sheryl. I am married to a wonderful man, Joby. We are both Registered Nurses. I have a son, Kelli, who is 18 yrs old, twin daughters, Tia and Amber, who are 15, and an infant daughter, Elizabeth, who is 10 months old. Elizabeth has Down Syndrome. That is why we initially looked into ASL. The more we checked, the more ST came up. We only recieved the baby signing Volume 1 a couple of weeks ago, but my teenagers are doing great! Elizabeth watches but hasn't begun to sign yet. Hopefully this will help prevent some of the frustration associated with delayed verbal ability.

[purplewowies]

My name is Jessica, and I am fourteen and a freshman in high school. I am taking an ASL 1 class at my school, but I discovered Signing Time! in 7th grade, I think. I discovered this website later, around eighth grade, when I went to signingtimekids.org and clicked a link (I think).

[momjay]

My name is Jay and I'm the mother of 3. Kyla (6) Dustin (4) and Sierra (2)
Sierra is gradually loosing her hearing but it is complicated more by the fact that her brain has difficulty understanding verbal speach. Her ears hear fairly well still at about 55% but her brain is only able to "untangle" about 20% of that. We have only just started learning ASL and she has about 30 words. It's been unbelivable what a diffrence it has made in our home.
I look forward to meeting you all and hope that I don't assult you with too many questions...I'm trying to learn all I can as quickly as I can...she needs it so much.
Jaylean

[3girlsmom]

Welcome! Looking forward to getting to know you!:D

[brandieguerrettaz]

Hello my name is Brandie and I am a married mother of three wonderful boys. Alex (9), Bryce (6) and Drew (2). Drew has been diagnosed with severe apraxia, mild hypotonia of the trunk area and severe hypotonia in his mouth. We discovered Signing Time when our speech therapist at early intervention gave us the 1st 2 volumes of baby signing time.

Drew only speaks about 4-6 words which are mom, dad, bup (dog), hot, mi (mine) and un (done). We have been with early intervention since October and Drew has only picked up 2 spoken words but has picked up over 30 signs. I don't know what we would do if it wasn't for us learning the signs and Drew is able to communicate so much better.

I just wanted to intoduce myself to everyone. I am hoping to be able to meet some parents just like us.

[oneponygirl]

I guess this is where I should introduce myself. My name is Julie. My kids are Gabe who is about to turn 4 and Zion who just turned 1. I also have another on the way. Gabe had extraordinary verbal skills very early. His first word was "kitty" at around 6 or 7 months and by 13 months he was saying words like "car insurance" and shortly after that he was pretty much completely conversational. Now, at 3, he's teaching himself to read and do math. When he was an infant I taught him the signs for "more" and "please" but it quickly became obvious that he would much rather talk than sign so I didn't push it.

My DD showed the same early verbal skills, her first word was also "kitty", but then she quickly tapered off. I started showing her the sign for "more" when she was maybe 7 or 8 months old but she did not return the sign until after she was a year. She totally knew what you were asking her though because she would grin and nod when you would sign "more" to her. After she started to finally sign "more" we taught her "please", "book", "milk", and "change". I sign to her all day but she seems content to stick with those. After all, "please" gets her just about any she wants or needs. She's a smarty and seems to only want to do as much as she has to. She will watch short portions of the ST videos which is more than she will watch of anything else on the boob toob, video or otherwise. In fact, I had been trying to teach her "milk" for weeks and it only took seeing it once on the baby signs video and she signed it. Learning "change" totally changed (ha!) how her diaper changings went, before she fought them tooth and nail. Now that she can ask for a change or if we sign it to her she'll boogie over to her changing supply basket, pull out her mat and lay on it.

Now that DD is learning sign in order to communicate, DS is interested too. He has picked up more from the videos than she has at this point and brings up various signs throughout the day. I also have another baby coming in April so we'll all be ready to sign to him or her as well. :)

[TLit]

HELLO from colorful CO.
My name is Teresa I am married to a wounderful man (5 years) In January we (God willing) will have our first baby. I do have a dog & yes he knows some sign language. I also have a turtle but she doesn't know sign:p ha ha. I am a preschool teacher teaching for 18 wounderful years and loving it!!! I started teaching some sign to my school children about 5 years ago two years ago the kids started asking more questions about sign language that I couldn't answer so back to school I went. WOW did I learn a lot and I am still learning. My teacher Mrs. E showed me ST :) Thank you!!! ST has opened up a great new world to myself and the children at our school. I am so Happy To meet all of YOU!!!!

It's a Girl.:D Emma Rose born five weeks early Dec. 5th (sorry this is the 1st time I have had to log on)
WOW I love being a mommy!

[CODA_DAD]

Hi all. Just a bit of bio information about myself. As my user name implies, I'm a Coda, otherwise known in the deaf community as a (hearing adult) Child Of Deaf Parents. My parents taught me sign language from infancy and I was into "signing time" long before it became popular. In a previous professional life, I was a sign language interpreter and currently I'm studying to get my doctorate at the University of Illinois in Educational Psychology, specializing in language and social development of deaf children.

I also have the special pleasure of raising a 16-month old daughter, Cayla. She absolutely loves B(aby)ST! and would have it running 24/7 if she had her way. My wife and introduced ST to her just after the beginning of the New Year when she was about 14-months old. Now, it's been about 10-11 weeks since then and she has learned about 60-65 signs. It's our hope that our daughter will be able to communicate proficiently with her deaf grandparents when she is older, but ultimately that will depend on how much of an opportunity she has to converse in sign language on a regular basis.

Cheers.

[valliefyre]

Hi, I’m the mother of 27 month old boy/girl twins. My daughter was born with complex congenital heart defects. At 6 weeks she got meningitis and lost the majority of her hearing, she has a moderate to severe loss in both ears. We didn’t find out about the degree of loss until around 8 months, at that time we got her hearing aids and started services with ECI and our ISD AI services. That is how we have been learning our sign. Through multiple surgeries and hospital stays, we had gotten lazy in our signing. I really didn’t feel confident signing to anyone other than the twins. Our AI provider brought over one of the signing time videos last month and OMG it has so got us signing all the time. I have already gotten two and hope to build our collection as soon as I can. The twins love it and we love it too. It is helping me realize that I know more than I think and it’s really building my confidence. I’m now looking at going back to school to go into deaf Ed. The twins are signing all the time now. I am such a huge fan even though I’m late in the game I am so glad that I found it, I’m telling everyone I know about it. My mom is even signing now after only seeing ST one time she actually remembers the signs she learned. I just wanted to share. Thank you.

[catybarra]

Hi, I’m the mother of 27 month old boy/girl twins. My daughter was born with complex congenital heart defects. At 6 weeks she got meningitis and lost the majority of her hearing, she has a moderate to severe loss in both ears. We didn’t find out about the degree of loss until around 8 months, at that time we got her hearing aids and started services with ECI and our ISD AI services. That is how we have been learning our sign. Through multiple surgeries and hospital stays, we had gotten lazy in our signing. I really didn’t feel confident signing to anyone other than the twins. Our AI provider brought over one of the signing time videos last month and OMG it has so got us signing all the time. I have already gotten two and hope to build our collection as soon as I can. The twins love it and we love it too. It is helping me realize that I know more than I think and it’s really building my confidence. I’m now looking at going back to school to go into deaf Ed. The twins are signing all the time now. I am such a huge fan even though I’m late in the game I am so glad that I found it, I’m telling everyone I know about it. My mom is even signing now after only seeing ST one time she actually remembers the signs she learned. I just wanted to share. Thank you.


You should check out the library in the mean time! I checked out some of their DVDs until I was able to purchase my set last summer. That way you can have exposure to all of them, a little at a time, until you can complete your set.

It's "nice to meet you!"

[Thomas's Mom]

Hi! My name is Shann and I have a 22 month old boy. He is my third child. I have two older grown children from my first marriage. I also have 2 grandchildren (5 and 2). Yes, my third is our miracle baby!

I found Signing Time by visiting a friend, who has family from the states that sends her little girl these DVD's. Once I saw them I thought wow, this would be great for our little one, as we have been doing some sign by using a book. I am totally sold!

I am from Alberta Canada. I guess these aren't available in Canada.:(

I look forward in meeting more mom's on this site with their experiences. Have a great day!:)

[clover68]

Hi! I'm Marcie and I'm new to Signing Time! What took me so long?!....

I do not have any children, but I have always been interested in learning to sign. Now I'm am seriously going to learn it. I love the program. It's top-notch compared to other children's programming I've seen. I wish there was a deaf channel on cable!

[purplewowies]

Hi! My name is Shann and I have a 22 month old boy. He is my third child. I have two older grown children from my first marriage. I also have 2 grandchildren (5 and 2). Yes, my third is our miracle baby!

I found Signing Time by visiting a friend, who has family from the states that sends her little girl these DVD's. Once I saw them I thought wow, this would be great for our little one, as we have been doing some sign by using a book. I am totally sold!

I am from Alberta Canada. I guess these aren't available in Canada.:(

I look forward in meeting more mom's on this site with their experiences. Have a great day!:)

They are available in Canada. It just takes longer to ship (customs and stuff) and probably costs more (fees required by Canadian gov't).

This was on the Shipping FAQs (http://www.signingtime.com/article_info.php?articles_id=73)

Note to Canadian Customers: Orders to Canada are subject to other taxes and customs fees as required by the Canadian Government. Packages sent to Canada can sometimes take several weeks to get through Customs.

[MissyLovesTheRainbow]

Hi Everyone!
I'm new to the forum... I've been lurking for about a week now.

My name is Amanda and over the past several months, I have become a huge Signing Time! fan. I work with a deaf child (she has treacher collins syndrome) who displays a few autistic characteristics, and is also EH (emotionally handicapped). When the teacher refers to her outside of the class, she calls her "little miss lovely". Her name begins with "E" ... so hence my nickname here on the forum, "Missy." Her favorite episode out of the ones that we've managed to watch in class is the first one on the tape (thank goodness for the catchy song), "Box Of Crayons" because she loves rainbows, and she loves looking at the rainbow behind Rachel in that episode. All she has to do is sign "Rachel" and "rainbow" and we know which episode she feels like watching.

I am very happy to have found this show -- to me, it is a god-send. I skipped upon it by accident one Sunday morning on WXEL down here in South Florida. Best accidental find of my life! :D

Missy showed us today that she pays attention to it more than we think, because we started working on the coloring sheets today, and there was the real picture of Alex and Leah, and when we asked who it was on the paper, she gave us their sign names!!

We use it as her reward for doing all of her work, and I'm making her a copy of the tape this week for her to watch over the summer so she won't miss her "Rachel show."

As for me, I've been working with her as a teacher's assistant and her one-on-one for almost two years now and learning to sign at the same time. It was something I'd ALWAYS wanted to learn, but never had the time. I wouldn't trade it for any other job in the world.

[christineot]

Hello out there, My name is Christine and I'm the mother of 6 awesome kids! Our youngest daughter Grace, was born in Arctic Canada while we were ministering in an Arctic village. When she was 5 months old she contracted bacterial meningitis and had to be medi-vac to Edmonton. Through that whole ordeal she lost her hearing. When she was 9 months old she received billateral Cochlear Implants. We moved backed to the states in 'o6 to be closer to family. During this time we realized the importance of "total communication" with our daughter. We were being pushed to use oral communication only with Grace. We have chosen to learn both sign and speech with Grace. I believe she will recieve the best of two worlds!:) Our daughter is bi-lingual and bi-cultural, actually we will all be billingual.:D I'm thankful to ST for giving us the gift of sign. ST has made it easy for us as a family to learn to communicate to Grace and her to us! I look forward to making new friends with families that have similiar stories.:p

[Caila611]

Hello all,

My name is Tiffanie and I am mom to three grea kiddos. DD is 11 and has auditory Processing disorder and a few other disabllities, DS is 3 and was born with a cleft palate and Hearing impaired. After his surgery to fix his cleft his hearing improved. He was also diagnosed with Autism last summer.
DS is 18 months and is the life of the party.

All three have enjoyed watching the videos together. When I turn the dvd on they all come running!!!

Tiffaie:)

[crystal_lillian]

Hi I'm Crystal, I still don't know why, but my 2 year old has had a bilateral sever to profound hearing loss in the last 6 months. It's all been so sudden, there is still so much we don't know. We started on the Signing Time DVD's and have started early intervention in an effort to hurry speach development while he can benefit from hearing aides.

I've looked eveywhere on line for support resources and I'm grateful to have landed here.

[byuigurlluvssigningtime]

I don't know if anyone reads these anymore, but My name is Sarah. I live in Utah. I began watching Signing Time! faithfully about 2 months ago and I know all the signs taught and many more from the songs. I only listen to Signing Time! when I am in my car or at home on my computer. Unlike most of you, I am single and have no children to make me want to watch Signing Time! I do it all for me! I work in a SpEd classroom and frequently I am asked how to sign this or that and when we sing songs, I sign them and a few of the students will watch me to be able to imitate the signs. It is fun when I can sign with confidence to the students and know that they understood me even if they can't talk.

[Jera372]

My name is Jera. I have a three year old son named Sean. Sean has a speech delay and uses signing as a way to communicate. Signing Time has been great for him.I am new to this and I will try to get as many post up as I can. I am hoping to make new friends.

[sharla]

Hi! :) I'm Sharla and I have 2 boys, 2 yrs and 5 yrs old. I started doing a small amount of signing w/ my oldest when he was 6 months old before I knew about Signing Time. My grandmother actually saw the show on TV and told me about it. Then we found the website and ordered our first DVD's. We add to our library every few months. Both the boys love it and my 2 yr old is addicted to it. LOL I wish I knew about them sooner! My grandmother used to teach deaf children and is thrilled that the boys are learning to sign. She has dusted off her books and is refreashing her signs as well.

[CI Mom 2 CI Children]

I am a Mom of two beautiful children. My son Caleb is 14 and has a Cochlear Implant since he was 2. My daughter Sarah is 10 and has a Cochlear Implant since she was 11 months old. Both my husband and I have CI as well. We use total communication plus I learned Cued Speech when Caleb and Sarah were babies. I think 'Signing Time' is a fun tv show. I remember reading an article in a magazine about it few years ago I think it was "Good Housekeeping". I'm passing this info to my 4 year old nephew who has normal hearing but is speech delayed. Thank you! :)

[Admin]

Welcome to the group!

[JennJenn]

Hey.
I'm Jenn, I'm 15 years old, and unlike everybody else on this website (seemingly) I have no kids. ;)

However, I've been watching signing time for a while and I'm trying really hard to learn as much as I possibly can about ASL. I know deep down somewhere that it's going to do me a lot of good in my future (as a child and youth care worker).

So yeah. That's me! Talk to you all later<3

Jenn

[mikkosdad]

Hell all, taking a moment to introduce myself. I am Benji, single father of an amazing 2 year old little boy, Mikhail (I call him Mikko).

Mikko is of normal hearing, but for some reason unexplained by his doctors he does not talk, and never really has. He made very few cooing noises as a baby and just never felt he had much to say I suppose.

I started ST! with him a year ago and fell in love with the DVDs. He signs regularly, if not to a person, than to his favourite stuffed animals. He "teaches" them their signs, it is horribly cute.

I am very thankful to find the website and get involved on the forums.

-- Benji

[P&C Dad]

My name is Hans. My wife and I have twins that were 9 weeks early.

We are are hearing family but a multilingual family. Well, my wife speaks german but I'm learning. A dear friend of ours was taking class to become an interpreter when we met 4 years ago. I started to take up signing again. When we found out that my DW's sister was pregnant the topic of signging came up again. Upon my nephew birth, the discovery of ST! was shared to rest of the family. Ever since then signing has been part of our life and then our daughter were born.

That changed our life so fast. My DF was so happy but couldn't see her due to her and our schedule. She passed on a few of months later, but her memory and motivation lives on.

Our motivation stems from our friends not from our direct family, but our friends are part of our family. My daughter are my life. They are growing and signing faster then I could imagine.

[catybarra]

My name is Hans. My wife and I have twins that were 9 weeks early.

We are are hearing family but a multilingual family. Well, my wife speaks german but I'm learning. A dear friend of ours was taking class to become an interpreter when we met 4 years ago. I started to take up signing again. When we found out that my DW's sister was pregnant the topic of signging came up again. Upon my nephew birth, the discovery of ST! was shared to rest of the family. Ever since then signing has been part of our life and then our daughter were born.

That changed our life so fast. My DF was so happy but couldn't see her due to her and our schedule. She passed on a few of months later, but her memory and motivation lives on.

Our motivation stems from our friends not from our direct family, but our friends are part of our family. My daughter are my life. They are growing and signing faster then I could imagine.

Welcome! I am a mother of triplet boys who were born 13 weeks early. I am glad that you found ST, I know it has made a huge impact on our family, too!

[meesiejean]

Hi I am Melissa, SAH-Homeschooling mom to Elijha (9), Aeriana (8), Annalee (4), Adalyn (1) and baby #5 on the way! We live in SC with my wonderful hubby Brian. We started ST this yr and LOVE IT!! cannot tell enough people about it! I went to college for ASL Interpreting and have always loved signing. Last yr, SC passed a law that ASL is considered a credited foreign language in our state! So, this year we started!!!!!! Anyone else here from the Spartanburg area?

[brett924]

Hi all!

I discovered Signing Time on PBS here in Atlanta (it seemed to run about 3-4 months and then stopped). Some glitch on our DVR erased most of the episodes.

My daughter is 18 months old and knows some basic signs: Thank you, please, more, milk, eat. She enjoys trying to do the signs on the regular series that was on PBS.

I posted this on the thread that just started today about the new Baby Signing Time package, but figured I'd post here and ask for suggestions.

In addition to our 18 month old daughter, we have 3 week old twin boys. We have limited funds, but want to spend the $99.99 on either the 'Baby and Beyond Web Special' or on the new 4 DVD set of Baby Signing Time.

Can anyone suggest which might be better for us at this stage? I figure we could add the older videos later, but wasn't sure. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Thank you!

Brett
Father of Maggie Grace (3.28.07) and Jacob and Samuel (9.12.08)

[AubreyyG]

Hi all!

My name is Aubrey. My son Matthew (3 in november) and I are loving signing time or ST as I see it's referred to on here.

My husband Charles has two deaf aunts and I have been interested in ASL since I was in Highschool (about 12 years ago now).

I always knew when I was pregnant with Matthew that I was going to teach him sign. At 6 months I started signing with him. I wasn't worried when he didn't speak when "he's supposed to" because he had his signs.

I've tried various signing videos and stumbled upon ST last month when searching for more in the library. My husband and I love the videos as much as Matthew does more than his other videos. I know I'll eventually buy a few of them (and I think maybe the whole selection) and keep them for future use.

Matthew now even asks for ST by sign and name. He still doesn't speak clearly, but I know it's a lot less frustrating for him now because he knows ASL.

I plan on making ST a daily part of Matthew's learing experience.

We're so glad I stumbled upon ST!

Aubrey, Charles and Matthew

[Simplebirdsnest85]

I am Jennifer, mom to Nathan, Candice and Raymond (raymond passed away in utero at 17w4d though), and Lana. I really had no idea about ASL with Nathan and then with Candice I taught her a few but she forgot them. When Lana was born- i really started to want to teach them all 3 something. Candice got Speech Therapy and they taught her a bunch but again she forgot since i wasnt working with her. As of today- they know maybe 10 and Lana can do "More" and is working on "All gone". I am in college going for a degree in Deaf Studies.

I am a very visual person so really any book would be best for me to learn from but i am yet to find a good ASL book. :confused:

[sunny21284]

Hello! My name is Stephanie. I'm mommy to Brady, 16 months old and hearing. I took ASL in high school and knew I wanted to teach it to my family. I can remember having a very bad case of strep and wanting to sign instead of speak because of the pain.
I started watching BST with Brady when he was three months old. At nine months of age I became very frustrated that he STILL wasn't signing. It was when I was ready to put the videos away until he turned one that he signed his first sign "more." Since then he has increased his sign vocabulary to over 120 signs! He even came up with is own sign for "Elmo." His verbal vocabulary is over 30 words. Sign has helped a lot because, as you may know, a toddlers speach isn't very clear and many words sound the same. Since he signs I am able to tell the difference between "bah" for ball and "buh" for bug (they sound very similar, trust me.) My husband and I were ASTONISHED when we counted up his signs. At his 15 month check-up the Dr. said he should have 5-6 words. I KNOW signing has helped him become confident in being understood and he takes more chances at using words.
Brady, like many others, asks many times a day to watch a video. Since I don't want him to turn into a TV junkie, I do limit him to one a day. I'm sure he'd sit and watch all day if I let him. He has now started to let me know he's thinking about the songs on the show. Like when we eat and I say "mmmm" he says/signs apple. To tell me he remembers the song about an apple tasting good. Just this week he randomly starting saying/signing hat, shoes, socks thinking about "One Shoe, Two Shoes."
I could go on and on, but I won't. Signing has definately helped us in our family. Even though Dad wasn't very interested at first, he's completely on board now. I'm glad Brady responded when he did and that we kept going with it. We have been greatly blessed by Two Little Hands Productions for providing us with a wonderful way to teach us how to communicate. Many thanks!!

Stephanie
sunny21284 on hotmail
www.carlandstephanieadventures.blogspot.com

[ST! LeeAnn]

I hope you enjoy our forums.
LeeAnn

[MamaBerry]

Hello all,

I am mom to 3 beautiful hearing girls. I am blessed...and appreciative of this fact. We started a simple infant sign class at our local library for 5 weeks. By week 2, we are addicted...we found ST, and haven't stopped yet.

Now, just over 2 months into it, my oldest (4 yo) is signing all day every day. She watches a ST video once and has them all memorized. The second time she's 'singing' the songs with Rachel. She amazes me and has been the motivation for our whole family (5 of us) to learn ASL.

Thanks for all you do Rachel, ST and staff. We appreciate your dedication and the fun you have so we can have fun learning. Keep up the hard work.

[Diannah]

My name is Dianna, I'm a 38 year old mom of 7 children ages 4-20. Our four children still remaining at home ages 4, 7, 12, and 14 stumbled across Signing Time in Oct, after taking our first sign language class. Signing Time just watered the seed of desire to learning ASL in us, and it has blossomed in our hearts and in our home. My seven year old son, naturally has a crush on Rachel, Lucy is their favorite with Leah pulling a close second. We cannot express our love for the Signing Time message, products, etc... I've searched the other sign language for children products out there, and the Signing Time products are heads and shoulders above the rest. I am actively trying to learn more ASL, and hope to apply for my advanced or masters certification in the next couple of months. I believe in Signing Time's products, and myself have become passionate about opening the lines of communication between parents and their non verbal children, special needs children, or children with their deaf classmates.

I do want to share one really blessing I've noticed that teaching ASL vocabulary has done for my four year old. You know how sometimes children want something, but are unsure or afraid to ask. He always signs to me what he would be unsure about asking for. Another thing, he is easier to tell the truth and open up and be honest. If I ask him something that we need to talk about, a lie, or if he is sneaky about something, (nothing major have you), he will sign to me his true feelings that he may be unsure about expressing. I think this will continue to benefit us as time goes on.

Thanks for letting me into the forums.

Dianna in SW Ohio