Meet our October Instructors of the Month!
Congratulations to the October 2011 Signing Time Academy Instructors of the Month! Thank you for going above and beyond to serve your communities.
October Hand-y Craft: Witch Hats!
Create these adorable witch hats for Halloween! Download template and directions here. Additional Resources: Download dozens more Signing Time Hand-y Crafts – all free! Get new Hand-y Crafts delivered to you each month! Subscribe to our newsletter. Download How-To Guides for signing with children of all ages and abilities.
Two little girls make an instant connection – with signs!
This guest blog post is by Jennifer Richards Sanchez and is part of our Making a Difference series. After the birth of my daughter, Ava-now 20 months old, I was talking with a woman at my work (Becky Sawruck) whose son, Aidan, is hearing impaired. She said that the Signing Time series had made a huge impact on their life and enabled early communication with their son. I think Aiden knew close to two hundred signs by the time he was just two years old. Becky loaned me the Baby Signing Time DVDs to start with and we began watching them when Ava was …
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ASL leads to talking miracle for child with Down syndrome
Excerpt from “Television show leads to talking miracle” by Susan Jones of the St. Albert Gazette featuring Signing Time Academy Instructor Shelley Wywal. When Elora was born, her parents were told their new infant could have a severe language disability. The baby was kept in the hospital for a week because of the Down syndrome and Wywal remembers visiting with countless specialists, who bombarded her with information. “There were speech specialists and this specialist and that specialist, and they all said she would have a severe language delay,” Wywal said. The first day she brought seven-day-old Elora home, the exhausted …
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How to use sign language to spark your baby’s love of books
By Lane Rebelo, LCSW, Certified Master Signing Time Instructor Reading with your baby every day is not only good for her budding language and communication skills, it can also be a wonderful time to play and learn too! Using American Sign Language can help take baby’s reading time to a whole new level as you stimulate her senses while engaging more areas of her growing brain. Picking Books to Read With Baby Babies love colorful board books with chunky pages that are sturdy and easy to turn. Touch-and-feel books offer stimulating textures for little fingers to explore, and lift-the-flap features …
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Homework Help: Use fingerspelling to improve your child’s spelling
According to Rae Pica of BAM Radio, “Children learn best through active involvement.” Some common strategies that actively involve children as they learn new spelling words include: tracing letters in the air tracing letters on sandpaper or in a sand tray tracing letters in shaving cream on a desk Another way to add meaningful movement to spelling is to use fingerspelling (manual alphabet). Here’s how: Learn the manual alphabet with your child at the beginning of the school year. Practice new spelling words by fingerspelling each letter as you say its name aloud. If there are patterns in the words …
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September Hand-y Craft: Shrinky Dink Jewelry!
Create these adorable Shrinky Dink necklaces and bracelets that feature Hopkins the Frog from your favorite Signing Time books and videos. Additional Resources: Download dozens more Signing Time Hand-y Crafts – all free! Get new Hand-y Crafts delivered to you each month! Subscribe to our newsletter. Download How-To Guides for signing with children of all ages and abilities.
Meet two Deaf young adults on MTV’s Real Life
Many Signing Time families have expressed a desire to learn more about Deaf culture as they learn and use signs from ASL at home. We came across this terrific episode of MTV’s True Life and shared it on our Facebook page a few weeks ago. We got so many comments from the people who watched it that we wanted to share it with our blog readers, too. We hope you enjoy meeting Christopher and Amanda and getting a glimpse into the joys and challenges they face in their lives. Watch “I’m Deaf” now. Learn more! Find more Deaf culture resources …
Meet Kim from Signing Time
Signing Time Staff Spotlight Hello Signing Time Fans, My name is Kim Laing. I am the newest member of Two Little Hands Productions and will be working with Erin as a Wholesale Account Manager. I was first introduced to Signing Time when the mother of a close friend of mine married a man who is deaf. My friend really wanted her children to be able to communicate with their new grandpa, so she started using Signing Time – and introduced me to it, too. Music has always been a very big part of my life. I believe music has the …
Meet our September Instructors of the Month!
Congratulations to the September 2011 Signing Time Academy Instructors of the Month! Thank you for going above and beyond.