We recently introduced you to some new Signing Time Academy Instructors that are teaching signing classes in countries around the world. Recently, Posnayko, a popular Ukrainian children’s magazine shared the Baby Signing Time songs “I Can Keep It Still”  and “Mom Has a Mom”  with families in Eastern Europe and Russia!

“Mom Has a Mom” is in the DVD It’s Baby Signing Time and “I Can Keep It Still” is in Here I Go!

Both songs were written by Emmy-nominated host of Signing Time, Rachel Coleman.

This song is from the Signing Time Preschool and Child Care Program, Vol. 1. It’s great for infants and toddlers. Sign the words that are in all caps. You can make new verses by adding different words – any sign will work!

Signing Time Preschool and Child Care Program Sample Song - Vol. 1

• Download the lyrics to this song – PDF
• Buy the Preschool and Child Care Program, Vol. 1 $49.99
• Buy the Complete Preschool and Child Care Program, $199.95

We are wrapping up 2011 with an 11-day promotion! Become a Signing Time Academy Instructor before Oct. 23 and save 20% on your Start-Up Kit.

Love what you do

• As an Instructor, you can earn extra income for your family by offering classes that parents love and products their children love. You keep 100% of the income from class tuition and with your huge wholesale discount, you can earn even more through product sales.
• All businesses require start-up costs, but you’ll be happy to know that many of our Instructors earn back the cost of the Start-Up Kit in their first class or two. If you join our team before October 23^rd, you can lower your start-up costs even more!
• Becoming an Instructor means that you’ll get everything you need to start teaching classes and workshops, you’ll have guidance and support from an Associate Director in your area, and you’ll gain access to a comprehensive library of marketing and business support materials.

Get started today

Click here and complete this form. We’ll email you and help you select the Start-Up Kit that is right for you:

Baby Signing Time Instructor Start-Up Kit
$199.99 Now just $159.99

Advanced Signing Time Instructor Start-Up Kit
$399.99 Now just $319.99

Master Signing Time Instructor Start-Up Kit
$699.99 Now just $559.99 Best value!

Remember you only have 11 days to take advantage of this great offer! Sign up now!
If you have any specific questions, please review this web page and contact me at gwen@signingtime.com.

-Gwen Cox
Signing Time Academy International Director

Excerpt from “Television show leads to talking miracle” by Susan Jones of the St. Albert Gazette featuring Signing Time Academy Instructor Shelley Wywal.

Photo by April Bartlett of the St. Albert Gazette

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 young mother sat in front of the television to rock and nurse her baby. She began flipping channels and for some reason stopped to watch and listen to Signing Time. Perhaps she was intrigued by the show because she had previously heard that some families were using baby signing with their infant children, but she didn’t really believe in the concept of teaching babies sign language and she thought it would be too difficult to learn American Sign Language (ASL). “I watched my first episode as I nursed Elora, and by the end of it, I had learned to sign the colours of the rainbow,” Wywal recalled. That one stunning half-hour television program caused Wywal and her husband to study ASL. Immediately afterwards, whenever they talked to Elora, they paired the spoken word with signed words. “We chose words that would have meaning to her — key words. I learned I talked too much so I had to learn to narrow it down to simple words, like ‘milk,’” she said. When she was 10 months old, Elora signed her first word, “milk.”

Read the full article.

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 are lots of fun. When picking books to use for signing with your baby, choose books with photos or illustrations that clearly depict common items your baby frequently hears or sees throughout the day. Look for books that have images related to daily activities such as milk, bath, and eat. Other examples include books with photos of items your baby sees around the house such as ball, bear, phone, or duck. And, of course, babies love animals, so use some of those too!

Using Sign Language While Reading
Juggling a squirmy baby and a book at the same time can be a handful! So how do you use your hands to create signs as well? It’s easier than you think. Here are some tips:

• With baby on your lap, you can either hold the book with one hand or prop it on a throw pillow on the floor in front of you.
• With your arms around baby, sign in the space between your baby and the book. Some examples of good signs for this are ball and car.
• Sign right on the book. If baby is focusing on the book, move the sign to where baby is looking. Sign duck or horse right on the duck or horse on the page. Throw in your best animal sounds to make it fun.
• Let your baby feel the sign by signing it right on his body. Pat your baby’s thigh as you look at the dog in the book. Or pat your baby’s head when she notices the baby in the picture is wearing a hat. Gently rub your baby’s chest as you talk about the baby taking a bath.
• If your little one is too wriggly for the above suggestions, try placing your baby in a high chair. Place the book on the chair’s tray and sit face to face with baby. This is particularly useful for great eye contact and incorporating facial expressions into your signing and storytelling.

Stick with Signing!
Incorporating American Sign Language vocabulary into daily reading time with your baby will greatly enhance her growing communication abilities. But don’t stop once her speech takes off.  Research has shown that using sign language with older toddlers and preschoolers has big benefits too. Not only do preschoolers who use sign language develop larger vocabularies, signing also helps with spelling and reading as well. So keep signing and happy reading!