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

This blog post is part of our Deaf Culture series for Signing Time families.

If you would like to meet Deaf people in your community and get a chance to practice signing in a relaxed atmosphere, you might want to visit www.deafcoffee.com. This site provides a list of coffee socials for anyone who uses sign language. Florence Angelucci started the Deaf Chat Coffee in Batvia, Illinois. Attendance grew from a handful of people 5 years ago to about 70 people per month, including sign language students from Waubonsee Community College. Angelucci says, “We’re hoping that hearing people come here and get motivated to study sign language. We want to promote better communication between everyone, not just ourselves.”

Deaf Chat Coffee events are free and open to the public. If you want to attend with your child, you can take these steps to prepare:

• Visit www.deafcoffee.com and find a group near you
• Email the coordinator and introduce yourself
• Ask the coordinator if other children will be attending
• Brush up on fingerspelling your name and your child’s name
• Watch the Signing Time Nice to Meet You DVD and practice greeting signs together

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.

This guest blog is by Signing Time Academy Instructor Vickie Wood in Norman, OK and is part of our Making A Difference series.

Several years ago my daughter discovered Signing Time when she was looking for a way to teach sign language to my grandson Cameron. Cam was about 2 years old then and he quickly learned not only to sign along with his spoken words, but to read and spell as well. After seeing the many benefits he and my other grandchildren experienced, I started using Signing Time in my special education classroom. Using ASL in the classroom has helped with communication, sight words, spelling, vocabulary, and even helps increase appropriate behaviors. My students love teaching the signs they learn to family and friends. We recently received a grant which allowed me to purchase two sets of the Signing Time Classroom Edition for our school and the themes fit in with those taught in several different grades. I am excited to share information about this wonderful program with anyone who will listen and even used research and materials from Signing Time on a bulletin board in our District Curriculum Center. This board will be up the whole month of April in the room where many meetings, including our School Board meetings, are held. Thank you, Signing Time, for making my job a little easier and a lot more FUN!

That’s right! You don’t need to be a Signing Time Academy Instructor to attend!

WHEN: Thursday, July 7 through Sunday, July 10, 2011
WHERE: Las Vegas Embassy Suites Hotel

If you are exploring the idea of becoming a Signing Time Academy Instructor, we invite you to join us for our first ever Signing Time Academy Conference so YOU can learn more about US and we can get to know YOU! Here is what is in store for you at the conference:

• Meet Rachel Coleman and the crew from Two Little Hands Productions
• Get to know our amazing Signing Time Academy Instructors
• Learn how to start and grow a successful Signing Time business
• Be our guest at a special presentation by Rachel Coleman
• Participate in hands‐on class demonstrations
• Get a cool Signing Time swag bag
• Have some fun in Las Vegas!

We hope you will join us for this fun and inspiring experience.
Be sure to let us know if you will need an ASL interpreter.

Register Now