Creating a World of Understanding!

This was submitted by Gina, from her blog My Chocolate Peaces.

If you have small children and have not heard of Signing Time, then you need to check it out. Signing Time is a product put out but the company Two Little Hands Productions that provides education in sign language.

First, here is my story.

My little boy had several ear infections his first year. He has now had tubes placed in his ears, twice. Although I have no solid proof I strongly believe that the ear problems have played a part in my little boy and his delayed speech. While he was never out of the normal range for speech development, he was at the bottom of the range considered “normal” for his age. We have been working with a speech therapist in our area. We tried several of the recommended activities such as labeling everything we do and practicing conversation with him, even if it was babble. Prior to the speech therapist I had also purchased a few baby signing tools with the intention of teaching my baby sign language.

Our speech therapist was amazing. I love the program in our area, all of the therapists have been so supportive and work extra hard to make sure that our needs are met. Despite everything we tried though, I felt I saw the biggest results in my child when we watched the show Signing Time. The videos are produced by 2 sisters, Rachel and Emily. They include fun songs and visuals to help kids learn sign language to communicate, even at a young age. As Rachel says, “We are not boring”. They really are not. I have really enjoyed watching the Signing Time videos and watching my little boy’s vocabulary sky rocket, literally.

We were lucky enough recently to have Rachel perform in our city. So cool! The entire crew of Alex, Leah and Hopkins were there as well. As soon as my little boy recognized who it was, he perked right up and was entertained the entire time. The concert was in similar format to the movies, first they teach you the signs and then everyone sings and signs the songs. True to their mission it is all about education. The concert was great with audience involvement, they even started a human train of all the kids while marching around the entire auditorium.

Here is a clip of the song, “Silly Pizza”. Rachel said it was the number one requested song at concerts.

After the concert, we got the opportunity to meet Rachel and the crew. Kids are so funny, my little guy carried around the flyer for this concert for 2 months. Then when the time came to meet Rachel he would not say a word. Oh well.

The biggest thing I love about Signing Time is that it’s fun, it’s creative and it’s successful in teaching kids sign language. What I love about the creators is the enormous example that Rachel is as a mother and the enormous example of support from her family. As you can read on their website, their eldest daughter’s primary sign language is American Sign Language and they have created these movies as a way to share that language. Rachel also has another daughter, Lucy that was born with spina bifida and cerebral palsy. At the end of the concert, Rachel sang a version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star that she dedicated to her daughter Lucy. We had a front seat witness to the immense love that Rachel has for her daughters and what an amazing mother she is. I believe authenticity is what makes Signing Time products stand out from others. If you have not seen them, I strongly encourage you check them out.

From our family, I know that we would love to give a big thank you to Rachel and the entire Signing Time crew. My little boy is doing amazingly well and we have enjoyed every minute of watching the videos.

(To see more photo, please visit Gina’s post here)

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