Because Rachel Coleman Always Says It Better Than I Do...

If you are fighting the system to get your child services, if your child is being written off as unworthy, and if you need some inspiration about how to channel your anger into something constructive, you need to read this post....

Thank you, Rachel and Aaron Coleman, for fighting for your daughters with every ounce of strength that you had (and probably then some) and then channeling your energy into providing a resource to all of us out there through Signing Time. You guys gave Hallie the capacity to use language before she could ever vocalize and helped pave the way for us to communicate with her.

Two Little (and Four Big) Thumbs Up! Baby Signing Time: Volumes 3 and 4

When not overworked by our day jobs or run ragged by our extremely active toddler, our entire family has been huddled around the DVD player watching the pre-release version of Baby Signing Time: Volumes 3 and 4 (A New Day and Let's Be Friends, respectively) for the better part of two weeks now. Suffice it to say, we're hooked. These are truly excellent resources, not to mention plenty fun for toddlers to watch.

OK--so what makes these DVDs so great? All of you who have been following this blog already know that we're big fans of the regular Signing Time series and that Hallie has been watching these over and over again now for more than a year. We credit Signing Time and Rachel Coleman with many of Hallie's speech advances and her knowledge of the English alphabet, as well as with her acquisition of lots of ASL signs. So we were a bit unsure how Hallie would respond to 'stepping down' to Baby Signing Time. As soon as we put the DVDs on, all of our fears were allayed completely. If anything, Hallie seemed to like Baby Signing Time even more than the originals.

Why?

All babies love babies, and our toddler is no exception. Watching the slightly older children in Signing Time is exciting for Hallie, who loves to mimic whatever it is that they are doing (we now credit Rachel Coleman with teaching Hallie how to jump) but interacting with the babies captures her attention even more effectively. Presenting animations of Leah and Alex is not only a very smart way of dealing with the issue that both are no longer toddlers anymore, but the animations are also fun and friendly and resemble Leah and Alex sufficiently to appeal to a child who is familiar with what they look like now. Hallie was immediately able to tell who the characters were and referred to them by name.

On balance, there is a nice mix here in terms of the use of animation and real people. The graphics--both those used in the animation and those used in the background scenes--are simplified ones. They are not very 'busy' in terms of what they contain, and colors more often than not tend to be muted. This probably helps avoid overstimulation and allows Rachel to highlight the important information about words, signs, and concepts that she is trying to convey to her toddler audience.

The format of these DVDs really rock. The shows contain a wonderfully natural progression that reinforce learning at all stages. Rachel begins each sign with a very good description of how to make it that is quite precise. Then the sign is demonstrated in front of muted graphics. This is followed by a child acting out the concept (strolling in a stroller, for example) and finally children use the sign in the natural environment that a baby or toddler is likely to encounter. This makes the DVDs an ultimate teaching tool because they don't just teach signs for words but the concepts themselves (for example, opposites) that every baby and toddler needs to know.

The almost constant songs are stimulating and really capture a kid's attention; there is a lot less speaking here than in the older-kid version of Signing Time and this makes it ideal for very young children who respond more quickly to songs than to any other medium. The medium of music is also very well suited to children with speech delays who often learn to mimic sung speech more quickly than its spoken variant.

The lyrics on these programs are far less complicated than those featured in the original Signing Time series. The songs tend to build around the repetition of the central word being taught and reinforce the spoken word and the sign through consistent reiteration. This seems like a very effective way to teach the concept, sign, and word simultaneously. There is not a lot that is extraneous here both in terms of the signs and the words used in the songs. This works well because it avoids distracting attention from that which Rachel is trying to teach. And, as in the original Signing Time series, but at a more introductory level, the songs review the signs that Rachel has already introduced, once more underscoring the importance of the notion that repetition is the key to learning.

Some of the signs/concepts/words featured in these DVDs are related to the weather (sunny, snow, rain, wind, clouds); motion (stop and go; strolling); times of the day (day and night, today; emotions (feelings, happy, sad). Once a child learns these, he or she will have ample opportunity to use them in his or her daily life. Watching these DVDs with our little ones--something that both Sharon and I believe to be essential--will allow us parents to learn the signs quickly, too, so that we can use them with our kids and further reinforce the ideas behind them. Just taking a walk outside with your little one in a stroller would allow you to use the majority of these signs in one fell swoop. And the catchy songs give a parent a great way of doing this musically; I, for one, never mind when Rachel Coleman's lyrics colonize my brain.

Anyway, to sum up---Hallie loves these, and we love them too. The songs are great, the format is great, and the content is fabulous. We credit Rachel Coleman with teaching our little one so much. Hallie has a great vocabulary -- both ASL and English. Signing Time is a large part of why she is so excited about learning and finds it so much fun.

Signing Time--New Baby Signing Time Videos, but No Longer on PBS

As everyone who reads this blog knows, we're big, big fans of Signing Time. The work that Rachel Coleman (and her entire family) have done is fabulous. Rachel is an inspiration to me and Sharon; when she learned that her daughter Leah was deaf, instead of accepting that Leah would be shut out from communicating with her peers, Rachel and her sister Emilie responded by teaching Leah and Alex sign. But this--which alone was great--was not enough. Rachel and her family decided to bring signing to all families--those whose members were typically developing and those whose members had various special needs--in a way that was fun, friendly, and educational.

We've seen how powerful Rachel's enterprise is first hand. If you scroll back into our archives, you will note that Hallie used no words consistently and babbled only very infrequently until some time this past spring/summer. She was nearly 2 years old and had already been in speech therapy for more than a year. We had taught her a couple of signs on our own (more, all done, and book) but we had no way of communicating with our charming, adorable, and clearly very bright little girl (her receptive speech was well above average).

Signing Time changed all that. First Hallie learned dozens of signs. Then, this summer, she learned dozens of words. And then, to our amazement, Hallie learned the entire alphabet -- both in English characters and in sign. She can identify all of the upper case letters, most of the lower case ones, and all of the signed ones.

We are amazed, and if we had to do it all over again (wait...we DO get to do this again, we hope, this winter when our hopefully-full-term little baby girl arrives!!!), we'd start even earlier. I know that there has been a lot of research about television/videos being detrimental to kids' development. But my own sense (as an educator and as a parent) is that this very much depends on what you expose your kids to, and how you view these visual materials. We never just plop Hallie down in front of a video and ignore her (at least not too much--just for bathroom breaks and to get her lunch). We watchthem with her and we interactwith the materials. Sharon and I have learned to sign along with Hallie and this has been a great help because, even though she is saying words at this point, she is still speech delayed (probably at the 18 month level, but she's 27 months old) and has trouble with articulation. Knowing sign, signing to her, and setting up a framework of communication still helps us meet her needs and helps avoid excessive frustration and the horrible tantrums that accompany the terrible twos.

Anyway, we can't recommend these videos enough, and many of our friends with full-term children (some who are speech delayed and some who are right on target) agree. Kids love to watch other kids and they learn from them; the songs are catchy; and the videos are charming. What's not to love?

And now there are some new additions to baby signing time--the previews are below.





But, on a sobering note, sadly, Rachel has had to pull Signing Time from PBS because it's too expensive to air these videos without sponsorship (public television, like so much else, has been gutted as far as funding is concerned over the past eight years). This is deeply troubling to me, because that means that only those of us with extra resources (and that is a shrinking number of folks in this economy) will be able to get access to Signing Time for our kids. I talk about Signing Time a lot with our OT and ST and our OT has recommended the series to several of the parents of children with whom she works. We live in a city, and a lot of the kids that Jenine handles on her caseload are super poor. Their families don't have money for toys, they don't have computers with which to order things on the internet, and their kids are missing out. Signing Time on PBS was one way they could get access to a resource that really does help.

That Rachel has been forced to pull Signing Time from public television will further widen the division between haves and have-nots in our country, which strikes me as so very very wrong. Helping poor families gain access to resources and helping kids whose parents' educational level is something that all of us should get behind. This will make for a stronger, better, more united country with a stronger, better, more educated youth.

I don't blame Rachel; I blame the lack of federal funding for birth-to-three programs. The ideal would be to restore funding levels for these programs to a proper level and for our society as a whole to commit to making good resources accessible to all. But a second best would be to secure sponsorship for Signing Time to restore the series to PBS. So, on the off-chance that you are reading this and have a company that makes oodles of money and is looking for a quality place to advertise, or if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who can fundraise and make contacts to advance this endeavor, please contact Rachel (see Hallie's favorites and follow the links, or just leave me a message). If I had a million dollars, I'd forego the nice Chesterfield and an Ottoman and the Reliant automobile and the real green dress and the pre-cooked bacon and sponsor Signing Time myself. I am almost certain that the Barenaked Ladies would agree.