Tuesday, June 5, 2012

How to get an eco-friendly free signing time video

What is Signing Time?
Signing Time is a collection of videos that use music, songs and interesting visuals to teach American Sign Language (ASL).  Signing time is aimed at babies, hearing children, deaf children, children with special needs and anyone who enjoys music and wants to learn some ASL.

What is my Signing Time story?
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I heard that teaching babies signing can be beneficial in various ways.  Babies can understand and have a will to communicate before their facial muscles are developed enough to speak.  By teaching them signs with their hands, they are able to communicate much earlier.  Babies that can successfully communicate (even on a basic level, "milk" "more" "no more" etc) will be less frustrated, which translates into less tantrums.  Additionally, owing to them already having developed skills of communication from a very young age, they often learn to speak earlier. 
When Eliya was born, I felt that there were many reasons to try signing with her.

However, I had very little background in Sign Language and although we signed up to an online program to learn sign language for babies, it wasn't really working.  Then, a friend of ours introduced us to Rachel Coleman and Signing Time.  We LOVED IT.  We bought the set of Baby Signing Time DVD's and watched them all the time.  We tried to incorporate signing while talking to Eliya, although we often forgot, and probably relied a little too much on the DVDs.


My husband and I are both South African born, English speakers.  We moved to Israel (made Aliya) and our children were born here, and placed in an Hebrew environment from a very young age.  Most bilingual kids, from what I've read and definitely from what I've seen amongst our bilingual friends, start speaking a little late and often have some difficulties.  My children, especially Eliya, both started speaking on the earlier side of the spectrum and I credit signing time with that.

If you're wondering why I'm crediting signing time and not myself (being the amazing mom that I am :-) ), I can give you a few reasons.  Firstly, Eliya's first words, were words that appear in the signing time DVDs.  Secondly, when a young child speaks, it can be difficult to decipher what they are saying and to differentiate when it's a 'baby babble' word or a real word.  In our family, we had to differentiate between 'baby babble', English and Hebrew.  This could have become very frustrating for Eliya.  Thanks to Signing Time, when Eliya realised that I didn't understand her word, she would just use the sign in conjunction with the word, and that would help me to decipher her sound.  This meant that her words could be understood which encouraged her to use more and more words and speak more and more. 
So Thanks Signing Time.

What does Signing Time have to do with Going Green?
Two Little Hands Productions are now offering a new convenient and eco-friendly way to purchase their videos - Signing Time on Demand. 
The manufacture of DVDs contributes heavily to pollution, and 1.6 billion dvd's go into landfills every year. With Signing Time on Demand, you can help your kids and save the planet while you're at it!
Basically the way it works is that you download the program for free, and can then buy Signing Time videos through the on Demand system and watch them on the computer without the need for a DVD.  Another plus is No Scratched/Broken DVDs !   Also, what I love is that through the on Demand system you can copy your videos to your iphone (no cables needed) and watch anywhere and everywhere on your phone.
For more info and to try a free introductory video, go to Signing Time on Demand.

1 comment:

  1. What about all the coal those computer servers need to have burnt to provide the electricity they need for you to watch the video online?

    ReplyDelete