Testimonials / Signing Stories

We took our 10 month old daughter to the zoo. As we were looking at the goats she started signing BALL. My husband was saying to her, "no those are goats". As we walked away from the goat pen we were trying to figure out why she was signing BALL. My husband then turned around to see that in the corner of the pen there was a soccer ball for the goats to play with. We were both so amazed and then took her back to reinforce that we finally got what she was saying.

We had been trying to introduce colors to our son without to much effort since he started talking. We'd often discuss the colors of the traffic lights while stopped at a red. He continuously confused the red and green light, so we decided he wasn't really ready to master the concept of color identification. We went to a Wee Sign Toddler Sign Class when our son was 2 1/2 years old. One of the first rhymes we learned was about the traffic lights. Ever since, he has been identifying colors everywhere we go. I feel that the signing made the connection to the colors for him. Now, he's asking about colors that I still need to learn to sign! It's lots of fun!

One evening my daughter (10 months old) and I were sitting on the couch. My daughter picked up one of our t.v. remotes and handed me another one. She thinks it is a phone. So I started talking to her on the t.v. remotes. This is how the conversation went: Mom: "Hello, is that you? Daughter: "Hey" Mom: "What are you doing?" Daughter: points to a book, signs 'book' Mom: "Oh, reading a book with Mommy? What is in the book?" Daughter: signs 'bird', 'mouse' Mom: " A bird and a mouse too!" Daughter: signs 'finished' Mom: "You are finished the book?" Daughter: signs 'book, finished' She then signs 'daddy' and slides off the couch and crawls in the kitchen where daddy is doing the dishes. I sat there...half stunned. I couldn't believe that I had just had a conversation with a 10 month old!

I started signing to my daughter Cassidy when she was about 9 months old. Words that were important to her she picked up right away. For example: "baby" for her dolls, "water", "cracker", and "more" Giving Cassidy another form of communication at an early age, has alleviated some frustration I feel for both Cassidy, myself and my husband. Cassidy can tell us if she wants a drink and, through sign language, specify "water" or "milk". A few of Cassidy's first words verbally spoken were ones she had been signing for a number of months first. A few examples are: "puppy", "apple", and "baby".

Austin was eight months when we started Wee Sign, Baby Sign Classes with him. By nine and a half months he was starting to sign 'change' to us. Then when he was ten months he stopped signing because we were away for a while. We picked it up again when he was eighteen and a half months old. Within two days he was using the four basic signs; eat, drink, more, and change. His signing vocabulary has just continued to grow. I have to keep going to the book to learn more signs to use with him. It has been so amazing! Our families have now seen the benefits and are trying to keep up with his pace. All week he has been signing pain and pointing in his mouth. It finally just hit me that he is getting another tooth! It is just incredible! We are just so excited about communicating with him.

My daughter Audrey (18 months) has been signing since she was 9 months old, with help from what I learned at a Wee Sign one-day workshop. When she started at her dayhome at 13 months old, her caregiver took special care to communicate in sign with her, and her sign vocabulary jumped from a dozen or so to over 50 in the space of a month. Although she has just started dropping signs as she learns to say the words, she's still learning new signs, including the sign for Santa during December. A week after Christmas, she pointed to the word 'Santa' on a stray unillustrated gift tag she'd found, and signed 'Santa'. We realized that she's been signing other words in her books as we read together, and that she is actually starting to recognize words! Amazing! How many other things do our preverbal toddlers know how to do, that we haven't recognized because they couldn't tell us?

We started signing with our children when my youngest was 8 1/2 months old. He started signing a month later. One night when he was about 20 months old he was not feeling well and crying constantly. I finally said "I don't know what you want." He looked at me and signed "bottle please." As he hadn't had a bottle for months I would have never guessed that's what he needed but once I gave him one he was calm and comforted. Without sign language I would've been up all night!

I took a Wee sign class with my 8 month old daughter, Annika. Within 4 months, Annika was signing "Hungry", I think she was doing it before but I really did not notice. Then before I knew it, she was signing Finished, More, Nurse, Baby, Cold, and trying Bath. She also started signing More for other things for example, More - dancing, music, singing, etc... Annika has also used it at Daycare, the instructor had told me she was signing More. It's nice to know she can use it at Daycare and the instructor can help her and not always reach for the soother or her special pillow case. I just wanted you to know that I am very proud that we participated in the Wee Sign classes.

I started signing with my daughter when she was 10 months old and she signed back at about 12 months. Since then (she is 16 months) she can sign well over 20 signs and can even put simple 'sentences' together. It has certainly decreased frustration on not being able to communicate and strangers think she is brialliant because she can sign! I have to own up that everyone child can sign if you teach them.

I'm writing to tell you how amazed I am at the Wee Sign program. Madison and I attended the group when Madison was 13 months old. She was the oldest in the class. At first I was quite sceptical of whether or not this type of communication would work with a child so young. I chose to join the program as Madison was not talking yet, and maybe she would learn to communicate through signing and relieve some of the frustration of wondering what she wanted. I also have a 6 year old who I knew would benefit from learning to communicate in a more direct, eye contact, concentrated way, rather than always using words, which can become repetative. At first Madison just watched as I would sign to her. I wondered if she was at all interested. I continued to talk and sign simple things such as milk, more, finished, kitty. Within 2 months of starting the program, Madison signed back to me. I was in awe that she communicated to me what she wanted, with her hands. Since then Madison continues to use all the original signs she first learned and adds new signs each week. At age 18 months, Madison signs approximately 15 signs and continues to watch and learn as I talk and sign to her. Wee Sign is so simple, cost efficient, and time effective. Within 6 hours of training I was given so many tools to teach my children communication through signing. Most of the signs are so easy to learn because they are a natural expression of that word. Thank you for the education and opportunity that you've given to myself and my kids. It not only benefits all of us, but it benefits those who only communicate through signing.

I took your course in Olds about April 2003 with my son. We found signing with him allowed us to communicate and have expectations of communication. Now at 26 months I am sad to say we don't sign as much as we used to however the expectation for communication is very high. When we need to "talk" we sit on the stairs and have a conversation about how he is feeling, what I need him to do etc. it is great. Further my 8 year old daughter began signing along with us and now belongs to the sign language club in school. Thank you for the inspiration to communicate on a new level with my children.

I started signing with my daughter, Elisha, just after she was born. At three months old she signed 'milk'. Elisha and I took the Wee Sign Infant class in November 2005. Our instructor, Jennifer Parker, was very helpful and I thank her and Wee Sign. My daughter is now over a year old and understands at least 20 signs, and she signs about 17 signs, which she uses on a daily basis. She has even been able to get our two dogs (who've been trained using ASL for obedience) to come and sit for a pet. My mother has also been learning along with us. We all love the 'Pick Me Up' book with music CD that I purchased from Wee Sign. At night before bed Elisha likes it when I bring out the 'Teddy Bear' book. I look forward to learning more myself and teaching her more.

I have had a keen interest in sign language for a long time but always thought I needed to work with hearing impaired children in order to justify learning some of it. As I have found out, I can learn signs through songs (making it easier for me to remember....I am like the children, after all!) and signs related to everyday activities. I have been so impressed by the fun and the amount of signs I learned, unaware, that I am looking forward to expanding my humble knowledge a few steps further. Thank you to the wonderful ladies that made it real, and demystified ASL for me!

The feedback from Providers ... has always been very positive. The passion Terese has about signing is evident in how she conducts herself in her workshops.