by Monica Beyer

Meet Becka Marsch. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children — Nick (8), Michele (5) and Wyatt (16 months). She is originally from New York and has been signing since her oldest child was 2 years old. She is the owner of Learn and Grow Together and offers classes in a large variety of subjects (including sign language) in the North Carolina area. She has a lot of experience signing with her own children and was eager to share her experiences with other parents!

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By Monica Beyer

Nancy Cadjan is the creative lifeforce behind the popular Sign Babies product line, which includes flash cards, board books and a full-length book for parents who are interested in learning to sign with their babies. Nancy lives in Utah with her husband Arthur and her children — Alex is 7 and Anna is 2.

I was able to catch up with Nancy not too long ago and was glad of the opportunity to do so. I have been talking with her since she started the flash cards and as her innovative product line continues to expand I wanted to let everyone get to know her a little better.

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By Monica Beyer

I’d like you to meet Mariana and her family — husband Mattis and daughter Velma. Mariana is Brazilian and lives with her Swedish husband in Cologne, Germany, where she has been signing with Velma for about a year and a half. She has nothing but fabulous things to say about signing with babies and I wanted to know more about her experiences and how she has worked signing into her daily life.

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By Monica Beyer

I have had many requests for information on what, if any, academic research has been done on the subject of using sign language with pre-verbal, hearing infants. The reasons for these requests vary — some are doing papers for college courses, some are looking into starting their own sign language business and some are parents who want to know the effect sign language will have on their child’s spoken word vocabulary.

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By Monica Beyer

As I was putting together the beginnings of our new Signing Baby Dictionary I noticed that one photo of Corbin was of the same sign that I photographed of him as an infant.

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By Monica Beyer

I don’t know one parent who signs with their baby and doesn’t come across even a little bit of skepticism from others.
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By Monica Beyer

There is a great debate going on in the “signing with babies” community. You may or may not know about it. One side of the debate prefers to use only American Sign Language (ASL) and the other side is more relaxed about the actual signs they use with their babies. Of course, there are those who fall somewhere in the middle.

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By Monica Beyer

Starting with the work of researchers like Joseph Garcia, Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, and continuing today through the efforts of many others, the concept of signing with babies has really taken off here in the United States. But with the help of dedicated parents, baby signing has just as strong of a foothold in the United Kingdom.
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By Monica Beyer

Once you’ve been signing with your baby for several weeks or months and your baby has mastered the basic signs that cover his or her needs (such as milk, more, eat, drink, etc.), and perhaps a few other signs (such as dog) you will probably want to expand his or her signing vocabulary (as well as your own).

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By Monica Beyer

I’ve been signing with my son for over a year, and there is one regret that I have about the entire experience:

I didn’t keep track of his signs.

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