Baby Signing Time Videos–Perfect for Christmas or Anytime–Review + Giveaway

When I was pregnant I imagined signing with my newborn baby. He would communicate his every need through clear hand signals long before he developed the ability to talk. Crying would be minimized because I would know exactly what he needed. (You experienced mommies can stop laughing at me now.) Okay, I knew Jack wouldn’t be born signing, but I hoped he would learn it quickly. A friend mentioned how much they liked a series of videos called Baby Signing Time and I had to check it out.

What is Baby Signing Time?

Signing Time and Baby Signing Time are fun videos (and companion CDs, books and more) that “combines clever songs, animation, and real signing babies – all age two and under – to make signing easy and fun.”  Each “lesson” includes Rachel demonstrating the signs and a catchy song that helps explain the sign and its meaning. Your baby can do the sign along with Rachel and the babies and may even pick up some of the extra signs Rachel uses as she talks. Check out Signing Time’s YouTube Channel to see for yourself how fun the videos are.

Sisters Rachel Coleman and Emilie Brown developed Signing Time and Baby Signing Time after learning that Rachel’s daughter Leah was profoundly deaf. The sisters saw how signing helped Rachel’s daughter communicate and also helped Emilie’s children express their needs before they could speak.

While sign language is beneficial for every child, Rachel confesses a more personal goal. She says, “My hope is that everyone will know a little sign, just as most people know a little Spanish – so when your child sees my child at the park, there would be no awkwardness, no communication barrier, just three signs… “Hi … friend … play’… that is all it would take to change her world.”

The entire story is impressive and touching. You can read it at Signing Time’s Our Story.

Benefits of Signing

Several studies have shown that learning to sign helps children communicate earlier, have improved vocabularies (compared to their non-signing peers), have higher IQ’s, be better adjusted and read at an earlier age. Signing may even help manage some of the “terrible two’s” because when a child can communicate “juice, not milk” he may not feel the need to throw a temper tantrum.

Do you have a child with special needs? Signing Time may provide even more benefit for your family!

Evidence is also mounting that children with special needs, such as apraxia of speech, autism, or down syndrome who have difficulty with speech can make great strides in their communication development whenSigning Time is part of their regimen. The multi-sensory approach of Signing Timeengages visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and auditory learners of all ages and abilities, while making sign language easy and fun.

Our Experience

I was expecting the videos to be a bit instructional (dry) but they are really fun to watch. The videos would still be worth watching if you took away all the value of signing. And after the first couple times watching the videos I thought we might not be getting any value out of the signing because Jack was more interested in watching than signing. (We’ve also been trying to teach signs “more” and “all done” for a while with no luck.)

This photo was taken when we were learning the sign for milk. I’m not sure if it means that he fully embraced the sign or completely missed the point (that’s milk all over my leather ottoman). But, just a few days later he made the sign for milk for the first time, a sign we both learned from Baby Signing Time. I was so excited I went running for a bottle. Now he will look at the bottle and sign milk. It’s adorable and so exciting to be able to communicate with him.

To Buy or Not to Buy

To Buy…Baby Signing Time videos are great tools for learning signs and are a fun way to spend time with your baby. I love that the messages are good for baby’s learning, above and beyond the signs. For example, baby learns that “mom has a mom and she’s my grandma” while learning signs for mom, dad, grandma and grandpa. Baby Signing Time is designed for babies 3 months to 3 years. Older children might still enjoy Baby Signing Time, but may prefer the original Signing Time series.

Not to Buy…You can try out Baby Signing Time by asking for them at your local library if you are concerned you won’t like them. If they don’t have the videos, the library may be able to borrow or purchase the DVD’s for their collection. That may work for a while, but I’m confident that you will quickly want your own to watch over and over.

Shop! There’s still time to get Baby Signing Time by Christmas! Order by 11:55 am MST December 23rd and choose FedEx overnight shipping. Individual DVD’s are available from $21.99 at Signingtime.com, but it’s worth it to get a set. You can get the whole Baby Signing Time Collection for $149.99. Baby Signing Time products are also available at Amazon.com.

Win! Baby Signing Time Baby Shower Bundle worth over $55!

How to Enter: Visit SigningTime.com and learn about all their great products. Come back and tell us about your favorite.

Bonus Entries – valid only after completing the first required entry. Please leave a separate comment for each you do.

• Follow Signing Time on Twitter
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• Check out the Signing Time YouTube Playlist and tell us which song is your favorite (if you can pick just one).
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Giveaway ends January 7. Open to US mailing addresses only.

Disclosure: Thanks to Baby Signing Time for providing a product for the purpose of this review and the giveaway prize. Opinions are my own/Jack’s.