I love this program and cannot recommend it enough for those who have
little ones wanting to learn American Sign Language (ASL). It taught me ASL as
well. I started with this as a foreign language program for several
reasons.
- ASL is recommended to help young children communicate prior to them
developing a spoken vocabulary that will allow them to do so.
- My mother-in-law is an ASL Interpreter and could help me if I needed it.
- It is a hands-on language. Literally! : -) The boys would not confuse
this with their native tongue that they are still learning.
Signing Time is great! It was
developed by a family who wanted to help their deaf child communicate better
with the world. I think they have far surpassed their expectations.
Congrats! In addition to the DVDs, you can now download lesson
plans and other activities off their website.
My Vocabulary
Checklist includes the words my children have learned from the
videos. Some are directly taught others they have learned from the songs in
the video. Signing Time now has there own checklist but it is much shorter
than mine.
The Joy of Signing
We have used this book as a reference for other learning
even more signs. However, this is not true ASL but instead uses English word
order. Some of the signs are the same but not all. This book has been
recommended primarily for learning religious signs. The latest edition
closer relates to ASL that the original book does.
We have, however, been
using the puzzle books for this as a supplement to our ASL education. These
are aimed at children who have a good grasp on reading and writing already.
They are a lot of fun according to my oldest and so far I have not found any discrepancies
among the signs used in these exercises and ASL.
The Joy of Signing Puzzle Book 1
The Joy of Signing Puzzle Book 2
Signing Time!