Hi. Welcome to TinyTalk's baby signing classes in North Nottinghamshire. I'm Alison and I've been teaching TinyTalk classes in the Southwell area since April 2007. Before that I was a primary teacher and Teacher of the Deaf.

As part of my Teacher of the Deaf training I read about babies of Deaf parents being brought up in a sign/speech bilingual environment almost always signing before they could speak. I then took an interest in baby signing when I had my first baby, Oliver. I really feel that signing has helped us to avoid the frustration many babies feel when they try to communicate but we adults are unable to understand them. Apart from being able to tell us when he was thirsty or hungry, Oliver was able to tell us when he wanted his hands cleaning, when he had seen a baby or a dog or if it was raining outside. Signing allowed me to gain an insight into what he was thinking or looking at. My second son, Nathan has also benefitted from signing now and so it has been exciting all over again!

Even when Oliver's speech was developing well there were still some words which were harder than others to pronounce. If he thought I didn't understand him he would show me the sign as well and this enabled me to model the word correctly for him and work out what he was trying to tell me. Signing has become an integrated part of our lives and I know that I will continue to have lots of fun with it!