TinyTalk is making baby signing news

We are delighted to announce that we have reached the final shortlists in the What's On 4 Little Ones Awards 2010:

- The Best National Baby and Toddler Development Activity (Newborn to 2 years)

- The Best National Preschooler Development Activity (2 to 5 years)

- The Most Outstanding Activity Leader for the Under 5s with 3 of our fantastic teachers being nominated in this category (Dawn Holt - TinyTalk Derby, Maria Holloway - TinyTalk Norwich and Julia Maugham - TinyTalk Cramlington and last year's WINNER!)

We would love to win but we need your help! Please click here to vote for TinyTalk in all 3 categories.

Voting closes on the 30th April 2010 at 5pm - but please vote RIGHT NOW if you can. Thank you VERY much and also thank you for voting for us in the nomination stage and getting us to the final shortlists.

We are pleased to announce that the TinyTalk UK charity of the year for 2010 is the NSPCC. The NSPCC aims to end cruelty to children in the UK and the Child’s Voice Appeal is just one way in which we can help the NSPCC to achieve their goals.

The Child’s Voice Appeal aims to transform ChildLine and the NSPCC Helpline to ensure we are there for all children. The hardest thing for an abused child is to speak out. TinyTalk need YOUR help to reach our £5000 fundraising target. TinyTalk teachers will be holding various fun and exciting fundraising events throughout the year and also ALL profits from the sales of our gorgeous Eco-bag will also be going to the NSPCC to support the valuable work that they do. Thank you in advance for your support! CLICK HERE to visit the TinyTalk / Child's Voice Appeal page on the 'Just Giving' website.

TinyTalk have just joined Comic Relief’s new mission called ‘1010’. It’s a campaign to cut personal (and company) carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010. By signing up, TinyTalk have committed to cutting emissions as a company. To find out more about this very worthwhile scheme, CLICK HERE.

TinyTalk classes are now running at Center Parcs Elveden Forest exclusively for Center Parc guests. Watch out for more TinyTalk classes opening soon at a Center Parcs Village near you!

TinyTalk firmly supports I CAN, the charity that supports children’s communication. Both organisations therefore share a common aim. Children have a lot to say- let’s help them express themselves.

We’ve been showcased on the BBC’s ‘The Politics Show’. With children entering school with shockingly low levels of speech and language, we’re all trying to do our bit to improve this situation, helping children to communicate and understand the world around them!

From sales of our popular eco-bags, we’ve also raised just under £1000 so far for I CAN. Click here to find out how to buy yours! We’ll also be delivering I CAN’s ‘Chatterbox Challenge’ right across the UK, through TinyTalk classes. Look out for TinyTalk featuring in I CAN’s new Family Pack!

We are delighted to have been asked by NCT to provide entertainment at all the local NCT Cheeky Monkey Tea Parties across the UK!

The NCT Cheeky Monkeys Tea Party is a fun family day out where the kids can play non-stop and have fun till they drop! Mums and Dads can have a cuppa and a natter whilst enjoying a fantastic day out.

It's just another sign than TinyTalk is seen by both parents and organisations as the highest-quality provider of baby signing classes in the UK.

At TinyTalk and TinySign we believe passionately in our children’s rights. Here are just two of them:

• A right to communicate and to be understood. Our children have a right to communicate and to be understood. This then impacts on their self confidence, self esteem and happiness! At the same time it develops their language skills- both spoken and signed- and their understanding of the world around them. We also get to know our little ones much better too! It’s a win-win-win situation.
  
  
• A right to a future. Our children also have a right to a future and safe-guarding their future begins right now. We all have a duty of care- at both children and world level. That’s why at TinyTalk and at TinySign we’re implementing a whole range of changes with new policies and practices- at company level, teacher level, class level and, we hope, at mum level too!

Watch this space to find out more. If each of us does our tiny bit we can, together, make a huge difference. Let’s make it happen!

Says Daily Telegraph writer Jemima Lewis:

"I can feel myself slipping into a parallel universe: one where phrases such as Tumble Tots and Tiny Talk may actually mean something."

Click here to read her whole article about developments in the world of motherhood...

TinyTalk have just won the 'What's On 4 Little Ones' Silver Award in the Best National Activity for the under 2s category!

Thousands of mums voted in the awards, and we won for: 1: Value for money, 2: Educational but fun sessions and 3: Support for mums and families!

‘Young Mums to Be’ is a charity that supports pregnant teenagers across the UK. It aims to enable and support young parents through their pregnancy. By completing the course, the mums will also achieve modules towards NVQs.

TinyTalk has been chosen to support the Communication unit of the course, providing baby signs, training and guidance. The Young Mums to Be will then be able to help their babies express their needs clearly plus help their babies’ speech and language development.

For more information about this course you can visit the YMTB website: www.ymtb.org

“It’s in part due to the Baby Show and, in particular, your demonstration Katie. One skeptical Mum went to have a look. She then came to one of my classes, bought everything we sell, told all her friends how great it was and they’ve all turned up this morning!!”

 - A happy TinyTalk Teacher!

We’re pleased to announce that Baby Experiences and bébébox have chosen TinyTalk as their supplier of baby signing classes. So you can now buy vouchers for TinyTalk classes to give to friends and family.

TinyTalk has been asked to be ‘the baby signing expert’ by Practical Parenting magazine. The article, about how baby signing helps parents/ carers and babies to understand each other, was in the November 2004 issue.

TinyTalk is the first and leading British Baby Sign Language organisation to appear on television in the UK.

TinyTalk was invited onto ITV’s flagship show ‘This Morning’ (Winner of Best Daytime Television Show 2003) in February 2003. We were the first British Baby Sign Language organisation on television in the UK.

Katie Mayne (founder of TinyTalk) and some mums from her class (and with little ones) went on the show for the live interview. Footage of the TinyTalk classes was shown, with babies demonstrating a number of different signs. Their interview, by Philip Schofield and Fern Brittan, received the highest viewing ratings of the show and TinyTalk was subsequently flooded with requests for the Signing Packs, class details and information on how to become a TinyTalk teacher.

(You can see Philip comforting one of the babies (Toby - who was very tired by the time of the interview) on the opening credits to the show every day!)

TinyTalk have just passed the 60 teacher mark - with new classes being added to areas such as Maidenhead, Chichester, Edgebaston and Woodbridge. In fact, we now have 60 teachers in the UK, and 1 in Australia.

A new class has just been added in Melbourne, Australia, signaling TinyTalk's plan to one day be operating baby signing classes all over the world.

(To find one of our baby signing classes nearest you - simply click 'Find A Class' on the main navigation bar.)

We are proud to announce our first teacher in Australia - Susan Wilding has recently joined us and will be offering classes in her home town of Melbourne.

"I can't wait to get started", Susan told us recently, "Baby signing has yet to hit Australia in a big way - and I'm hoping that TinyTalk's unique mix of fun and learning will take Australia's parents and babies by storm!"

Sarah Collins, TinyTalk baby signing teacher for Felixstowe and Ipswich, has won this year's Prince's Trust Award for 'Young Achiever of the Year' for the East of England. She received the award recently from none other than Prince Charles.

Sarah has turned her life around. Despite difficult background circumstances, Sarah has been determined to make a success of her life. Still in only her second term of teaching TinyTalk classes, Sarah has worked so hard that she has won this very prestigious Princes Trust award.

She teaches a range of TinyTalk baby signing classes every week, has trained a growing number of nurseries using the TinyTalk Nursery Training Programme and is also a TinyTalk Recruitment Coordinator.

Sarah says: ‘I can’t thank TinyTalk enough. It has helped me so much with my life’.

Katie Mayne, the TinyTalk founder, says: ‘I am so proud of you and what you have achieved for you and your family. Well done ‘Tigger’.

Sarah is now being put forward for the next level: the Prince’s Trust Young Achiever Award winner of England 2004. We wish her all the best!

Starting Summer Term 2004 - we're launching the TinyTalk Baby Sign Language Nursery Programme - after nursery schools invited TinyTalk to train their teachers.

The programme aims to introduce signs and the principles of baby sign language into schools, relating it all to the existing guidelines of practice and everyday nursery life.

If you would like us to come into your school or nursery, either to deliver classes or to train your staff in the principles of baby sign language, please don't hesitate to contact us to register your interest: info@tinytalk.co.uk