Baby Signing Classes from TinyTalk - what our clients think of us...

James and I really enjoy the classes with the singing and dancing and stories and it's been great for both of us to make friends there too! There is always a lovely, relaxed and comfortable atmosphere whilst still being run very efficiently and professionally. The classes are lively and fun and full of the gorgeous sound of babies laughing! I think the tea and coffee and biscuits at the end is a lovely touch too.

On a personal note, Beverley is fantastic and I couldn't have wished for a better teacher. She's a genuine and caring person who treats the babies (and the mums) so well I find it staggering sometimes. She's always got a beaming smile on her face and makes everyone so welcome.

Thanks TinyTalk but mostly, thanks Beverley!

I just wanted to write and say a massive thank you to Maria for brightening up our Thursday mornings, she made the classes so much fun and yet we always learnt so much too, Grace was always mesmerised by Maria who’s bubbly personality always made us feel incredibly at ease and as a result both of us caught on to signing really easily. It is a wonderful tool for communicating

and I would recommend TinyTalk classes to all mums.

Grace and I still do signing today as part of our daily routine. It just comes naturally after a while and just last week when Grace was very poorly, she kept signing doctor to me.

Thanks Maria and Tiny Talk!

Phoebe's vocabulary (signed) reached about 100, but then as she started talking she dropped the signs. In fact, at her 2 year check-up, the Health Visitor asked if she was able to say 30 words that we could understand, even if others couldn't. The next day I wrote them all down - all 163 of them!

The research into signing shows that babies who sign can say, on average 50 more spoken words at 2 years old than their non-signing peers. So Phoebe was over twice that level, and over 5 times further on than the Health Visitor expected.

Well done Phoebe!

This is why my son William and I love TinyTalk

There once was a baby called Billy
Whose Mommy was a bit silly
She couldn't work out
What his cries were about
Whether he was hungry, tired or chilly!

In her friends Billy's Mommy confided
She needed help and so they decided
To go to TinyTalk together
Whatever the weather
So that Mommy's peril wasn't one sided!!

TinyTalk was a great place to be
All the babies there were very happy
Signs were easy to learn
And babies soon took their turn
To say whatever they wanted, Yippee!!

Now there's a baby called Billy
Who can sign away willy nilly
His Mommy now knows
From the signs Billy shows
What he wants, so she doesn't feel silly!!

Loving the TinyTalk certificate you gave Sofia yesterday. Took a picture of it and sent it to her grandmas at home. They need to know all of the details in her life since they don't get to see her often!

Just a fun compliment for you today...went to coffee with a group of the girls yesterday after class...we were all saying how your class is our favorite of all the things we do with the babies. You do a great job, so enthusiastic, etc. The chocolate bars you give me every week are pretty special as well. HA!

I'm just writing to say how much my daughter Sophie and i have enjoyed Tiny Talk signing classes. We joined when Sophie was 8 months old, she's now 16 months old. We have been going to the Eaton Park, Norwich classes run by Maria Holloway. We are leaving the classes due to moving house but i thought i would take this opportunity to say how helpful and rewarding learning to sign with Sophie has been. Although sceptical at first of how well the signing would work and how fast Sophie would pick it up, i am now positive that it's an excellent way to communicate with my daughter. She hardly ever cries or gets frustrated because she can sign to me when she's hungry, thirsty or even when she needs her nappy changing. She can sign what several different animals are, plus many more signs. I also think it's helped with her speech development. She has a lot to say for herself! Maria's classes are relaxed and fun and have helped my daughter not only communicate well with myself and others, but have also helped her gain confidence around other babies and toddlers. I would recommend Tiny Talk to anyone, Yours faithfully, Lizzie Aires

This class has been a revelation! William was signing his first sign ‘Food’ within a week of coming to his first class at 13 mths. William & Alice are both now 15 mths & using lots of signs to communicate, which makes the daily routine much smoother. It is an absolute joy to be able to speak with your babies before they can actually talk! Thank you.

When I told my friends I was doing baby signing classes they all laughed but by 1 year old Daisy told me when she was hungry, thirsty and wanted milk. Her speech hasn’t suffered as she is now 18 months old and her speech is that of a 2 year old.

I don't know if you remember me, but I did your signing class in Wokingham for a term nearly a year ago now with my then 4mth old baby Joel. I cannot get over how much signing has improved the quality of life for both him & me. For him he's so pleased with himself to start with, rarely fusses because he can tell me what he wants, and is also able to hold a 'conversation' about what he sees around him, & what might have caught his eye that I haven't necessarily seen. He likes to sign when we're in company too - it's our kind of secret language!!

The teacher, Louise Dixon, was fantastic and very enthusiastic. Charlotte quickly learned to sign 'milk' then a few months later was signing all sorts of things. We are convinced that being able to communicate effectively from 8 months helped her to develop language skills and vocabulary early. We returned to classes with our second daughter, Helena, recently. She's not yet 6 months but loves the songs especially as her big sister entertains her with them.

The new teacher, Karen, is great and has really encouraged Charlotte to join in & help sign to the other babies. Going to Tiny Talk as a toddler she joins in with her doll & has learned 'right' & 'left' from the Hokey Cokey! I'm sorry I'm now back at work & miss the classes!!! Initially our families were sceptical about baby signing but when Charlotte started signing & my sister-in-law was able to tell Grandma what she was saying (she signs Makaton at school & Youth Club) they were amazed! I'm telling all my friends with babies to join the class!

It also helped my husband when he went on supply (teaching) at a special school. One of the reasons they loved him was because he would try signing (he knew the key words from Tiny Talk!)

Just a HUGE Thank you for such an excellent enterprise.

Mel, thank you for teaching me such a wonderful skill, the ability to communicate with Josh before he can talk has been priceless and will become a treasured memory of Josh’s infancy for our whole family.

Love Jo & Josh

Hi Katrina,

I wanted to write and say that Ella and Owen really enjoyed the class on Monday, it really was the best class we have been to - so thank you for making it so enjoyable!

We will definitely be back to the next one on Monday.

See you soon,

Becky

Just wanted to compliment you on the DVD - I received my copy on Tuesday and watched some of it with the kids on Tuesday evening. I put it on again for Danny yesterday evening and he sat & watched it with his daddy. As a particular sign would come up, George would ask him "what's the sign for bread?" and Danny would say "I don't know" (as the bread was being shown, for example) So then George would tell him it was coming up again and he'd watch it the second time and he'd then repeat the sign.

After they watched the food section, I came in and we stopped the DVD and George asked Danny to show mammy the sign for bread, cake, clean, dirty, etc etc and he was able to show me them all! These were all NEW signs to Danny, he'd never used them before. I nearly fell off the seat in shock!

The DVD is perfect for the kids to learn from as well as parents. Great work!

When my daughter was around 9 months I became concerned about her social development. I am very lucky to have made good friends with the ladies from my ante natal class and so, once a week, we would meet up for a cup of tea and a chat. All of the children would play nicely on the floor, except Chloe. She would sit with her back to all of the others and scream if any of them shuffled near. All of the other children seemed to be making more ‘noises’ whereas Chloe seemed to be exceptionally quiet in comparison.

The Health Visitor suggested that we try some baby signing classes and so we discovered TinyTalk! Chloe loved the first class, with all of the singing, and she very quickly picked up the signs for ‘milk’ and ‘eat’. After a few more lessons she was crawling on the mats for the toys and was not worried about any of the other children coming close to her! It made life a lot easier for me to know what she needed, i.e. more food or drink. It also made it easier for grandparents and family to look after her too!

Chloe is now coming up to 2 years of age; she has picked up a lot of signs, including ‘duck’ and ‘bird’. She now speaks a lot of words with the signs.

I strongly believe that taking Chloe to Tiny Talk has given her confidence and a great start in communicating with others. Thank you Velda and thank you TinyTalk! The whole experience has been great fun!!

Ruby sat on my bed and signed this sentence yesterday morning "Daddy's given me some toast, but it's all gone and now I want some milk" (Daddy, food, all gone, milk) - wow!!

"We are so proud of Francesca and her signs. We have tried desperately to catch her doing them all with our camera! We are really impressed with what she can do. It took a good few months for Francesca to start signing at all, but then it was like a switch being turned on and she can pick them up quite easily now. Her speech is better than her non-signing friends too, but that could just be because we have a little chatterbox on our hands! We keep going to classes because they are really fun and we both enjoy them. Francesca actually being able to sign back to me is a real bonus!! As well as farm animals, she can now tell me if she is hungry or thirsty, or even that she wants to go to bed. Brilliant!"

"I've been bringing Sarah to this class since she was 7 months old. None of the other mums in my Post-Natal class wanted to do baby signing, but now Sarah is the only baby in that group that's talking clearly! I don't think she's a genius, but she certainly seems more interested in everything around her than the other babies. She only stops talking and signing when she's asleep!"

His first sign was at 14 months - 'all gone' and then it was shortly followed by 'more'. I was amazed to see that the other day, Harry came into the kitchen to find me, after watching the TinyTalk DVD and did the sign for 'cake' and then 'biscuit' AND said the words too! I've never taught him the sign for 'cake' - he was copying what he had just seen on the DVD.

I am always recommending TinyTalk UK and have told a number of friends to come along to the Guildford class on a Friday morning. It's a lovely place to meet new mums and the tea and biscuits aren't bad either!

I shall certainly miss it when Harry grows out of TinyTalk and I would suggest to all mums to buy the DVD - I would much rather Harry watches that than the television!

I started taking Tia to Tiny Talk before I knew she had a hearing problem. Twelve months on, assessments have shown that she is severely deaf.... so I can't thank Katie enough for introducing Tiny Talk to us- it basically means Tia has a way of communicating with us that she wouldn't have had otherwise.

Tia uses hearing aids, so the signing isn't replacing talking (as we talk &
sign)- it will just bridge the gap until she has caught up with her peers. She is picking up signs on a weekly basis- which is fabulous as she is now able to "talk" through signing just as well, or even better than some of her little friends who have perfect hearing. This is really encouraging (such proud parents!!) and it has really helped my husband and I cope with all the worries we initially had when she was first diagnosed. We've also introduced our family & friends to signing- so they can all join in with her.

Tia loves the singing & playtime Tiny Talk offers and I love the fact that I am helping my little girl express herself... and she has lots to say!!!!

"I’ve told work that I'm only going back if I can have Mondays off. We can't stop TinyTalk baby signing now - we meet up with our friends and both love the class. It gives you something to look forward to if you've had a bad weekend. We would miss it terribly if we couldn't come anymore.”

It's such a lovely class to attend, seeing the other babies grow and learn the signs too. Towards the end of the first term, our teacher would start the class and a lot of the babies would crawl over and sit right in front of her - what a great teacher!

Thanks for introducing such an excellent class - I'm highly recommending it to everyone - even friends who are still pregnant!!!