I qualified as an Infant teacher in 1991 having studied a Bachelor of Education Honours Degree in English and taught as a Pre-school teacher for 7 years. I have always had a keen interest in Early Years education, language development and communication.
The 0-5 years are a foundation for learning for the rest of our lives. To be able to communicate and be understood as babies can only be considered a positive step in any child's language development.

Sarah, Emily and David.

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Whilst pregnant in 1999, I watched a feature on signing with babies on the "Richard and Judy" programme. The subject was also covered on "Tonight with Trevor Macdonald", where they took a group of parents in the UK who used the programme over a six week period and then reported on how they felt about the baby sign language. It was seeing the evidence on television that prompted me into researching and then buying the material to teach our twins baby sign language.

There were two main reasons why we decided to use the baby sign language with our twins. Firstly, we wanted to ensure that they did not develop their own "twins" language and lock themselves away in their own little world.

We wanted to be a part of their world and secondly, when dealing with the needs of two infants at the same time, life was made exceptionally easier when the individual was telling you what it was they wanted.

We involved family and friends, who like us were unaware of the baby sign language and who were also slightly sceptical but willing to give it a go. Everyone involved found signing immensely rewarding!

David and Emily were born five weeks early and Emily weighed just under three pounds. As David was four pounds in weight, he was not considered technically premature. On our last visit to hospital, Emily's paediatrician pointed out that developmentally Emily may encounter problems.

Looking back, Emily took to the sign language like a duck to water and now whenever anybody questions about a possible delay in speech development, where Emily is concerned, we always reply "We wish!"

David still signed "please" if he really, really wanted something when he was three!

Emily signing "Please".

About "Baby Sign with Jenny"...

Aaron and I began ‘Singing and Signing’ nearly 18 months ago. I hadn’t heard of baby signing before, but I knew how much babies and children enjoy music and singing from my previous classes that I had attended with Bethany. I was keen to try something new; Aaron has always enjoyed the classes and still does to this day! He was able to make several clear signs, including asking for a nappy change, well before he could talk, which he does now, virtually non-stop!!

The opportunity for me to take over the running of the classes from Sarah has come about because Sarah and her family have emigrated to New Zealand. Once settled over there Sarah hopes to start up the business once again, with a new Kiwi market place, where they are only just getting to know about Baby Signing.

Sarah has run the business for nearly 3 years and so has handed over all of her lesson plans, resources, web site and knowledge to me. We have tried really hard to make the hand over as seamless as possible, with the established groups carrying on as they have been for some time now.