For those of you who have tried it before and just have not seen the results, there are many reasons for this. Some include how consistent you are, how frequently you are signing, what signs you are using and how many family members are involved in the process.

My advice to you is to not give up. Baby sign language is worth the wait and your baby’s first sign is as special as your baby’s first word. If you would like to add baby sign language to your list of New Years resolutions, this article on mixing practical and motivating signs will definitely help you.

Happy New Year & Happy Signing!

For starters we have added 11 beautifully illustrated nursery rhyme board books from Child’s Play.  These are a fantastic Christmas gift and a great next step in Auslan baby sign learning.

We have also added 2 wonderful storybooks about Honky Dora.  These books highlight keywords throughout the story and provide the Auslan sign of the highlighted words.  They are great fun for all the family.  The first Honky Dora book in the series, Honky Dora The Noisy Goose, also comes with a DVD which provides instructions for parents and tells and signs the story for you.

For all those Wiggles fans out there, we have added 3 new Wiggles DVDs with Auslan captioning to our shopping cart.  Wiggly Dancing, Wiggle & Learn - Getting Strong and Dorothy The Dinosaurs Party allow your kids to enjoy the Wiggles while exposing them to Auslan.

The final addition to your shopping cart is as a result of being asked the question “Where can I learn more signs?”.  As a result, we have added a new section to our shopping cart called Sign Language Dictionaries.  In here you will find a range of dictionaries from the pocket sized dictionary with illustrations, to an illustrated Children’s Picture Dictionary to the Deaf Children Australia dictionary with colour photographs.

If you’re really not sure what your family or friends may want in relation to baby sign language, you can always get them a gift certificate which allows them to choose what they want at a later stage.

I hope you have a wonderful relaxed Christmas & New Year.

I look forward to hearing more of your signing stories in 2009.

After the announcement last week of our brand new website and baby sign classes I’m really pleased to say that the Australian Baby Hands baby sign language DVD is now also ready.

I wrote the Australian Baby Hands book almost four years ago now and since then I have had many requests from parents asking for a DVD to show them how to sign as well.

In my new DVD I show you real life examples of children signing as well as practical tips and information on introducing sign into your home.

In the visual signing dictionary at the end I demonstrate how to carry out 60 signs with visual close ups of hand movement and gestures so you can see exactly what to do.

It was great fun making this DVD and I know that there will be lots of you who enjoy it around Australia plus 10% of profits from the DVD will be going to help Deaf Children Australia as well. So not only can you get a fantastic tool to assist you with your baby’s communication but you can also indirectly be contributing to a great cause.

You can get your copy of my new baby sign DVD here:

As promised I have put up the video of my interview for you here so you can see Irena Dunn interview on my book and ask me questions about baby sign language.

One very interesting thing was that straight away the first question Irena asked me was, “Can baby sign be used with hearing babies?”

It seems there’s still a big misconception out there that baby sign is for deaf babies or those with learning disabilities which is not true. As babies vocal chords don’t develop until around 18 months but their physical motor skills to be able to sign begin at around 6 months there is a large gap where children are able to communicate physically but not verbally. This is where baby sign can be so useful in all children’s lives helping to reduce frustration and break down the communication barrier.

Enjoy the video and I hope you like the impromptu sign demonstrations at the end.

]]> http://www.australianbabyhands.com/blog/baby-sign-news/interview-at-woollarahs-local-writers-festival/feed/ http://www.australianbabyhands.com/blog/baby-sign-news/woollahra-local-writers-word-festival/ http://www.australianbabyhands.com/blog/baby-sign-news/woollahra-local-writers-word-festival/#comments Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:26:43 +0000 JackieDurnin http://www.australianbabyhands.com/?p=66 Last month I got selected as one of 10 authors to be featured in the Woollahra Local Writers’ Word Festival.

The festival is being held this Saturday, 22nd November from 11:00am to 3:00pm at the following address:

Woollahra Council
536 New South Head Road
Double Bay
NSW

The event features Sydney Bauer who will give a talk on writing crime fiction and then from 12pm - 3pm, I will be one of 10 authors who will be interviewed about our work by Irina Dunn of the Australian Writers Guild.

Tickets to the day at $10 (or $7 for Woollahra Family Friends) and includes refreshments on the day.

All authors participating will be selling their book on the day.

For more information on the event please visit the Local Writers Word Festival Page on the Woollahara Council website.

My interview on baby sign language will be between 12.30pm and 1.45pm.

If you are in the local area, it would be great to see you there!

***Update - you can see the video of my interview here;

The good old site which has done so well for the last 4 years was really getting a bit tired and we thought it was about time to redo and refresh the whole look and feel of the site.

There’s a lot more to this new site, including this blog so I’ll be posting regular updates and news on the happenings at Australian Baby Hands for 2009.

A few of the new things that are happening now are the new DVD, set to be released very soon and our new baby sign classes. We will be adding more details to the site on these in the coming weeks but if you would like any information in the meantime please contact us.

Take a look around the new site, there’s still some tidy up work to do so if you do find anything wrong like broken links, or links going to the wrong page I’d really appreciate if you let me know.

I’d love to know what you think so please take your time to have a look and let me know what you think by leaving your comments below.

Happy Signing!