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About my family: I am the very proud mother of two grown children. Natasha is nearly 20 and Seth is 17. My husband and I made a conscience decision many years ago that one of us would have a flexible schedule to meet the needs of our then small children. It made the best sense that as a School Psychologist and sign language instructor I could complete contract assignments vs. work full-time. As the children became older I started to outline in my mind the ideas of the company that I created, SIGNING FAMILIES. Our daughter, Natasha, is a professional actor and model and is fluent in sign language as well. Thus, she easily became a photo model for many of the signs that appear on our website and in this article. Our son, is a computer whiz (like his Dad) and helps to design and set up my webpages and fan pages for Facebook. My husband, Marc, is just a super support both with my company design and being our “webman”. All of us use sign language and we have many friends within the deaf community.

Featured product or service: Signing Families is proud that we develop sign language workshops that are not “the usual cookie cutter” class. We teach sign language with a “developmental psychology” twist! Each workshop has a DVD to help reinforce instruction and assist with teaching others. The DVDs have been so successful that we created one which was nationally distributed this past year. This DVD is our “Baby, Toddler and Preschool Sign Language” Presented by Louise Sattler and Friends.

This is not a DVD for your baby but for any person from preschool to senior citizen age to learn to sign. Created for families, educators, healthcare professionals, daycare and preschool providers uses both Louise Masin Sattler and her young friends to teach the dynamics of basic sign language. Signs are offered in the order of childhood development. Spanish narrative tandem with signs one of our bonus features. ABC’s and Numbers 1-10 also are offered. Focus groups were implemented to ensure that the lessons were clear and fun! We have been touched by the many people who have written to us about how valuable our DVDs were with helping their typically developing young child or special needs child to communicate.

Signing Families has been endorsed by numerous organizations that work within the special education and preschool communities. We have been working closely with groups that help children with Autism, Down Syndrome, Deafness and medical impairments. In the one year that “Baby, Toddler and Preschool Sign Language” has been available for distribution it has sold out at Expos, Conferences and in bookstores. This particular DVD is available on our website for your readers at a discount. (Send us an email for a full explanation of how to obtain your rebate discount.) Customers also can find us on many, many online websites from Amazon.com, Harriscomm.com (Harris Communications), BN.com (Barnes and Noble) to other specialized shops.

We also offer a wide variety of other services and products. Individual sign language classes, small group instruction and made “just for you DVDs” are available. Most recently we merged with another super parent organization, Personal Child Stories and developed English, Spanish and Sign Language personalized books for children. Parents can ask for their books to have a special theme. The first one created was numbers, however, you name the theme and we will design the book with sign language and your home language!!

Signing Families has been very fortunate to have weathered and prospered during these tough economic times. We have sent dozens of our DVDs gratis to organizations that are in desperate need. We also have donated financially to organizations that help children and their families. As a parent and the owner of Signing Families, I am most proud that we are able to contribute in our small way.