Just
give me a sign, baby!
Andrea Hummel
Sentinel Correspondent
June 2, 2004
It's
hard to decide if Kathy Faber is a woman with a mission or a really
great businesswoman.
Faber, a stay-at-home mother of four children under six, spoke
at the Let's Play playgroup May 18 about her baby sign language
products.
Her own experience in communicating with pre-verbal children using
American Sign Language is testimonial to the huge comfort level
communication can make — both for babies and their parents.According
to Faber, with patience, practice and repetition, children as
young as ten months can learn sign language.
That's where her videos, "Baby See ‘N Sign," volumes
I and II, come in. The videotapes teach basic beginning signs
that help parents and children communicate about the details of
their day. The programs are now available on DVD.
"Baby See ‘N Sign" is not an electronic babysitter.
The series was designed for parents to watch with their babies.
Volume I teaches 90 signs during the 45-minute tape (25 bonus
signs can be accessed via a private Internet address flashed at
the end) and Volume II teaches 141 more signs.
"I've watched my own children (almost 5, 3, 2 and 9 months)
learn to sign over the last five years now," Faber said.
"All of them still enjoy it and love to teach our new baby
how it's done."
Faber's enthusiasm for her system is contagious. "It's really
cool when your baby finally signs to you and begins to tell you
what's on his mind," she said. "It's so awesome! We're
just as excited about signing with our new baby as we were with
our first."
Although never part of her plans, Faber has found herself traveling
to present her educational products to groups. In March she spoke
in Kennewick, Wash., at an instructor training to help the teachers
use the 600 videos they had purchased. She has fulfilled three
more speaking engagements in the last three months.
Her next trip, however, will be a life-changing one. Faber will
be heading home to Ohio soon to stay with her mother and her 33-year-old
sister, Lizzy, while her husband, Eric, returns to the university
to finish his degree.
"Lizzy was actually the inspiration for a lot of this work,"
Faber explains. Lizzy has Down syndrome and Faber has always felt
that the see-and-sign method would have made a vast difference
in her growing up.
"Autistic kids are making great strides with my products.
I've been told there is something about the way words and signs
are presented that captures their interest," she said.
Johanna Larson, the instructor on the tapes, is a teacher of baby
sign and ASL classes at the University of Oregon. Larson is the
hearing daughter of deaf parents.
Faber is hoping to add a line of supplemental products to her
"Baby See ‘N Sign" tapes and is enjoying the growing
enthusiasm for her products. She has been told that American Baby
magazine will have an article in the June issue on baby signing
with a sidebar about "Baby See ‘N Sign."
Until then, though, she'll keep busy with her own four "signers"
and promotional tours.
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