Songs and American Sign Language ASL

Series Awards

We Sign has won over 50 National awards of excellence for entertaining and educational products for children.

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We Sign Fun Time
Playful and interactive songs with signs for toddlers, preschoolers and their families.

We Sign Play Time
A great starter collection of songs and signs for young children from 14 months to 5 years.

We Sign Patriotic
American Patriotic songs with signs.

Mother Goose & Nursery Rhyme Songs.

Learn about this CD of classic children's song's

Camp Songs

Wonderful collection of songs on CD for children and families to sing-along to.

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For thousands of years, mankind has been passing on information, teaching culture, traditions, history and more through songs. According to Mark Jude Tramo, neurobiologist “Music is biologically part of human life.” (Habermeyer p.11). In Ancient Greece, music was considered one of the pillars of learning. Plato once said that music was one of the most potent forms of education.

The singing of songs helps to enrich the home and school environment and, as Beatrice Landeck writes, “Children are quick to adapt it in their play…” (Landeck p.8). The First Lady, Laura Bush, has testified before Congress that “She recalled playing sing-songy word games with her twin baby girls and said all parents need to know that such activities in infancy are critical to developing children's reading and language skills” (OC Register, 1/25/202 p.27). Songs are a positive way to make learning fun for young children. Sally Rogers, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, believes that "giving your preschool child a chance to experience a wide variety of musical activities can enhance his learning of language- which develops rapidly between the ages of fifteen months and three years- and at the same time teach him valuable motor skills” (Habermeyer p.43 ).

“Movement, in addition to singing … continues to be one of the most important instructional tools available to the educator” (Taylor p.22). We Sign, by combining great new and traditional sing-along songs with the movement and visual nature of ASL, has created a series of videos that provide hours of family fun and an enriching product for early learning. Playful singing activities combined with ASL work on hand-eye coordination, on creativity, on language development, on memory, on learning basic educational concepts and on developing self-confidence as children accomplish new skills.

We Sign's collection of songs combined with ASL are intended for children to interact with other children, parents, teachers and caregivers. By singing, signing and "sharing of music, age barriers are forgotten(and) songs that have been sung for generations in real-life situations bring human beings of all ages into harmony with each other” (Landeck p.8).

How To Teach a Signed Song to Children:

Review the video/DVD and choose the song that you are going to present

Practice the song until you can sing and sign the song confidently.

Present the signs clearly and slowly to your children, helping them to learn to sign each word correctly.

Always have your children's attention and be encouraging and supportive and never coerce.

Talk the song and sign the words slowly with the children following along

Sing and sign the song slowly with the children following and singing along

Sing and sign the song at a faster tempo or play the song on the TV for everyone to follow along, singing and signing.

Praise all your children's efforts.

Us the signs, found in the song, with your children at other times during the day, in conversation or while reading a book. This reinforces their learning and strengthens memory and recall.

When singing the song again, review the signs before singing until you are sure the children know all the signs in the song. It's always great to get them participating by asking them how to sign each of the words that they remember.

Follow these steps for any song that you want to teach your children. Keep in mind that

children often love to sing songs over and over.

introducing 2 or 3 new songs is all you want to do at any one time.

Always review and sing 1 or 2 familiar songs before moving on to a new one

We Sign™ Bibliography

Habermeyer, Sharlene, Good Music Brighter Children, Prima Publishing, Rocklin CA, 1999

Landeck, Beatrice, More Songs to Grow On, William Sloane Associates, Inc., New York, 1954.

SIGNING How to Speak with Your Hands, Elaine Costello Bantam Books,1983

Taylor , Barbara J, A Child Goes Forth, Simon & Schuster 1999.