PLEASE VOTE DAILY HERE: http://bit.ly/eDy1Jg (simply pick daily reminder)

I has been a really long time since I “campaigned” for any competition. I think my last run for an office was in the seventh grade. I lost- badly. This time I am hoping to compete in something a little bit more hefty than my Jr. HS student council race. I am hoping to have my company, SIGNING FAMILIES™ recognized as one of the Start Up Nation 2011 best mom owned businesses. While it would be terrific to win- it would be even more wonderful to receive exposure for American Sign Language as a beneficial mode of communication for not only the deaf community but those who are within perhaps the Autism, Down Syndrome and Speech Impaired communities ( to name a few).

To date SIGNING FAMILIES™ has donated thousands of dollars of product and instructional workshops to people within the special needs community who could not afford to attend ASL classes or purchase materialsfor their classrooms or homes. We also have taught up close and personal- scores of educators, families, medical personnel and First Responders nationwide. Our DVD- Sign Language for Emergency Situations in ASL, English and Spanish has been heralded as a one of a kind DVD to meet the ASL and Spanish communities needs for fast communication during a natural or manmade disaster.

Our BABY, TODDLER and PRESCHOOL Sign Language DVD was designed to meet the needs of people who want to learn how to promote or augment communication with children by using sign language. It recently won the KIDLUTIONS Preferred Product Award and was represented at Mac World for KIDS 2011.

Here is what we are working on now-

Create a large pocket folder with signs for basic communication on the front and emergency/medical signs onthe back. This folder was requested by people within both the medical and educational communities. We heard the requests and are now in production. Available May 2011.

– In order to help promote literacy among deaf children and foster friendships between children who are hearingand those who are deaf we are creating multiple bookmarks. Our first two focus on school words and social-emotional development words with ASL, English and Spanish. The third will substitute Hebrew for Spanish.  (Have an idea- submit to us anytime!)

Also, SIGNING FAMILIES™ proudly teamed with abcteach.com to create downloadable flashcards and movies for their terrific educators website. To date, we have created for videos which help students and teachers learn COLORS, the ALPHABET and NUMBERS and COMMON SCHOOL WORDS in ASL. Next we will be developing a video for WH? question words.

…And if we can find people who know sign language for Japan we will gladly put together for First Responders and the Red Cross a quick chart to use on site to help communicate with the deaf population in Japan. (Please send any info about JSL – Japanese Sign Language to info@SigningFamilies.com)

THANK YOU FOR READING… now please vote.. today and every day until the competition ends in mid- May. It would be so groovy to get more people taking a sign language journey with us!

~Louise

p.s. A very special Thank You to Karen Geary, my biz mentor, – without her, I would never have had the courage to pursue SIGNING FAMILIES on an international level!