Signing Time vs. Baby Signing Time

[Nikita]

Rose08, us aussies should start a petition, a campaign to lower BST and ST postage costs to Aust. Cos I did what you did, and when postage was added I nearly choked on my vegemite sandwich.

[wenjonggal]

Not only Australia: Canada too. The first ST I ordered weren’t that expensive for postage, but then they started sending them only Expedited or somesuch, which was over $20 per order, and now they only send them Fedex I believe, and I end up spending over $30 on just postage, plus brokerage, import duties and taxes. So I have stopped ordering from them. I got dvds from four other places the same month, in the US, and all of them cost under $10 ea for postage, and labelled it so it didn’t cost so much. On top of it the last order I ordered from ST was because it was a 50% off special... (which I thought would make up for the horrid postage), but they wrote the 100% price on the customs label, so I was charged taxes and duty on full price. That is not the way it works: you always pay tax on what you actually paid for something, not what it might have been worth not on sale.

OK, that rant over, my son and I LOVE LOVE LOVE BST and ST, but most of all BST. He is 3.5 yrs old now and I got the two new BST dvds that came out at Christmas, even though he is older and we have almost every ST dvd. The BST have WAY more songs... every few signs it shows, there is a new song. That is THE best way to have my son engaged in the dvd, and we sing the songs while going for walks etc. I don’t particularly like the CDs because they have multiple copies of the same song on them, including sort of Karaoke versions. I find they are a lot of money for few songs.

My son adores all the ST dvds and as the woman who does them (her daughter is deaf) is a songwriter by profession to start with, the songs are really catchy and you find yourself singing them all the time. My son learned all his colors from ST, and as someone else remarked, they have a cartoon image and the word clearly printed on screen when the signs are signed by an adult, so they are an intro to reading as well. The signs are clearly signed by multiple children of different ages, which really helps the child watching, but also the parent, to be able to understand your child when he does the sign, but not quite right.

The BST is definitely regular ASL, but they show signs that are important for babies: milk, diaper, more, all done, potty etc. They also leave out signs that might be helpful like truck and park, but that would be too hard for a very young child to do. Ie Truck and park are actually fingerspelled, so really complex. Vs bus and car and bike, which are simple signs.

I decided which ones to buy by seeing which signs I would like in my daily life to know, his interests, and also which ones would be helpful, and checking which were on the dvds. For instance, I didn’t get the “outdoors” one with ant, tent, rainbow etc on it in the winter, but about a month before we went camping. And I didn’t get the one with all the wild animals on it until he had been to a zoo, and we wanted to talk about what he saw there.

I also tried to buy dvds that didn’t replicate the ones known in BST.

Finally, I really prefer the format of the ST Series One to the Series Two. They have more signs, more songs. Series Two seem more geared to television, and have some “games” that I find just waste time. Finally, re signing “frog”: the two main characters in the dvds are Leah (the deaf daughter), Alex (her real life cousin) and Hopkins, an animated FROG. So of course, one of the first words is frog. My son has a stuffed frog, so it wasn’t a wasteful word for him, and also, in the ST learning colors rainbow song, I think Frog is the sign used when they talk about Green.

Now if we can just get them to send internationally with normal (ie what everyone else uses) methods and rates, we could all adore them!

[Nikita]

I put a post about a cheaper way of getting them I managed in another signing thread. Works for australia, though dont know about canada. We dont seem to get import taxed on ebay etc items here. I think they'd tax me if they thought I was running a business. Dunno! But I feel your pain... it isnt fair that US babies are getting the educational advantage, the head start.  That's discrimination against... every other baby in the rest of the whole wide world.

[Joha]

How long do you usually use a DVD for? I just ordered the first BST DVD, but I'm not sure if I should have gotten a couple more. How do you know the baby is done with the DVD? My daughter is only for months so I'm just getting the materials for when she turns 6 months.

[nhockaday]

I use them until my son signs most of the signs. He mastered the first DVD very quickly. I don't even show it anymore. But he was also around 1 when I started showing it. If you are starting at 6 months, it will take a little longer for your daughter to catch on.

[Joha]

nhockaday,

Thank you so much for your message. I guess since every child is different there is not really a way to know. Six months is the right time to start with signing, right?

[rose08]

Rose08, us aussies should start a petition, a campaign to lower BST and ST postage costs to Aust. Cos I did what you did, and when postage was added I nearly choked on my vegemite sandwich.

It is ridiculous, I dont think it should cost that much, I have ordered other things from america for a lot cheaper...
It said that I had to order it express or something?? Why cant I just get it posted normally for cheaper?
Thanks for your PM Nikita, I had a look and It looks good. The only bad thing is that I have a pet in hospital at the moment and the bill is adding up, was supposed to pick my pet up today but they wont let me, so another night's fee is added on to my large bill. I think pets are more expensive than children 
Hopefully things will settle down and I might be able to get some of the programs, do you know how long the sale is on for? I didnt look too closely as know I cant buy anything at the moment and didnt want to get too disappointed.

[Ellieamazing]

nhockaday,

Thank you so much for your message. I guess since every child is different there is not really a way to know. Six months is the right time to start with signing, right?

With my son, we've been signing since 4 months. He watched the video since he was 6 months and now can sign 4 signs 

[Joha]

Ellieamazing,

Thank you so much for your message. It is a great point of reference.

[nhockaday]

Joha, I recommend you learn a few basic signs (like milk, all done, more, eat/food, or whatever you want) and start using them right away. I think 6 months is the perfect time to start showing the videos.

[Joha]

nhockaday,

You're my savior!     Thank you for answering my questions on this post and the other ones. It seems I'm always in your neighborhood 

[Nikita]

Rose08, I was in the vet the other day myself and I said the same thing to the receptionist.  It's true!! Our kids get free doctors visits, free hospital and if we have a lower income, prescriptions are $5.  you can go to discount stores and get cheap food and shampoo etc.  Not so for animals... that's why I didnt want any.  Unfortunately the kids wanted pets. And if they escape, you dont have to pay anything to get them back... pets cost money to get back from the pound, not to mention how much to buy them in the first place.  our government pays us to have kids! (Love u, Aussie government).

[mtb999]

Hi Rose08 and other Australian parents reading this thread - I've started a new thread with Auslan resources which are free on the web. 

http://forum.brillkids.com/australia-b79/auslan-resources/new/#new

The last link is probably the best as there is video footage on how to do the signs rather than a picture with arrows.

The postage and handling costs from USA are too expensive for me - and my resources are definately finite.

PS hope your pet is better and can be discharged home tomorrow - vets really make a killing.  There is pet insurance available but it's not cheap either!

[SigningTime]

We have progress charts available that show what signs are taught in each DVD. It is fun to check off the signs your child knows. If your child is not yet signing, it is fun to put the date they first signed the word in the box. You can download them at http://www.signingtime.com/resources/support/

[nhockaday]

We have progress charts available that show what signs are taught in each DVD. It is fun to check off the signs your child knows. If your child is not yet signing, it is fun to put the date they first signed the word in the box. You can download them at http://www.signingtime.com/resources/support/

I wish I would have known about them when we first started. What a great resource.

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