Signing Time! "Caterpillar Dreams"

Signing Time! is a children's television program targeted towards children one through eight that teaches American Sign Language. It is filmed in the United States and hosted by Rachel de Azevedo Coleman, daughter of the well-known film score composer Lex de Azevedo. It was aired by American Public Television in many cities across the US.

Signing Time! introduces children and their parents to ASL (American Sign Language), a language used by millions.

Research demonstrates sign language’s ability to help children increase their learning ability. With just a few simple ASL signs, babies and toddlers — some as young as nine months old — can express their needs before they can speak. Many school-aged children can learn a second language. Children with developmental delays or special needs can find their own “voice” by using their hands to communicate using sign language.

Signing Time’s unparalleled multi-sensory approach encourages learning through three senses — visual, auditory and kinesthetic — and reaches children with diverse learning styles and abilities by encouraging interaction through signing, singing, speaking and dancing.

Throughout the series, songwriter and musician Rachel Coleman, her daughter Leah (who is deaf), Alex (Leah’s cousin who can hear), and their animated pet frog Hopkins, teach hundreds of useful ASL vocabulary-building signs. Children learn signs for common words, questions, phrases, movements, colors, sports, days of the week, everyday objects, and common activities.