Jennifer L Alexander

My name is Jennifer Alexander and I am so excited about being a part of Signing Time.  Growing up, I had a lot of hearing problems due to ear infections and aphasia, but I also had two strong women in my life that took extra time to help me succeed in learning how to speak well and hear different sounds: my speech therapist and my mother.  My mother would spend hours with me.  The two of us would be cuddled up with a mirror so I could see how she was moving her mouth and I could copy the sounds and she would read and read to me.  In those hours, she taught me by her example that children are to be loved and that they are special.  Years later, I had some final surgeries to reconstruct my eardrums and my hearing greatly improved.

Through my own hearing struggles, it has made me feel a tenderness towards deaf people and has given me a desire to learn American Sign Language (ASL).  As I have learned ASL and are teaching my children ASL, I can see many benefits of it.  It has helped my younger children to express themselves at an earlier age and has given them a feeling of achievement.  My older children are excited about communicating with more people.  My desire is that by taking the time to teach children Sign Language, that they will see how so special and so loved they are and how there is so much they can achieve, just like my mother sacrificed to show me.