Silvia Sopkova

I come from a charming country in the heart of Europe – Slovakia, and have been living in the United Arab Emirates for the last 10 years.

Signing with hearing children got my attention already before my older son Matteo was born. The concept of communicating with my baby far before he would be able to speak was absolutely appealing to me, and I could hardly wait to start signing with him. I was looking for all available information and resources which could be easily used to get us going. It took me a while to find Signing Time program and I even tried some other products. These were, however, far behind the engaging, original and touching Signing Time. I instantly felt in love with Rachel and her amazing story and could not get enough of all her songs which taught us lots of signs. Matteo started watching the DVDs from 12 months and his signing vocabulary rapidly increased. His favorite signs were “more Signing Time”.

Signing helped us to overcome most of his frustrations as he was able to show us what he wanted. I cannot describe how proud he was every time we understood what he was signing. We gave him an opportunity to be full member of the family with his own “voice” from as early as few months old.

Gradually he started putting more signs together and vocalizing them. Signing was also a bridge between English and Slovak which we speak at home, and helped him to become fluent in both of the languages. Later, he was the best teacher of sing language to our second baby Marko, who would copy everything what his big brother did. Now we are enjoying using ASL for spelling words, reading and learning more signs with Rachel and the Treeshoolers.

My desire is to share this great gift with all the families who are ready to start a fulfilling journey of growing closer to their little ones.