Product Details

• Actors: Multiple, Joseph Garcia
• Directors: Sign2Me
• Format: Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sign2Me / Northlight Communications, Inc.
• VHS Release Date: July 1, 1999
• Run Time: 63 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0966836715
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,416 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #11 in	Video > Special Interests > Parenting & Childcare > Learning Languages
  #31 in	Video > Special Interests > Parenting & Childcare > Infants & Toddlers

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Joseph Garcia is not out to make babies smarter; he simply wants to help them communicate earlier. Based on his book of the same name, this 62-minute tape shows parents how to teach their prespeaking tots simple signs to indicate their needs and thoughts, thus avoiding the common frustration of a baby who understands language but cannot use it. Several sets of parents and babies demonstrate Garcia's lessons, which he breaks up into chapterlike segments, complete with recaps at the end of each. Garcia guides parents from beginning efforts, such as teaching 7- to 10-month-olds signs for "eat," "milk," and "more," to more complex concepts such as "help" and "pain," allowing for plenty of variation along the way. His no-pressure attitude is reinforced by clips of his classes with parents and children, while an early-childhood-development expert and speech pathologist add their support of his methods. Included at the end is a 13-minute sign "dictionary" with codes for easy reference. --Kimberly Heinrichs

From the Director

This video was recently honored with a "Chris Statuette", the highest award given at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival for an educational production.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 6 month old asks for milk!, December 9, 2000

By	"ccmstudent" (Portland,, OR USA) - See all my reviews

I saw Joseph Garcia talking about his research in a television news magazine (20/20 or 60 minutes) while I was pregnant and went online and bought the book, video and flashcard. At, 4 months, I started signing "milk" to my baby whenever we nursed and my husband did the same with a bottle. We didn't expect a response, but it takes no extra time, so we just started it. Now, at 9 months, she uses the milk sign when she's hungry, and can do her own simpler version of "change" when her diaper is wet. When we respond correctly to her signs, she beams, claps her hands and giggles. It's wonderful. The video is simple and a great reference for teaching the signs, this is particularly helpful with some of the signs which cannot be clearly described in a book, and you need to see it in motion, 3-dimensionally.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Long on testimony, short on instruction, July 12, 2001

By	"kbluck" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Although well produced, and I certainly am a believer in the underlying science, the video struck me as something of an infomercial. Not much in the way of actual demonstration of technique. The great bulk seemed to be parents gushing about how wonderful their relationship with their little tykes had become since they started signing. Well and good, but I expected more actual instruction and demonstration.

For example, I don't remember a single example of the gazes. We got Garcia talking to a group about them, but they didn't *show any useful examples*. This is a video. The whole advantage of video is visual content. There should have been more showing and less telling. Leave the telling to the accompanying book.

The section on sign demonstrations at the end is nice, but time-consuming to get to and around on most VCRs.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun way to communicate and learn a new language, October 15, 1999

By	Carolyn (Bellevue, Washington) - See all my reviews

This video and the book that goes with it is an easy and excellent resource. The video helps caregivers learn how to "talk" to your baby and gives helpful hints and tips to help you and your infant to learn how to interact. It helps in showing you as caregiver that an infant or toddler develops his or her signs as part of a process and to be "watchful" for your child's way of making signs. It helps me as a parent understand and be more aware of my son's needs. We have been signing consistently for a couple of months and our son started making requests for milk, has his own sign for up, and understands "more" as well as "mommy" and "daddy" and "doggy". All of this and he just turned seven months. I am convinced that this will help us understand our child and allow him to communicate with us more clearly even as he learns the spoken word. And just think caregivers and child alike will have gained a new language that is universal!