Crystal Ashworth - Phoenix , Arizona
Crystal was first exposed to sign language in 1st grade, when her best neighborhood friends were a brother and sister and the brother was deaf. She quickly learned the manual alphabet, and some signs in order to communicate with her friend. But, Crystal and her family moved away shortly thereafter, and she wasn’t exposed to sign again until she was an adult, as her step-brother and his wife were both deaf. However, she had lost all of the knowledge she had of signing, except for the manual alphabet. She always had it on her ‘to do’ list to learn some ASL again, but never seemed to be able to find the time.
When her fourth daughter, Audra, was born in February 2008, she started to hear about the benefits of signing with your child as a way to communicate before they could speak. She had looked around in book stores and online to see what she could find to begin working with her daughter. In August 2008, she found the now famous video of Laura Berg signing with her daughter, Fireese. At first, she was skeptical – she thought perhaps only some babies could learn sign language that young. But, Crystal began using the signs for “More”, “Eat”, “Finished” and “Milk” at the dinner table with Audra when she was 8 months old. After two months, Audra was still not signing back, and some disappointment set in. However, at just shy of 12 months, Audra made her first sign – “More”!
After that point, Crystal was fully committed to signing with Audra and got the whole family involved. By 16 months, Audra was signing over 30 words, and speaking about half of them. Now at 21 months, Audra’s spoken vocabulary is off the charts – and she can sign close to 100 words. Crystal had spoken to Laura in 2008 about becoming a My Smart Hands instructor, but her schedule just did not permit her focus on starting a new business at that time. But, in August 2009, she was ready – and she launched “My Smart Hands -Pheonix, LLC”.
Since then, Crystal has taken formal ASL classes, as well as studied Early Childhood Language Development in order to increase her knowledge in how young children learn to communicate – and how signing can be an instrumental part in that process! Having first-hand success with her own daughter, she is excited to share the joy of signing with other families.
Crystal and her husband, Aaron, live in Phoenix, AZ with their four daughters and one son. Crystal’s career background as a Business Analyst has given her 12+ years experience in working with adults to instruct them on new processes and software. She has also worked for many years with children of various ages in the children’s ministry of her church. This experience helps bring a combination of instructional styles that will benefit both caregiver and child. Contact Crystal for more information on Baby Sign Language Classes!
For more info on Crystal and her classes:
My Smart Hands - Phoenix website
My Smart Hands - Phoenix on Facebook
www.facebook.com/MySmartHandsPhoenix
e-mail Crystal at: crystal@mysmarthands.com or 602-989-1676
