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Who We Are

Our mission is to bring a better understanding to parents, educators and children of the value of visual communication early in life.  Promoting ASL as part of a dual language to the hearing community can act as a bridge to more meaningful communication in our homes, our schools and our communities.

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My Smart Hands Founder

Laura Berg is the founder of My Smart Hands, an international company that began in 2006 and runs classes teaching parents sign language to use for pre-verbal communication with infants. My Smart Hands has grown to include classes across North America. Laura has also authored a top-selling baby sign language book called The Baby Signing Bible.

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My Smart Hands Amazing Instructors

My Smart Hands instructors are committed to providing a thorough education of ASL to assist parents in preverbal communication with their children from their infancy. Our instructors are a team of passionate individuals dedicated to promoting the use of ASL in literacy efforts throughout your child’s growth and education. By signing up for a class, you will be helping your child to cultivate their learning, and yours too.

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Why Sign Language

I discovered the effectiveness of using ASL to help children with their literacy when I was working as an eighth grade teacher, running the literacy program at my school. The old program we were using wasn’t working, so my principal asked me to try to find different ways to help our students improve their literacy skills. While doing research, I came across a study that used the American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet to help students develop their spelling skills. I was fascinated with this concept – it made complete sense as a valuable tool to help my students with their reading and spelling. ASL encompasses a number of learning styles, but specifically kinesthetic and visual. I took this theory to my school, designed an effectual curriculum and began to see success in students’ achieved learning outcomes. This led to me lecturing for teacher education programs at universities on the concept of using sign language to help promote literacy in schools. These lectures, I am pleased to say, were very well received. Further into my research, I came across several articles and studies on using sign language specifically with babies. This concept captivated my attention and it made me want to sign with my baby when I had one. I quickly learned that the benefits of signing with children are far greater than simple communication.
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How Laura Berg Founded My Smart Hands

When I was pregnant with my first child, I wanted to find a way to stay at home with her, but still have an income. Necessity being the mother of invention, I used the skills I had as a teacher and my knowledge of ASL and began teaching sign language to parents of hearing babies. My classes became so successful that I founded My Smart Hands, which has now grown into an international company. In 2005, while pregnant with my daughter, I began designing the My Smart Hands curriculum. After signing with my new daughter, Fireese, and seeing her learn ASL, I was even more confident this was the right career path for me. I fine tuned my program, designed a manual with a CD to accompany it and opened up my company to other instructors. I wanted to give as many families as possible the opportunity to sign with their babies with help from a qualified My Smart Hands presenter. I am so honoured to have such a well-respected company and to have such amazing people represent the vision for My Smart Hands!

info@mysmarthands.com

laura@mysmarthands.com