American Sign Language is a complete and officially recognized language utilized in both the United States and Canada. The Signing Courses Circle serves as a thorough resource hub, offering courses, materials, and tools for educators who wish to implement Simple Signs with children to promote speech, language development, and effective communication. It features videos, assessments, and comprehensive information to provide a complete understanding of how to successfully use signs with children of all abilities.

The course lessons span 26 clock hours and are delivered in English. The training is conducted online at your own pace, using our on-demand format. Training must start within 6 months of purchase.

*Training is available with lifetime access. We will never take away the training and resources you paid for.

The Signing Courses Circle PD lessons include;

Multiple courses. Courses are completed at your own pace.

Monthly office hours for you to connect with our Professor/Trainer Live on Zoom calls to ask any questions you may have regarding ASL.

Complementary ASL Posters and Flashcards for you to use with your students.

Complementary 8-month Curriculum Guide.

Complementary ASL Games and Bonus 100+ Simple Signs.

Updated material and resources throughout the year.

Lifetime access.

Achieving level training is designed to provide the participant with the following;

An opportunity to practice and refine skills: Virtual "office hours" with Professor Jenny are offered throughout the school year. Participants may come at any time to practicing signing, and ask questions.

Build on long-term support systems: Signing Courses offers workshops, trainings, and ongoing support for all participants.

Put concepts and behaviors into context within their own environment: ASL classroom materials are provided for participant to put what they have learned into practice.

1. Teaching and Learning Competencies

Competencies include understanding relationships with children and families;

developmentally effective approaches to early learning and integrated learning experiences; knowledge of academic disciplines; and the ability to design, implement and evaluate experiences that promote positive development and learning for all children.

Participant will;

a. Demonstrate the ability to plan and implement developmentally appropriate curriculum across domains and content areas, to use a variety of teaching strategies, and to integrate learning experiences across content areas and developmental domains.

b. Demonstrate knowledge of the value of play, skill in play interactions, and an understanding of how children use play to translate experience into understanding.

c. Demonstrate the ability to use a variety of teaching methods and techniques so that concepts and skills are appropriately presented.

d. Demonstrate the use of adult-child interaction strategies designed to enhance children’s language, learning, and critical thinking.

e. Plan and implement curriculum that supports and strengthens children’s intellectual and social approaches to learning.

f. Demonstrate acceptance of and promotes the learning and engagement of all children and families by promoting a climate of inclusion and engagement and using specific inclusive strategies.

g. Demonstrate an awareness and respect for the customs, heritage and values of each child and their families; and the ability to provide learning opportunities that are integrated into all content areas using strategies that support Dual Language Learning (DLL).

2. Child Development Competencies

Understanding young children’s characteristics and needs and the multiple interacting influences on children’s development and learning.

Participant will;

a. Demonstrate knowledge of child development and learning.

b. Demonstrate knowledge of how young children differ in their development and approaches to learning

c. Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of developmental delays, disabilities, and special needs to ensure that all children achieve their full potential.

d. Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of language and culture on children’s development, and promotes a climate of acceptance, inclusion, and engagement.

e. Demonstrate knowledge of language acquisition and literacy skills.

f. Demonstrates knowledge of how children develop socially and emotionally through interactions with adults and peers.

g. Demonstrates knowledge of cognitive development to support

children in using information in increasingly complex ways.

3. Interactions and Guidance

Competencies include understanding and use of positive relationships and supportive interactions as the foundation for work with young children.

a. Demonstrates effective communication techniques to support the development of children’s social skills, relationships, responsibility, and autonomy.

4. Family and Community Engagement

   Competencies include understanding and valuing the importance and complex characteristics of children’s families and communities to create respectful, reciprocal relationships that support and empower families and involve them in their children’s development and learning.

a. Demonstrates knowledge of the value of partnering with families in the context of their community.Involve families in assessing and planning ASL curriculum for individual children, including children with disabilities, developmental delays, or diverse needs.

b. Demonstrates ability to regularly communicate with and engage families.

Teaching and Learning (10 hours)

a. Demonstrate the ability to plan and implement developmentally appropriate curriculum across domains and content areas, to use a variety of teaching strategies, and to integrate learning experiences across content areas and developmental domains.

Uses specific Signing Courses teaching strategies designed to foster each child’s development across domains and content areas.

Reflects upon and adapts curriculum, activities, and materials to determine appropriateness and to meet the needs of specific children or groups of children who will benefit from the use of sign.

Applies modeling, scaffolding, and extending techniques using the Signing Courses Method.

b. Demonstrate knowledge of the value of play, skill in play interactions, and an understanding of how children use play to translate experience into understanding.

Carefully plans the daily schedule and learning environment providing extended blocks of time designated for child choice, play, and exploration using our 8-month curriculum guide.

Initiates learning experiences for children that are playful and matched to children’s developmental levels by incorporating hands-on ASL games .

c. Demonstrate the ability to use a variety of teaching methods and techniques so that concepts and skills are appropriately presented.

Incorporates language experiences throughout children’s daily activities (e.g., repeating children’s sounds and words, modeling vocabulary, responsive questioning, open-ended questions) designed to promote children’s language development and learn more about children’s thinking with the use of signs.

d. Demonstrate the use of adult-child interaction strategies designed to enhance children’s language, learning, and critical thinking.

Talks with children about their emotions, emotions of others, and how to understand the perspective of another person by modeling with ASL classroom materials.

f. Demonstrate acceptance of and promotes the learning and engagement of all children and families by promoting a climate of inclusion and engagement and using specific inclusive strategies.

Assures that opportunities to create and explore accommodate the participation of children with special needs.

Helps children communicate ideas and feelings in a variety of ways such as signing, speaking, and acting out.

Child Development (10 hours)

a. Demonstrate knowledge of child development and learning.

Applies knowledge of child development and learning to interpret levels of sign language and communication development and plan instruction.

b. Demonstrate knowledge of how young children differ in their development and approaches to learning

Recognizes the role of early childhood educators in providing simple signing opportunities that support individualized learning.

c. Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of developmental delays, disabilities, and special needs to ensure that all children achieve their full potential.

Observes, recognizes, describes and distinguishes typical and atypical variations in children’s development and learning.

Creates and adapts experiences, interactions, and learning environments to meet children’s needs through the use of ASL materials and resources.

Supports children with diverse learning needs in collaboration with families and/or specialists such as SLPs and Teachers of the Deaf.

d. Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of language and culture on children’s development, and promotes a climate of acceptance, inclusion, and engagement.

Applies knowledge of home language and cultural practices to support parents in their role as the primary teachers of their children by providing them with ASL materials.

Establishes and maintains learning environments that embrace diversity and foster inclusion.

e. Demonstrate knowledge of language acquisition and literacy skills.

Applies knowledge of all aspects of language development to facilitate children’s language acquisition and literacy skills by incorporating ASL into lesson plans.

Encourages children to represent thoughts in pictures and words with using the provided ASL materials, and utilizes knowledge of language development to foster learning along the writing continuum.

Supports dual language learners in developing and bridging second language acquisition through the use of ASL.

f. Demonstrates knowledge of how children develop socially and emotionally through interactions with adults and peers.

Encourages children to recognize and express their feelings and emotions with the use of ASL as well as speech, respectfully, and to use language appropriate signs to their developmental levels.

g. Demonstrates knowledge of cognitive development to support

children in using information in increasingly complex ways.

Prompts children to represent their understanding of the world through facial expressions relating to chosen signs, as well as use sounds, signing-specific gestures, actions, objects, words, and drawings.

Interactions and Guidance (2 hours)

a. Demonstrates effective communication techniques to support the development of children’s social skills, relationships, responsibility, and autonomy.

Design an environment using ASL materials that supports a positive, safe climate and promotes communication of emotions, thoughts, opinions, needs, and preferences in a constructive manner.

Model, teach, and implement a variety of strategies to support children in expressing and communicating emotions to peers and adults by utilizing and implementing the ASL 8 month curriculum guide.

Support multiple means for communicating including speaking, signing, listening, reading, writing, body language, and use of representations such as drawings, photos, video, or computer generated images.

Family and Community Engagement (4 hours)

a. Demonstrates knowledge of the value of partnering with families in the context of their community.

Involve families in assessing and planning ASL curriculum for individual children, including children with disabilities, developmental delays, or diverse needs.

Communicate effectively with parents about curriculum as well as provide access to ASL materials for the family home and children’s progress.

Support parents in making decisions related to their child’s development and to their parenting by being an advocate in IEP or 504 meetings.

b. Demonstrates ability to regularly communicate with and engage families.

Create and maintain regularly updated information in a parent resource area such as a bulletin board, library, or lounge area or online through a website or newsletter.

Need help? You have two ways to get quick responses. You can utilize whichever method works best for you.

Chat on SLACK support is available to chat through our SLACK channel 7 days a week. Join for free once you start the program, and send direct questions to Professor Jenny. This is quick as a text message and the fastest way to get an answer.

Email us at [email protected]. Someone will respond within 1-2 business days.

A laptop or PC are recommended. You may be able to use a tablet or cell phone, however, each device is different.

Recommended Internet Browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Firefox are acceptable browsers.

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Jennifer (Jenny) Stewart, MS Ed.

CEO, Curriculum Specialist and Professor

Stewart has a Masters degree in Special Education, Teaching certificate for deaf students ages birth through age 26, Bachelors and Associates in American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreting, and a Deaf Studies Certificate. With a background as an ASL interpreter and with over 17 years of extensive experience working in Autism Spectrum Disorder, special education, and early education classrooms, Stewart is committed to promoting accessible communication in early childhood education. Stewart currently works as the ASL Program Director and Lead Professor at the Collegiate level.

ASL, Inspired by her father, who is Deaf, and her upbringing in the Deaf community, she founded Signing Courses to equip educators with sign language skills, signing materials and resources. Stewart’s mission is to introduce simple, effective signs to early education and special education programs, helping children who have not yet developed verbal skills to communicate confidently and fostering inclusivity from the very start of life.

"There is currently no established standard for the use of Simple Signs in early education and special education programs, and I aimed to change that. The use of terms like 'baby signs' has diluted their significance. With the Signing Courses program, we can ensure that educators worldwide utilize these signs at a high educational standard, effectively promoting language development."

No materials through www.signingcourses.com can be copied, repurposed, or reproduced for any reason whatsoever.