Hop to, Ballard baby

Ballard News-Tribune. November 1, 2010

Hop to, baby
Over the years of writing this column and my blog on SeattlePI.com, the contents of my mailbox have changed. Not the basket that sits on my front porch but my online mailbox.

In the old days, I heard from a man certain he was the large man in bicycle shorts in my yoga class (he wasn't) and the occasional suggestion from a reader about a story idea.

My email box is now one part commercial/one part citizen advisory. It appears my new best friends are Dewey Potter (Seattle Parks) and Joelle Hammerstad (City of Seattle). On any given day they send two to three news alerts.

Meanwhile, public relations firms send generic emails about potential stories. It is rare that someone has actually personalized the pitch in any way.

The joy of writing this column has always been writing about what strikes me as I wander, rather than what tries to strike my inbox. Who do they think I am, I often wonder, sorting through announcements from Ghost Light Theatricals and Wilson PR? What do they think I am?

Once the communications people added blog contacts, they must have thought we were all alike.

A story prepackaged for me is never as interesting as one that appears on its own, with jagged edges and enticing gaps. Don't get me wrong. I love tips. But, a tip is a like a whisper that makes you want to lean in and try to hear more.

A prepackaged "you might be interested in this" story is as unwelcome as another plastic-wrapped set of telephone directories by the front door.

So when Nancy Hanauer of Hop to Signaroo emailed to see if I'd be interested in writing about classes that she teaches privately and at Swedish Ballard and First Hill, she had to overcome my email ennui.

What got through to me of course was the memory of my daughter using sign language in her preverbal stage. My dad still jokes, "Why did I teach any of you to talk?"

My daughter's first day care was Northwest Center for Child Development, an arm of Northwest Center for the Retarded (as the pickup trucks still read at the time). They employed many adults with disabilities and specialized in children with disabilities, along with children at normal developmental milestones.

For Emily sign language was normal, just part of a classroom with children who couldn't necessarily hear, or in one case, see.

I had to learn the signs. They were basic but helpful: please, thank you and more. My 18-month-old was patient with me.

So, I called Nancy Hanauer to learn more about her signing classes for hearing parents with hearing babies.

When Nancy took one of those tests in high school that is supposed to indicate potential careers, hers showed one: deaf education. She took that path and worked in Special Education for many years.

Then she decided to go outside of those determining dots and start an art business. She threw in some baby signing classes as a lark. Ten years later, the demand is still growing for the baby signing classes that she does privately and at locations like Swedish.

Nancy teaches parents and babies about 80 to 100 signs over the course of six one-hour sessions using American Sign Language.

When it came to naming the business, she remembered the beloved morning figure Captain Kangaroo. She figures if parents can remember sign language and kangaroo, that will be enough for any search engine to find her and products that now include "Roo-minders," a ring of chew-proof sign vocabulary cards.

Ballard has proved be a consistent market for Nancy's classes, which include one or two family members plus the baby (some couples start before the baby is born).

Although it often makes parents sad when their babies stop signing and start speaking, it appears the sign language skill is easily restored, especially with the arrival of a second child. The older child becomes tutor.

Both of Sidney Sakai's parents had coincidentally studied ASL in college. When they heard about Nancy's program, part of the attraction was that it is ASL, not a made-up language.

At 13 months, Sidney mostly signals her immediate needs by sign, as in food preference and diaper status. Her mom Kali recently realized they might have neglected some of the niceties signed by other babies, as in thank you or please.

Mike and Kim Brandenburg are delighted to have a way to communicate with their 18-month-old daughter Vivian; she has started talking but they can understand the signs better than the words. They were diligent about signing in front of Vivian from the time she was 9 months old because Nancy had counseled them to be persistent because "babies are more aware than you think." One night at Chinook's, Vivian simply started signing back.

Vivian knows many signs, including more and meat

Like the best of the PR firms sending me photo-filled pitches, Nancy knows how to work her market and her product. But once it comes to babies, there's no control over their expressions or their moods.

Yet she loves working with the little babies and witnessing the additional bond that can result from families signing with them. She also loves seeing somewhat older moms taking the class because, as much as Nancy loves them, "No babies of my own yet."