Signing Time!

Did You Know?

• The show's inspiration came after Rachel Coleman's child Liam was discovered at 14 months old to have been deaf since birth.
• Within six months of learning sign language, Liam's sign language vocabulary surpassed the vocabulary of hearing children their same age.
• From 2009 to 2012, Signing Time! interstitial music videos aired on the Nick Jr. channel.
• The cartoon frog Hopkins was originally named 'Twerp,' a play on the nickname 'Terp' for interpreter.

Format

Coleman hosts the show, with her child Liam and nephew Alex also starring to provide support. In My First Signs, she was not originally planned to appear, but was added because Alex and Liam could not consistently sign clearly enough to teach viewers. The second season introduced a new format with new signs and more original music; each program addresses a single theme, marked by a theme song introduced verse by verse. New segments include “ABC Time,” “Counting Time,” “Game Time,” “Story Time,” and “Hopping/Moving Time.” Signing Time! Sentences, a three-episode mini-series released in 2015 and 2016, is geared toward older children and teens, with Alex and Liam returning as late teens to teach ASL grammar. Baby Signing Time!, a sister series started in 2005, targets children aged two and younger, is more musical, and features Alex and Liam as animated babies.

Signing Time on public television

The Signing Time Foundation funded the airing of Signing Time on public television from 2006 to 2008. The show began airing nationwide in 2006 and achieved over 80% national cumulative carriage. Public television does not pay for programming; to keep the show on air, the Foundation was expected to produce and deliver 13 episodes annually at a cost of approximately 1.5 million dollars US, which the production company could not afford. As of October 4, 2010, stations were allowed to air the series for the next two years.

Cast

The show's host, Rachel Coleman, built a career in entertainment before her 14-month-old was diagnosed as profoundly deaf while she performed with her band We the Living. That child, Liam Coleman, became the series' inspiration. He received a cochlear implant in January 2004 and later won first place in his fourth-grade spelling bee. Another child featured, Alex Brown, appeared in the very first episode before turning three. He had learned to sign as a baby to talk with his deaf cousin, and has lived in Utah, Virginia, and California. A cartoon frog named Hopkins, voiced by Aaron de Azevedo, demonstrates signs in the show. Originally called "Twerp," he was renamed after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who founded America's first free school for the deaf in 1817.

Media

Baby Signing Time! includes 4 volumes. Practice Time has 2 volumes: Level 1: ABCs and Level 1: 123s. Story Time Volume 1 is a single release. Sing and Sign: Favorite Songs from Volumes 1–6 is a compilation. Potty Time is a potty training video sold with an audio CD; a "Potty Time" watch with a "potty reminder" alarm is available in a different set. Signing Time Christmas, a 2 DVD and 1-CD set published in 2014, brings back Alex and Liam as teenagers. Other items include board books, flash cards, clothing, and music CDs.