Introducing Markus!

Many of our Instructors are Speech-Language Pathologists; our new DVD was produced with the Deaf Professional Arts Network.  This means that there are amazing minds behind the language strategies and the American Sign Language signs that we teach. Have you ever wondered about the music that we sign to?

Well, let me introduce you to Markus! I met Markus in 2008 at a baby show in Toronto.  He visited the WeeHands booth and shared his family connection to the ASL world.  Markus has two little girls who have hearing impairments.  Lauren is pictured here with him and Ava, his youngest, has profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Ava is now three years old and has two cochlear implants since March of 2009.  You can read her story on a blog about Ava, written by Ava's mom, Amy.


As soon as Markus and I met, we knew we wanted to work together.  It took us two years and many Vanilla Lattes to figure out how.  Remind me to teach him the sign for "Starbucks"!  I knew that I wanted to continue using familiar music in WeeHands classes and in any future products that WeeHands produced.  Parents have enough to learn those first years and are working on limited sleep; WeeHands wants to teach parents new signs but with familiar and fun tunes.


I've worked hard to make the lyrics of the songs that we teach to be useful to the routines related to life with baby.  We use songs in all our classes to help parents remember the signs and to keep them practicing at home in a fun way.  Fun & functional is one of our mottos!


When it came to taking the songs that we've used in WeeHands classes to a recording studio, I could not have asked for a better expert at children's music.  WeeHands is lucky enough to have a Juno nominee and a US Parents Choice Award winner as our children's music expert!  WeeHands has the best experts working with us!


Markus has taken my simple, repetitive lyrics and has added wonderful music and fantastic voices to create the music that you'll hear on our new DVD.  You will not hear any synthesized, canned or corny music with WeeHands...no, no, no! What you will hear is real instruments, fresh voices, lively music and lyrics paced so that you and your wee one can learn, sign and sing.  What more could I ask for?


Thank you Markus!

PS I am asking Markus for more...stay tuned for WeeHands music CDs and lots more DVDs!