Our mission is to create resources that help ALL families build bonds of love and language. This happens when parents are the first teachers and have the support and resources they need to create a language rich environment in their home.

ASL is an accessible language for most (if not all) children of varying capabilities and conditions. We started with asking Utah Parent Infant program (Utah PIP) what resources would be helpful and have expanded to Utah's schools for the Deaf and Blind. We work with our local Deaf community to create resources. For example, Utah PIP families were discouraged they could not sign traditional books, so we made Simple to Sign books. Parents have asked for games that help hearing siblings interact with Deaf siblings by playing games that also are simple to sign.

Are Deaf people involved in your organization?

YES!! Collaboration is KEY!

We take ideas from parents to our partners in the Deaf community. ASL is THEIR language and we want to make sure resources are created with collaboration of Deaf contributors, respecting ASL language and the Deaf community while creating the resources parents say they need.

Why start with simple to sign Baby Board Books?

Bedtime stories are magical language and bonding moments.  
“Early reading is more than just a nice thing to do with kids,” Dr. Hutton said. “It really does have a very important role to play in building brain networks….. As every parent who has read a bedtime story knows, this (brain building) is all happening in the context of face-time, of skin-to-skin contact, of the hard-to-quantify but essential mix of security and comfort and ritual. It’s what makes toddlers demand the same story over and over again that allows snuggling bonding moments.” (Dr. John S. Hutton, a clinical research fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.)

What makes your books different than traditional books?

Simple to Sign books appear on the surface to be a traditional baby board book.Yet they are very intentionally designed. Books are:

• written in English to be Simple to sign in ASL

• has repeating handshapes (when signed) that provide rhyming opportunities in ASL.

•  illustrated by Deaf Artist, providing representation of Deaf achievement 

• have QR codes that teach signs as needed by Deaf Mentors

• Are educational helping children be school ready.

The intention behind our books is to help promote parent - child bonding through shared reading and interactions.

1. The books are written in English because ASL is not a written language. We have omitted diagrams of signs with confusing arrows that typically clutter up illustrations in traditional ASL resources. Instead we  have opted to provide QR codes to videos where parents can learn the signs as needed. Most parents report they only need to watch the video 2-3 times before they can sign the book independently.

2. They RHYME when signed in ASL. Traditional books are translated into ASL and the rhyme and word play is often lost in the translation. Rhyming is an important literary device that helps with language development. The brain constantly is looking for patterns. Rhymes help with memorization and retention. Don’t believe me? You probably have not thought about the nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was …” yet you probably can finish the phrase. You can recall this poem because it rhymes! Current research with ASL rhymes has found that ASL rhymes help with learning English vocabulary!

3. Deaf artists provide Deaf representation and an example of Deaf achievement. 90% percent of deaf/hh children are born to hearing parents who might have never met another deaf person. They have no idea of the potential and future possibilities for their child.  

4. Our videos are intended to be a tool to help parents learn the signs of a baby book- so THEY can sign the book to their children. We want videos to be quality yet they are not meant to be "entertainment". Our goal is to promote family interaction/communication. 

Many parents report learning ASL in context of a story actually helps them retain the signs they learn. Parents who have struggled in the past to remember signs that were taught as separate vocabulary, have reported that learning ASL in rhymes makes learning ASL easier. 

As you know, when a child has a favorite book- they want to read it over and over again. With multiple readings, parents build sign fluency and confidence in their ability to sign. 

AS an added benefit, many families and Deaf educators report children who have never read a book before, now grab Simple to Sign books and read/sign books by themselves! We couldn't be happier.

5. Our books are educational. Every book is written to touch a theme or topic that helps children be school ready. For example our popular Colorful Ocean helps children learn their colors and ocean animals. Wonderful Woods pairs numbers 1-5 with a woodland creature. In our story, What Will Bear Wear? children are exposed to clothing and seasons as they help Bear decide what to wear depending on the weather outside. Children learn to count 1-10 as they try to find kittens hidden around a living room and learn prepositions. Parents love our story books that teach functional vocabulary, helping with daily communication and interactions. “Where are your shoes? Have you looked under the couch?”

Simple to Sign books are so much more than baby board books. We are proud of our resources that help families develop language and  literacy skills early with their children. 

"Poor literacy skills have been characteristic of the deaf population for decades. About one in five deaf students who graduate from high school have reading skills at or below the second grade level; about one in three deaf students who graduate from high school have reading skills between the second and fourth grade level.” (National Center for Special Education Research.) 

Simple to Sign resources can help break this concerning trend among the Deaf population

Why are your resources so expensive?

Our books are the highest quality we can produce. Personally, we were tired of the trend that “special education resources” look cheap and have poor illustrations or made of cheap materials, making the overall resource look “less than” or lower quality than traditional books.

It is difficult to create books for a niche population. We can’t compete with mainstreamed production companies. We are a small non-profit that orders relatively small batches of books at a time. We don’t get our books at steep discounts.

But we are proud of our books that are made in America.

We hire Deaf artist to illustrate our books.

We create videos that accompany each book, featuring Deaf mentors.

Since our books have multiple features, traditional books don’t consider we hope you feel and see the value every time you use or share one of our books.