Sign2Speak: helping babies sign before they can speak

Who is Sign2Speak?

Sign2Speak was founded by Amylee Udell, an Albuquerque mother who signs with her three children. Interested in ASL since childhood, she fell into signing with her family and found it to be so very rewarding. She also found it to be a source of curiosity and interest for those who saw her family communicating this way. She became an advocate of signing with babies, telling everyone who would listen about the benefits.

Teaching this new passion was a natural extension of those experiences. With a diverse marketing and program-organizing background, as well as a passion for childbirth and parenting, Amylee now owns Inspired Birth and Families, which also encompasses Sign2Speak's offerings.

Amylee is now an Master Instructor with the Signing Time Academy. Instructors in the Academy must meet a rigorous set of qualifications and prerequisites and in order to raise awareness about the benefits of using signs with preverbal infants. Amylee was the first infant/child sign language presenter in Albuquerque and has been teaching hearing families, childcare centers and the community since the summer of 2003. While not ASL-fluent, Amylee has a deep respect for ASL as a language, Deaf culture and the Deaf community and hopes to one day (when her children are older) pursue fluency.

September 2006
From the 2006 Sign2Me Presenters' Network Conference: Building Communication Bridges. It was AMAZING! First, I learned so much from the presentations and round tables, just talking to other presenters, and being surrounded by the deaf and ASL fluent. I was honored to give a presentation on websites. Second, I got to meet Dr. Joseph Garcia, author of the Sign with your Baby® book and pioneer in the world of infant sign language (see photo!).