Dana Carmichael is a Certified Instructor for the Baby Signs® Program and teaches classes and workshops mainly in the Loudoun County area of Virginia, including in Leesburg, Sterling and Lovettsville. She taught her daughter, Emma, to sign as a baby and believes it to have been the most beneficial experience for both of them. Although reduction of frustration was definitely one of the main reasons she began teaching her daughter to sign, the joy of having her daughter share her world with her was one of the most wonderful benefits of signing.
Dana graduated with honors in Psychology from the University of Virginia and then worked in a homeless shelter for families before teaching English in Japan for a year. After returning from Japan, she attended law school and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and worked as a lawyer for several years. As a lawyer, she often worked as a guardian ad litem for children acting in their best interests in child neglect, child abuse and custody cases. As soon as her daughter was born in April 2004, however, Dana elected happily to stay home with Emma. After experiencing the joys of signing with Emma, she just had to spread the word about this wonderful program. "It is so much fun and so beneficial that I just had to share my experience with other parents."
Dana Carmichael Dana@BabySignsByDana.com 703-717-5000
Classes/Workshops in the Town of Leesburg and Loudoun County.
Applause! Applause! Performing Arts Center For information on Baby Signs® Classes in Ashburn and South Riding as well as dance classes, please see www.applauseperformingarts.com.
Baby Signs® Parent's Yahoo Group This group is designed as a place where parents who are using the Baby Signs® Program can get help and support both from Certified Baby Signs® Instructors and other parents!
Baby SignsŪ Frequently Asked Questions Answers from the official Baby Signs® Website
ASLPro A resource for American Sign Language (ASL) learning tools.
StrollerFit For information about a Stroller Fit class near you, click on the above link.
Loudoun Moms A community website for Loudoun County families.
Body Language A Loudoun Times-Mirror article about Dana's Sign, Say and Play™ class at the Sterling Annex Community Center.
CBS News Video Here's a recent CBS News Video story on baby signing and it features the twins who signed their way to stardom in the movie Meet the Fockers.
Hand signals help babies on their way to speaking This is a great article from the Exeter News-Letter that gives some background about the Baby Signs® Program and shares some stories about babies who have been in the program.
ABC News Story This story appeared on Good Morning America
Getting Smart from the Start MSN Video CBS Nightly News Segment
Baby Signs: Improving Communication From an article in the Daily Democrat.
