Signing star — 10-year-old helps families learn to communicate in sign language

When Leah Coleman was 14 months old, her parents cried. She was the oldest child of Rachel and Aaron Coleman, and the news that she was deaf turned their world upside down.

"We just thought about all the things she wouldn't be able to do," Rachel said.

But a decade later, Leah, now 10 years old, not only lives life like a normal child but has become a celebrity, helping other children and families communicate through sign language on public television programs and DVDs.

The minute Leah's parents learned she was deaf, they began learning sign language. But it was tough.

All of the sign language tutorials and DVDs were pretty bland, and there wasn't a lot out there. That, coupled with Rachel's frustration with other children not being able to talk to Leah, spurred the Colemans into action.

"When Leah was about 4 years old I was frustrated with how few people could communicate with her in the community," Rachel said. "She was being left out and it was frustrating — kids were intimidated and scared because they didn't know how to communicate with her."

She said the turning point was when a boy on Leah's soccer team said that he didn't want to be paired up with Leah for drills because she couldn't communicate with him.

"We just decided that this isn't going to get any better unless we do something about it," Rachel said.

From there Rachel started going to Leah's preschools and holding sign language story time. After just one time, she said, she had broken the barrier, getting through their fear and seeing Leah as unapproachable.

"Right away kids started coming up to her signing 'play' and 'friend,"' Rachel said.

Meanwhile, Leah's cousin, Alex Brown, who is two years younger, started signing at 10 months old.

Soon after that Rachel and her sister, Emilie, Alex's mom, decided to team up to create fun videos to teach sign language to hearing children. The initial plan was to make a short DVD to give friends and family that would be a fun and easy way to learn a second language while learning to communicate with Leah.

But after the completion of the first volume of "Signing Time," the response was overwhelming, Rachel said.

Word spread. And in addition to friends and family, other parents, educators and even health professionals were requesting copies of "Signing Time." Thus, Rachel and Emilie's company, Two Little Hands Productions, was born.

A few years earlier, Rachel's second daughter, Lucy, had been born. She arrived eight weeks premature with spina bifida and cerebral palsy. Doctors worried that Lucy would never be able to speak, let alone use her rigid fingers to sign with her deaf sister.

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