Timeline Productions began as small video production company that specialized in wedding videography and creating video photo albums for weddings, anniversary celebrations, birthdays, etc. It was created by myself, Nora Salinas, and my friend Dawn Alexander soon after the two of us had graduated from the University of Texas with communication degrees in Radio, Television, Film.

We maintained a modest but steady flow of business for a couple of years and were doing OK. Then, about two and a half years ago, my daughter, Liliana was born with Down Syndrome. She had some very complicated medical issues in association with the genetic disorder and spent a total of approximately 4 of the first 12 months of her life (at different times and for different lengths) in the hospital where she had 4 major surgeries. Needless to say the video business was not just put on the back burner but was taken completely off of the stove for a while. I am happy to say, however, that after the first year my daughters condition continued to improve and in spite of the occasional bump in the road, she is on her way to great health.

Lili has received a number of therapies since she was just 2 months old to help her with various areas of development, one of which is speech and language. Her speech therapist suggested early on that we begin signing with Lili. She explained that Down Syndrome children tend to be verbally delayed and signing would give Lili an alternative outlet for communication. And so began my education about sign language and it's benefits.

Lili has received a number of therapies since she was just 2 months old to help her with various areas of development, one of which is speech and language. Her speech therapist suggested early on that we begin signing with Lili. She explained that Down Syndrome children tend to be verbally delayed and signing would give Lili an alternative outlet for communication. And so began my education about sign language and it's benefits.

My husband and I began looking for resources for teaching Lili signs and we were able to find several books and lots of information for the parent on how to sign with your child but nothing for a child as young as Lili. At the time she was really enjoying the Baby Einstein Video series and I began thinking how great it would be if there were a video she could watch that would be entertaining but would teach her signs at the same time. We started looking and found that there was really nothing out there geared toward a very young child. So the idea for SAY IT WITH A SIGN was born.

I called my partner Dawn and said "I have this idea and I think it's a perfect way for us to do something really great with our video company." She completely agreed and we immediately started in on research and development. That was over a year ago and since then we have learned so much. First of all we found that there was a wave of research being done on the benefits of signing with all very young children (not just special needs kids). Every time we turned around we heard about another study that supports the idea that signing is a great way to facilitate speech and language for children. We started hearing about daycare centers and playgroups where teachers and caregivers were using signs with very young children. We began to realize that this was something that parents all over the country were catching on to and that our video could be of service to ANY parent who is trying to give their child every advantage available.

Well, it's been about a year and a half and the first video is finished (two more are in production) and we are SO excited about the finished product! Liliana has served as a "focus group of one" throughout the process and at every turn her response to our efforts encouraged us that we were on the right track. She still loves to watch the video (she has seen it about a thousand times) and loves to sign along. She readily uses about 35 signs and eagerly tries any new ones we introduce to her. In addition, since we always say the word as we sign it she is attempting to verbalize almost every time she does a sign. Plus she has about 20 words that she is saying now without the use of a sign. She is so anxious to learn and I really attribute this to our signing with her for so long. Lili has been our inspiration from the beginning and I am proud to say she is the best example of how the SAY IT WITH A SIGN video series can really be used to a child's benefit.

Dawn and I are so happy that we have found a project that we can be really passionate about, that we can work on according to our own schedules and out of our own homes, and that will lead to other similar projects (We are also looking into expanding the line to include foreign language videos). But most of all, we are thrilled to have hit upon something that we hope will be a real service to parents, teachers, and children across the board.

Nora Salinas