About the Instructor

Wendy Hagerty, ECE, CSSI

Wendy graduated from the ECE program at St. Clair College in 1997, worked in daycare centers for 2 years, and then went on to open a home childcare center while raising her two children. After discovering Signing Smart™ materials and implementing the strategies with her own children and her daycare children, she knew she wanted to share with others this wonderful way to bond and communicate with infants and toddlers.

At 15 months of age her son was using over 20 signs and almost as many words.  At 17 months of age her son's verbal development exploded and at 18-months-old he was using more words than she could count, though his favourite sentence to say at that time was, "Crash the car!"  By 22 months of age he was using 4-5+ word sentences regularly and telling her if food was "delicious" or "disgusting".

Wendy took ASL classes and trained to become a Licensed Signing Smart™ Instructor and has been enjoying teaching and sharing the Signing Smart™ program with babies, parents, caregivers, and professionals in the Windsor area since January 2005.  In addition to running classes for parents and their little ones she's run classes for groups and organizations including the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit and the Foster Parents Association of Ontario.

Wendy has had the wonderful pleasure of meeting over 500 parents, professionals and babies, and seeing them learn and grow in the Signing Smart™ program.  She has had the privilege of seeing children grow from infants of 6 mths. of age to toddlers almost 2 yrs. old throughout her Beginner and Intermediate Play Class programs and even meeting their younger siblings who are now enrolling in the Beginner and Intermediate classes that their older brother/sister had fun singing, signing, playing, and learning in.

She also continues to use ASL signs and the Signing Smart™ program in her home daycare where she has been using signs for over 6 years.  It is wonderful to see all that the babies can "say" through signs and they continue to amaze her, as well as their parents and caregivers, with all they can communicate with their signs and words!

Signing Smart™ Tots is located in Windsor, Ontario.

*Private workshops and classes are available in other cities upon request.*

Did you Know?
At 12 months old, Signing Smart children have an average of 25 signs and 16 spoken words, versus non-signers' 2 to 3 words.
National Study of Signing Smart Children