Katie Mayne was a primary school teacher when she first heard about baby signing. Babies born to couples where one of the parents was deaf were often taught to "speak" using sign language as well as the spoken word - and it was through signing that babies were often able to communicate first.

So interested in the research was Katie that she considered doing a Masters degree on the subject, but marriage and then the arrival of her own first baby, Harry, led to a different path - one in which she could test the theory of baby signing at home for herself!

Katie started signing with Harry when he was seven months old and within six weeks her son was demanding his morning milk via the power of baby signing!

Soon her friends were asking Katie to teach their babies to sign. Like the teacher she was, she developed a 12 lesson programme to teach signing and just after Easter, 2002, Katie started her first baby signing classes in Guildford, Surrey.

The response was amazing. Local media interest was followed by national media interest, culminating in an appearance on ITV's This Morning in February, 2003.

So many enquiries were coming in from all over the country that in May TinyTalk was incorporated and Katie began training others to be become TinyTalk teachers.

Four years later, there are now over 200 TinyTalk baby signing classes all over the UK as well as in Ireland and TinySign in Australia, all run by TinyTalk franchisees.

What's more, Katie is now a successful author of baby signing books and creator of baby signing packs.

The judges at the Inspirational Business Mum of the Year Award were so impressed by Katie's business and her enthusiasm to take TinyTalk global that they gave her a Highly Commended award after being pipped to the winner's post by Sarah Steel.

Brainstorming

So what about you.

Would you like to find out more about baby signing? Then why not read Katie Mayne's book on the subject, Baby Signing Book?

Would you like to be a TinyTalk teacher? If you are lively, enthusiastic, can sing, have an interest in baby signing (you need experience by the time you start your classes), organised, self confident and want a job that has flexible hours that fits in with family life and term time then ring the TinyTalk office on 0870 2424 898 or visit the TinyTalk website.

Can you think of other ways in which you could work with mothers and babies? Or older childen? Or adults for that matter? Learning is a lifelong process.