About Us

Happy Baby Signs  helps parents live with more joy by illuminating new ways to nurture, communicate, and connect with their children. We have been providing baby sign language classes since 2005 and have taught more than 20,000 parents how to sign with their babies. Our program is founded on more than four decades of evidence-based research and uses American Sign Language (ASL). We believe using ASL with the hearing population nourishes a more inclusive community. Our classes are a fun-filled way to teach parents how to introduce sign language into their baby's everyday routines through songs and interactive activities.

We offer on-demand recorded and live online classes. We have taught at multiple locations in the San Francisco Bay Area including Kaiser Permanente Hospitals, Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Stanford WorkLife, Children's Creative Learning Centers at Cisco Systems, Bright Horizons at Lucas Films Digital Arts, and multiple libraries and parent clubs.

Bill White
Founder, Author, Teacher, Dad

Photo: C. White

Bill White is the founder of the Happy Baby Signs and co-author with Kathleen Harper of the internationally best selling book, Signs of a Happy Baby. He has facilitated baby sign language programs at Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Sutter Health, Harmony Birth and Family, Blossom Birth and Family, Stanford Work-Life, Cisco Systems, Children’s Creative Learning Centers, Genentech, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, and multiple libraries and mother’s clubs. His live online and recorded on-demand programs are available to parents around the globe. Bill is passionate about how signing greatly helps us connect with our babies and is the proud father of two hearing sons who both sign.

Bill received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychobiology from University of California, Santa Cruz. In addition to teaching sign language courses, he has worked as a commercial print and hand model. He has had 25 years of dance training and has taught dance classes locally to children and adults. He worked as Director of Operations for Kidsfaire for five years and has been the Fashion Show Director and choreographer for Modern Bridal Productions since 1995.

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Kathleen Harper
Author/Life Coach

Photo: C. White

Kathleen Harper is the author of The Well-Crafted Mom, co-author of Signs of a Happy Baby, a Certified Martha Beck Life Coach, and certified massage therapist (CMT) for moms.  She believes that at the heart of each of us, we know exactly what we need in order to be happy. As a life coach, Kathleen helps moms shift from overwhelm to awesome.  When Kathleen was a new mom she struggled with feeling confused, resentful, and overwhelmed. By focusing on the difficulties of motherhood, she missed out on so much joy.  "After working with my own life coach, my life doesn't look all that different - same house, same family, same job - but it FEELS extraordinary," she says. "I experience joy daily. I am authentic in my relationships. I truly love what is.  Life coaching changed my life.  Let it change yours."

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Erika Vetter

Erika Vetter fell in love with sign language in her childhood, when she befriended a Deaf girl in her Brownie Scout troop. This friendship continued for many years and led her to volunteer in the hard-of-hearing preschool during recess when she was still in elementary school.  Erika received her Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology and Audiology with Teacher Certification at Elmira College.  She earned her Master's Degree as a Teacher for the Deaf for grades K-12 from Canisius College in upstate New York.  Erika has taught both Deaf and hearing children for the past 18 years in schools such as the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and the California School for the Deaf in Fremont and currently works as an ASL interpreter and instructor.  Erika's thesis on teaching ASL to preverbal hearing children, along with her recent coursework in bilingual education, has reinforced her belief that signing with children can produce amazing results.  All three of her children started signing between six and seven months old and still sign on a daily basis.  Erika delights in seeing ​children empowered with a tremendous ability to communicate effectively at a very early age and is eager to share her experience and enthusiasm with you.

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Courtney Laschkewitsch

Courtney has a strong passion for American Sign Language because when she was young, she became hard-of-hearing for about 3 years. This gave her a glimpse of the deaf world at a young age, what it was like to communicate, and the passion to share and teach American Sign Language and Deaf Culture. Her aspirations include teaching sign language in 3rd world countries, doing work as a photojournalist, and bringing her creative product designs to market. Courtney is ambitious, organized, and loves to add her own creative style to her classes.

Other than teaching and tutoring students in American Sign Language, Courtney loves to travel, Swing dance, does a variety of martial arts, and loves dipping her feet into new and exciting activities. She can’t wait to change the world, one sign at a time.  

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