And so it begins. . .

I promised myself that I would start this blog the day Del turned six months, and I somehow managed to arrive on the scene a mere 24 hours tardy. But before I launch into what this blog is all about, let me share a little background info on us.

I am professionally a Speech Language Pathologist with an undergraduate background in Linguistics and a life-long love affair with all things language. I am hearing and know four languages (English, fluently; Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL) conversationally; German, poorly). My exposure to and immersion into the Deaf community began over three years ago when I met Daddy F. Daddy F is professionally an ASL teacher and rehabilitation counselor with an undergraduate background in Deaf studies and ASL linguistics. He is Deaf from a Deaf family and communicates primarily in ASL. He vocalizes within our home to get our attention or when playing with Del, but he doesn't use speech as a functional means of communication. Therefore, our daughter is the product of a hearing mother (me) and a Deaf father (Daddy F) and because she herself is hearing, she will be roughly equally exposed to both ASL and English.

So far her direct language exposure is more ASL than English because the language of our home is ASL, she has been home with her daddy most days while mommy is at work, and she has had ample exposure to Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HOH) friends and family both in person and on videophone (VP). Of course I talk and sing with her often, and she receives the ambient English (and Spanish!) exposure when we're out in the community that is part of the incidental language education of every hearing child.

This blog was borne of an intense curiosity on my part about how Del's language will develop. Because I know little of ASL developmental milestones for hearing children of Deaf adults, and nothing of simultaneous ASL/English bilingual development, I thought it would be fun to dive in and do a casual case study on our daughter while reaching out into cyberspace for information and insight into the many interesting factors at work here.

I am nowhere near an expert on child language development, English, ASL, or bilingualism. Rather, there is SO MUCH I don't know that I am inspired to learn as much as possible about these topics - hopefully with your help. My primary goal for this blog is to gather together a community of people interested in the same things so that we can build a forum of idea sharing and resource building. It will be informal and anecdotal, but the idea is that we will all learn something along the way. So I invite you to be an active participant in the days and discussions to follow, and to invite me into the worlds of knowledge that only you know. And so it begins. . .