ASL astounds!

Hello again!

It is so much fun watching Del sign. She watches us so intently, and tries so hard to get the hand shapes right. She has become extremely interested in the alphabet, and will sign most letters and mouth or say some as we go through the song. As mentioned in my previous post, her current favorite signs are "Hmmm. . .idea!" and "Happy New Year!" Here is a video with Del signing those two phrases.

Del has started to really hone in on the facial expression aspects of ASL, and can do some pretty impressive things with her eyebrows (definitely from Daddy's side!). Here she is playing a favorite game of hers - saying yes and no with exaggerated facial expression. She also really enjoys playing the contrarian. . .if we say no, she says yes. . .if we say yes, she says no. It's actually worked in our favor because I can pretty much bet on the success of a little reverse psychology!

Another new ASL skill of Del's is using classifiers. Classifiers are used in ASL to show movement, location, and appearance. After a signer indicates a person or thing (such as a deer), a classifier can be used in its place to show where and how it moves (such as running, laying down, sleeping), what it looks like (big, tiny, injured), and where it is located (in water, on top of a mountain). Del became very enamored with Christmas this year, and loves Santa and the reindeer. After watching Daddy and Grandma tell stories about them, she started to sign with classifiers to show the deer running slow and fast.

Lastly, here is a longer video demonstrating Del signing the ABCs and then signing along as Mommy sings "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Row Row Row Your Boat" twice each. At the very beginning of the video, Del signs "pink" and "purple," "old" and "new," "warm," "hat," "monkey," "red," "yellow" and "green." She signs all of this as I am asking her about her new coat and hat. During the first two songs, she signs "spider," a classifer of the spider climbing the spout, "rain," "washed out," "sunrise," and "dry." During the second two songs, she signs "row," "boat," "merrily (happy)," and "dream."

And now that I feel accomplished in catching up on my blog, I'm going to go pick up little Miss Del from daycare and go play in the sunshine! Have a great weekend, everyone!

The other elbow. . .

So I'm going to just skip the fact that it's been almost three months since my last post, and get right down to it.


Del's language is out of control! Things change so much and so quickly, that I find myself marveling at something she just said or signed several times each day. She is an active and regular participant in all household conversations, and has demonstrated time and again that she has a very clear idea of who in the household can hear, and who cannot. Allow me to illustrate:


I was on the stairs putting my shoes on yesterday, and I saw her try to get her (deaf) grandma's attention from across the room by waving her hand. When grandma didn't notice her, Del got closer and waved her hand again. When that didn't work, Del walked right up to her and tapped her on the knee, then started signing to her as soon as grandma's eyes were all hers. Del did not "turn on" her voice once during this entire exchange, nor did she notice me watching. Shortly thereafter (so grandma tells me), Del was asked to summon me from the bathroom (behind a closed, locked door, where the other deaf members of the household couldn't communicate with me). From inside the bathroom, I heard a loud and clear tiny-lady voice call out "Abada! Abada!" as Del shouted my name (yes, my name, not "Mommy," has become her favorite of late). 


She is also a proficient lip-reader; when Grandma was mouthing a sentence without voice or signing that involved the word "cookie," Del managed to catch the word in a fast and long sentence with her attention mostly on her art work, and immediately pointed to the tin with Grandma's special Italian "cookies" (really, anise biscotti), and requested one with the signs "cookie. that. cookie. italian cookie. want." Are you shocked that she got one?


Del is constantly hungry for words and language, and will incorporate a new word or sign into her daily communication upon first exposure. She signs and talks to herself as she falls asleep, usually practicing a new sound or sequence of signs. Her latest favorite sign phrases are "Hmm. . . .idea!" and "Happy New Year." Her new favorite words are "Amanda (abada)" and "Love you to the moon (Loomanoo!)." And now for some more detail. . .


English
Receptively, Del is able to follow complex conversation, multi-step directions, and picks up on subtle humor and teasing. She is able to take a general inferred comment, and fill in the blanks easily on her own to solve a perceived problem. For example, if I'm cleaning up around the lunch table, I might say, "Yucky! Big pieces of gooey noodle all over the floor!" and Del will pick up some pieces and head straight for the garbage pail. Expressively, she now says the English word for most of the signs she uses, and she started combining two words into phrases about a month ago (~20 months).


The "typical" two-word phrases seen early in English language development include:

• Attributive: 'big house'
• Agent-Action: 'Daddy hit'
• Action-Object: 'hit ball'
• Agent-Object: 'Daddy ball'
• Nominative: 'that ball'
• Demonstrative: 'there ball'
• Recurrence: 'more ball'
• non-existence: 'all-gone ball'
• Possessive: 'Daddy chair'
• Entity + Locative: 'book table'
• Action + Locative: 'go store'

Del has used all of these combinations in some way or another with ASL, and because she is now usually voicing while she signs (unless mommy isn't home), I hear her saying these phrases as well. I think her favorite category is "possessive." She loves to label whose chair, cup, food, clothes, and shoes belong to whom. She thinks that by knowing how to sign "mine," she will magically be provided with each and every thing she desires. Fortunately we are doing our best to prevent her from running amok with her behavior just because she thinks she's clever!


My favorite recent example of her constantly amusing language growth is from the other night, after Del had bathed and I was getting her ready for bed. She wanted to put on her own lotion, so I let her do it herself while I put away laundry. She was talking herself through the routine: "Arm (aaam), hand (haaan), elbow (ebow), other elbow (uduh ebow)." Other elbow? Seriously Del? I'm pretty sure that's how I responded. Of course with a big grin on my face. She is just too much sometimes!


I sincerely believe that Del wouldn't be talking as much and as well as she is if she didn't also sign. It's not something I can prove, but simply watching how the lightbulb goes off when she makes a linguistic connection and seeing how that lightbulb moment directly impacts the signs and words she uses - it amazes me to no end! 


I have a lot of great videos to share, which I will post soon with more updates on her ASL. Toodle-oo!