13 months old, week 2

The toddler Juli happily walked anywhere, leaving her mother. A little expedition explorer.

Pointing to self

I signed ix-me mother love you juli [Mother (me) loves you, Juli]. Juli sitting in highchair turned around and pointed to the picture of herself on the refrigerator. Then, she pointed to herself.

Did I believe what I saw? She pointed to herself when I pointed to her.

Sure enough, next day or two at the ASL Mother Goose playgroup, an ASL-speaking teacher "Nyla" signed to Juli Mother love you Juli. Father love you Juli. Who juli?. Juli pointed to herself with a grin. She again pointed to herself.

From there on, when one pointed to Juli on her chest, Juli did point to herself on several occasions.

Producing referential ASL words/signs

The first morning of this week Juli woke up and sat up on our bed. She pointed and produced glasses (see video last week). Later that day in Dude's truck where he left his sunglasses in the viser, Juli pointed to them and uttered glasses. She used this ASL word often.

Juli had broken one of the cat trinkets. In the video above, she commented ix broken! ix broken! ix cat. Juli uttered this "broken" for the first time that I didn't get it until a bit later.

Other referential words that Juli has used this week are: father (20-handshape on head), gorilla ("A" handshape with correct alternative movement), dog (tapping on leg), cat (tiger-like), , cow (20-handshape twisted on head), and some other regular productions mentioned before.

Some other productions appeared to be clear and referential but I couldn't identify them. For example, index-finger handshape on lips ("red"-like), which could be referred to water.

Toddler's favorite "no"

I turned and caught Juli as she was about to pull the drawer of a desk. I told no with shaking head and serious look. She stood unmoved and looked at me with a non-stop grin.

I remained serious for some long seconds before breaking a bit smile. She left the drawer. A few seconds later, I turned to check on her again and caught her, what it appeared was that she looked at her hand and attempted to produce no.

In the same sitting, I came cross a milestone noting that "adopts 'no' as his favorite word" at around 15 months. That helps confirm my perception of what I was just seeing. This milestone may be coming soon. To this date, Juli has never shaked her head (a gesture for "no"). We'll see which ASL word "no" or gesture "shaking-head" comes naturally for her.

"Is she hearing or deaf?

Juli walked out of the library room into the hallway on her own. I rushed picking up my bag, coat, library books, and all. As soon I caught up, a woman stood there noticing Juli was almost alone.

As soon as I picked her up, Juli friendly talked with the stranger in signlan -- she pointed and produced drive-car. The woman delightfully responded oh! yes, drive-car.

The woman asked me, "Is she hearing or deaf?" That's the problem -- phonocentrism and audism. If I were answering "deaf", she would use ASL but if she were hearing, she would use spoken English.

I replied that ASL is her first language. I expected one to use ASL with her, especially around with me or Ameslan people, unless one doesn't know ASL.

It's not a question of which signlan or speech to use based on one's hearing status. It's a question of what language to use to respect people in their own community or space.

Introducing the shapes

Lately Juli has expressed an interest in shapes in the picture book. I also introduced a few alphabetical letters (both written and manual).

Videoclips: Interactions with the toddler teach some colors, numbers, shapes, and objects.