13 months old, week 4

Juli is growing fast. She is much interactive. She has been playing turn-taking games with me for the past few weeks: pulling a shirt out every time I put it on her; closing a door every time I open the door (so that she could secretly do something with the toilet seat), "jumping" herself in my arms when feeding and I respond to her by "jumping" my arms. Unzips a bag.

Juli discovered that she could stand with toes (e.g. not on flat soles). Discovered her nose.

Making a conversation with strangers

Two weeks ago the baby Juli quickly toddled out of the library room into the hallway on her own. As soon as I caught up, a library woman stood in the hallway.

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

One early day this week, I detected Juli signing flower on her nose but I couldn't be sure. But, I did notice this production on the location between her lips and nose.

Sure enough, later that day, Juli first discovered her nose. The first thought I had was whether she would sign flower on her nose instead of the lips. It didn't happen much.

Next day at a bilingual ASL/English center, Juli sat on the bench. "Jane" stopped by to say hello to her, translated as Hello there! How are you? ... What's your name? ... Juli sat there quietly and watched her as Jane talked with her in ASL.

Then suddenly Juli pointed to the right and produced flower (on her lips). Jane looked quizzically for a moment. She turned to look at the flower pot next to the bench. "Ah!" She responded flower with a nod.

That same morning at the play group, "Nyla" commented on the sunflower on Juli's shirt. She pointed to Juli's shirt and commented beautiful flower.

Juli looked for a moment, looked at her shirt, and responded flower (on the lips). Then she walked away multiple-pointing to herself (or on her shirt).

Introducing ASL possessives

It all started when Juli found my glasses on the drawer and took them one morning. I caught her standing near the doorway, holding my glasses with a sheepish grin. I pointed to the glasses and told her "it's mine!"

Juli responded mine. I told no, ix-glasses mine. Juli again produced mine.

At a lunch, Juli pointed to the glasses and produced it. I replied mother, mine See the video. Juli leaned forward slightly and watched closely as if she was beginning to figure out that it was not a noun but something else (e.g. pronoun).

Later that same day, Juli picked up a photograph of herself (when she was baby) and pointed to herself few times as she walked around. It was not the first time. She had been pointing to herself whenever she saw a photograph of herself.

But interestingly, I had noticed lately that whenever she saw a photograph of herself, she pointed to herself. But, when it comes to her signed name. She usually would point to the photograph of herself rather than pointing to herself.

Use of referential ASL words

Last week I lit a candle and signed fire. Juli might remember a bonfire we had on the new year eve a couple of months ago. She stared at it in awe. I don't think she could forget.

One day in the basement, Juli came across a brochure with an image of a living room with its fireplace. She pointed to the fireplace (new context) and produced fire (the production similar to her production for "snow" but with slightly different movement).

At a bedtime, Juli opened a book and the page showed an image of a deer. I produced it for her a few times every time she pointed to it as if she was double or trice checking.

As I was busy around, Juli looked at Dude and showed him by pointing to the deer and produced deer (same production as her production for "eye-glasses"). She didn't use an open handshape.

The following words that Juli has used with references: football (when she found the football in a box in the storage room), hot, bath (perfect production), snack (using "more" in reference to a snack -- cookie, mini-muffin, etc), cl-swing, cough (Juli's turn-taking game by pretending a cough and signing "cough" at a birthday party), fish, hairbrush, monkey and some regularly used words from the past.

People

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See in action

".. My daughter is 14 months old and uses about 12 signs plus understands a few more. This form of communication has been wonderful and it's exciting for us to see her in action! .. " -- Mandy Wade, April 10, 2001.