15 months old, week 4

Leading by hand

Juli often led me to something she wanted or wanted to show by taking my hand and leading me to the destination.

One day Juli told me motorcycle with a razzy visue. I was like "huh?" She repeated it. Seeing that I was clueless.

Juli took my hand and led me to the window of my office. We looked out the window. Ah, the neighbor was starting his classic motorcycle.

One Friday as I was putting some food in the microwave, Juli just exited the kitchen. Just in a blink-like moment, she came back crying with her very first bump on her forehead.

After taking care of her, I asked [translation] Where did it hit your forehead? I even really wanted to ask "How did it happen?" But, I knew it was not the time she could describe.

Juli toddled fast toward the piano bench, pointed at it, and gently slapped it "bad". I asked again the same with video camera.

Next early morning Dude came back home from his night shift. Juli took Dude's hand and led him to the piano bench.

She pointed at it and described hit-on-head++, then pointed back at it and gently slapped it "bad!"

Being able to tell what hurts her was wonderful that I could know what caused. But, I hope she would remember and would be able to tell me how in a few months when her language might boom.

Possessive pronoun

Grandma Z sat on the floor in the family room. She put Juli's artist cap on her head. Juli noticed and pointed at the cap. She produced mine++.

Juli reached for the cap and took it from Grandma Z's head and toddled away. Then she pointed at the toys all around them and produced mine.

Grandma Z was amused. She responded by teasing mine.

Later, she was about to leave for home. At the doorway, as Grandma Z was about to give Juli a goodbye kiss, Juli pointed at Grandma Z's car and produced mine. It could be what she meant it, or it could be a classical reversal error.

Making up words

Lots of ladybugs visited our front and back yards at this time of the year. I showed Juli a real-life ladybug last week and connected the ASL word lady+bug to it.

Juli knew this ASL word that I used many, many times from books, but now Juli saw a real one. Juli produced ladybug vaguely that I mentioned about it last week.

But, this week Juli watched several ladybugs in our yard and made up her own word for it. The production was using the "1" handshape multi-pointing to her torso. Seemingly, it derived from the ladybug's black dots on the body.

I couldn't remember how she picked up that. It could be that I produced lady+bug and then described the characteristic of a ladybug using a classifier, where she picked up from.

There were also a few other distinct productions that Juli made up in reference to some objects she came across. It's fascinating to look into toddlers' minds of how language emerges.

Use of ASL words

Juli paused from playing and reported motorcycle.. motorcycle repeatedly a few times. What was she trying to tell me? She took my hand and walked to my office toward the window. There, the neighbour started up his classic motorcycle and proudly rode off.

The other day Juli stood in front of the stair gate. She asked help. Agreeably, I opened the gate. She uttered thank-you. I was impressed and pleased.

Grandma Z casually announced "I'm going home now." Juli toddled fast to the front door and produced home. She pulled down the handle and tried to open it. She uttered home a few times along the way.

The following referential words that Juli has used this week: grass (often used but difficult to capture on video), mother, home some more shown in the video above, and some reguarly used ASL words.

People

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