16 months old, week 3

Juli continued to pick up and produced ASL words -- some for the first time and some from memory from a long while ago. She also produced some two-word utterances sometimes.

Emerging ASL compound-like words

An interesting thing about the emergence of a ASL compound word (not two words) that Juli used was ladybug+bug.

Remember these English words are glosses, not representing ASL words in the same way. For example, the English word ladybug is a compound word.

But, what Juli produced for "ladybug" was a single word (multiple-pointing at her torso). Earlier in post, I explained that it was her invention, her own production. Every time she produced her own ladybug, I responded with the correct ASL word lady+bug, that which is an ASL compound word.

Now several times this week not only Juli had produced the non-compound word ladybug (pointing at her torso), but she also produced bug right after that.

Juli had produced her first compound word ladybug + bug. This might derive from the acquisition of two-word utterance. It is kind of a gray area or a thin line between an two-word utterance and a compound word.

I had a benefit of doubt. But, Juli also produced another compound word lion+hands-on-knees that has been consistent and somehow clear. I had never produced the latter part. It was her own addition that described the two sitting lion sculptures on the front lawn of a house.

Fast-forward to the next week, Juli and I sat in the food court at a shopping mall. She noticed a face-only sculpture of the lion on the surface below the open space second floor. She produced lion+hands-on-knees. There was no body nor legs in that sculpture. It showed consistency in her production. (see video)

Another is that Juli produced dragon fruit more (see video). The difference between a compound word and two-word utterance is somehow a gray area.

These may be or may be not a true compound word, but it's an interesting process. At what point of the stage does a child understand the concept of a two-word compound for a single referent? Something for the future research.

Sharp vision

Not only I know she has a good peripheral vision (she responded or reproduced what one signed without looking directly), but she also has a sharp vision.

Juli rode in her stroller as I walked on the sidewalk along the houses. She observed things in the environment and suddenly uttered ladybug with excitment.

My first thought was that how could one notice a ladybug somewhere like noticing a pin in a haysack (okay, a bit more impossible than finding a ladybug in grass). Or, I thought, was it from her memory?

Juli then pointed in the direction that I turned around and looked around. Ah! There was a ladybug stake in the greenery at a medium distance.

Another day, I secretly put my glasses on the top of a big television, partly out of sight, in the family room. Juli played around for a bit while and excitedly pointed at the glasses and produced glasses.

Her ability to communicate helps me see how she can see well and how details she can observe or notice something in the middle of a visually noisy environment.

Checking out in the mirror

For the past few weeks, Juli enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror as if she was standing in front of a new friend. Her facial expression and body language showed some kind of a sheepish shyness.

On the last day of the last week, I began to notice when she toddled toward the mirror and stood in front of it. She produced ladybug a few times while looking at herself in the mirror.

Use of ASL words and multi-word utterances

The following referential words that Juli has used this week: wolf (been several weeks but difficult to capture on video), ice cream, outside, camera, owl, time (understanding the referent but probably not the concept of clock-based time), some more shown in the video above, and some reguarly used ASL words.

A friend Rene who had his signed name sat under the gazebo outside. Juli stood on the other side of the yard and produced friend Rene.

Juli toddled around near the shoes. She pointed at the shoes and mumbled mine shoes.

Outside in the yard, Juli produced grass father, referring to her father who mowed the grass the day before or so.

Sitting in the highchair, Juli asked for more dragon fruit (see video). The other day, she pointed at the pan which her father was cooking with the day before. She uttered cook father.

One morning Juli woke up and got up. Right away she produced hungry eat (open palm on her torso and 20-handshape twice on her mouth).

Perceiving through toddler's lens

With some sufficient protowords Juli was able to express, it had been interesting to see different perspectives of the world through her lens.

The first one we learned about her perspective of the world that I mentioned a while ago was about the moon and the sun as one of the same. Though, she shortly later learned that there were two different ASL words for it.

A complementarity of the dog and the face

One of the events, though not new, was the image of the face on the screen in my digital painting.

For the past few months, whenever Juli looked at the self-portrait painting in the basemen, she excitedly pointed at it and produced !dog!. I looked around. Huh?

She consistently pointed at it and produced dog even though I told her I didn't see any dog. "There was no dog here. It's me the mother."

Finally one day about a month ago or so, I asked her where the dog was. I lifted her up and she showed me. She pointed at the abstract (a painting of the face on the laptop screen). I looked at the abstract and began to see the image of a dog like looking at the clouds or a inkblot. Ah!

This week Juli pointed at the painting. Not only she uttered dog, but also she mentioned mother!

The round thing

For the past weeks, Juli produced, what I often dismissed, that was referring to the icon of Earth on my cellphone. I now realized that she was producing ball.

This week Juli found a small tough ball that bounced high. Holding the ball in her left hand, Juli happened to look at my cellphone.

She excitedly pointed at the icon of Earth and then pointed at the ball. She alternated pointing between the icon and the ball more than a few times as well as produced ball.

The passionate cry

Juli looked at the cover of a magazine in the basement. She pointed at the image of a black man passionately playing guitar. She explained crying.

I looked at the image. Well, he was not crying but he indeed looked like he was crying. I nodded. I decided not to correct until one day she could understand the concept of a passionate emotion.

People

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