The 15-month-old toddler Juli and I were in the family room. She picked up a plastic egg. I told Juli that the purple easter pail is in my office that she could pick it up. Juli toddled straight to the office and came back with the purple bag and big smile. She understood me.
At 16 months, Juli took the garbage bag out of the garbage can from my office. When I noticed the missing bag, I asked Juli (translated as), "Where is the garbage bag?" Juli toddled away and found the garbage bag. I asked her to bring it here. She did.
One day Juli was grumpy. She just woke up from a nap. I asked her if she wanted a hug and offered her with my open arms. She forwarded to hug me.
Outside in the yard, I let Juli carry around my home key with the bright orange whistle. A bit later, I noticed she didn't have the key with her. I asked her, "Where is the home key?" She toddled across the yard and picked up the key at the other side of the yard.
Juli wanted to go out. I helped her put her shoes on. Then I found my shoe missing. I asked Juli, "Where is the other shoe of mine?" She toddled toward the spot but wasn't sure exactly where it was. I noticed the shoe partly hidden behind the play station.
In the past Juli produced fish which was similar to the production of milk due to the non-distinct prime of movement, but the contexts and pointing were clear. Now Juli had acquired a more phonologically appropriate movement in fish which was close to the perfect production.
The following referential words that Juli has used this week: tired, building-blocks, store (grocery store), sun, and some reguarly used ASL words.
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"My 15 month old is using sign language very effectively. It has saved all of us much frustration. We use your site often for reference. .." -- Jennifer Keuvelaar, January 17, 2001.
"My 15-month old loves shoes. Anytime he sees them, he signs and says "shoes!" One day, we were talk about a pair of shoes and all of a sudden, he signed "pear" and "shoes" and was so proud of himself! Not quite the pair we were talking about, but I thought it was amazing that he had remembered a sign we had only shown him a few times before." -- Karen Buhler
This documentation project follows a baby's language acquisition, literacy development, and phonological acquisition in sign language, specifically ASL, week by week from gazing at birth to manual babbling, to first words just before the first birthday in a natural native-ASL environment and visual culture.
The second-year and third-year documentation continues to follow the same child's language and phonological acquisition and literacy development in ASL on a weekly basis from the one-word stage to two-word and multiple utterances.
The documentary continues to follow the same child's ASL language and literacy development on a regular basis from age three to four. It surveys ASL phonological acquisition and more complex utterances.
These posts on ASL-English bilingualism, language acquisition, and bilingual education may be of an interest for parents who raise a bilingual-bimodal child in ASL (or another signed language) and English (or another written and/or spoken language of its respective) as well as informative and educational for ASL specialists, educators, and professionals.