Developmentally, it all begins with the hands first. Both of the infant’s hands constantly move. During this time, the infant is sensing all motions within the forearms where the muscles keep on developing to refine coordination with movements. This process takes several months. Into the third and fourth months, the infant finally learns how to intently move one of hands toward an object to touch and grasp
it. The infant may even try to lift the object, if possible.
In fact, this infant is already moving into a developmental milestone of other language communication aspects, which is more aligned with sight. The infant becomes aware of who is signing in the environment. By this time, this infant is able to keep on looking back and forth during turn taking between signers in the room. This infant is already noticing whether the signers’ hands are moving rather involuntarily or intently during actual communication.
Shortly after, this infant begins to develop certain hand movements in a rather more consistent fashion such as twisting wrists, opening and closing palms, waving in rather declared strokes. This is hand babbling. During this episode, the infant is fastening onto this exciting development as this infant becomes aware of his membership in a human communication group. Soon, when the infant has a sudden feeling of urgency to eat or drink, s/he may whine and cry to get attention. There is no word yet, however, this infant shows communication intent in facial expression, body movement, and hands gesturing in a quite decisive manner to bring about responses from others.Hand babbling comes along in its course of development as the infant keeps on exploring various movements, ones that can be easily conveyed within abilities of gross and fine motors skills.
See Noam babbling endlessly at Deaf Tea Party last September. At that time, he was 8 months old. Barbara DiGiovannia was sitting next to him entertained by Noam’s social interaction.
Often a repeated movement draws exclamation with quick assumptions that this infant may be signing a new word, perhaps a first one? In fact, from 4 to 12 months, there is a series of signs that emerge and fleetingly disappear to a degree where they appear to be translucent forms of signing, namely gesture. Some signs are seen only once, some are seen only a few times. The infant continues to hand babble. This infant is still a baby. Oh my baby, stay little! These short-lived signs are “protoword”, which is a sign utterance that does not make clear sense but is clear only to the caregiver who knows the infant and surroundings well enough to figure out what the infant is trying to communicate.
We were excited as we observed Noam’s first sign that was analogous to “wave-no-no”. We saw this only a few times and then did not get to see it again for a month. We saw “wave-no-no” being used when he was playing with a little night light bulb or unraveling things from the cabinet under the sink in our kitchen. Earlier, he would intimate our sign “waving-no-no”, but this time he began to wave his hand no-no by himself while coyly eying for us to say it also. After seeing this sign frequently, his use of “waving-no-no” was being crystallized as a sign rather than a gesture. Here, transition is being made in which a specific meaning and a form (sign) are connected, and this vocabulary starts saturating in Noam’s mind.
One thing that we can notice about the infant’s hand configuration during babbling phase and its transition to gesture is the priming for actual sign words which will emerge at approximately 9 months to several more months. Usually hand configurations come in five typical handshapes, (5, claw C, S, O, B, 1), that require simple fine motor coordination. Movements range from waving to more brisk movements such as slapping. The infant moves with both arms, which are keeping signing space close to the infant’s body. The infant does not necessarily keep on extending its arms. When the infant develops and begins to pointing at objects, s/he starts extending the arm with clear intent. The infant is becoming mindful with what s/he seeks in communication with someone. Pointing is known as deictic gesture, which has several possible meanings such as “I want this object”, “I want you to get me out of seat”, “I want to go in the room with my brother”.
Finally there is something the child surmises by signing and communicating something as clearly as possible. For example, as Noam puts his fingers over his mouth, his face slightly grimaces while looking at his mother in a distance. He is hungry. Several times, his father also notices Noam’s intent to communicate that he is hungry and wants to eat. For the past month, he has been using this sign more regularly hence proclamation his actual first sign word.
A photo of 13 months old Noam’s first sign ‘eat’
Reference
Pettito, L.A., Holowka, S., Sergio, L.E. Levy, B., & Ostry, D.J. (2004) Baby hands that move to the rhythm of language: Hearing babies acquiring sign languages babble silently on the hands. Cognition, 93, 43-73.
Pettito, L.A. (1994). The transition from gesture to symbol in American Sign Language. In V. Volterra & C. Erting (Eds.), From gesture to language in hearing and deaf children (pp. 153-161). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Meier, R. P. (2006). The Form of Early Signs: Explaining Signing Children’s Articulatory Development. In Schick, B., Marschark, M., & Spencer, P.E. (Eds.), Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children. (pp. 202 - 23o). Oxford University Press, USA.
Volterra, V., Caselli, M. C., Capirci, O., Pizzuto, E. (2005). Gesture and the emergence and development of language. In M. Tomasello & D. Slobin (Eds.), Beyond nature-nuture! Essays in honor of Elizabeth Bates. Mahwah, NJ.: Erlbaum.
Watch and see what Noam’s 7 year old brother Yoel says about Noam’s struggle with coordinating his own hands. Noam was two weeks old at that time.
Almost everyday, I taught Logan ASL “Milk”. I hope, One day Logan speak first ASL “Milk”.
My last son tries communication sign languages say “Milk” He did! He was 3 months and 2 weeks old. Amazing!
On 02.25.08 Karen Mayes wrote:
Amazing! I did give your URL to ISD so that ISD could check out your website and use it for reference as well.
I work with a 17-mos old toddler and she has an abundance of signs– from “bird” to “yogurt” to blabber-fingerspell “OFF”! I can ask her what she wants and she will sign back– for a ball, book, or a frog doll. She only signs in one word– I look forward to the day she will make a sentence like “GIVE-ME WATER PLEASE”!
On 02.25.08 Sheri Farinha Mutti wrote:
Anne Marie, what a beautiful site! This is a great place, safe haven for parents to come together, learn, and share. Your son Yoel’s message was absolutely precious!!!!
Both of my children’s first signs at age 3 months were “milk”, “more”, and at age 4 months, “banana” and “dada”, six months “apple” for apple juice. Babbling by voice-only continued well into approximately 10months, where they started with one-word utterances. Obviously their lil minds were at work with what they understood far earlier and yet couldn’t pronounce it but was able to communicate by signing. Really was inspiring to watch their growth in both languages!
KUDOS to YOU Anne Marie for establishing this awesome ASL Think Tank! Full of information too!
Sheri
On 02.25.08 peggy wrote:
Tts great vblog! it shows people to understand about deaf babies who can communicate at a very very early age.. even my kids were hearing too and they learned to sign and its less frustating for me. its inspired me. asl is part of the langauge comunity and kids should learn sign language because it teaches kids to use their hands a lot more. Sign language is a big impact in everyones life.
On 02.25.08 Jean Boutcher wrote:
How charming Yoel is! He is living proof that parents who can sign can increase deaf toddlers’s vocabulary because Yoel’s language structure and vocabulary are much advanced! AGBAD must see that
videoclip of Yoel.
On 02.25.08 Anne Marie Baer wrote:
Yoel was turned 7 year old (one week after his 7th bday) when he made this comment about Noam’s hands movements. He is bilaterally hard of hearing with ability to understand spoken language visual language if spoken slowly in quiet environment.
Yes I should try to close caption it, it is not good with iMovie on my Mac, I’ll try to see if someone can do it.
I will keep on adding as I capture more Noam’s new signs on video and maybe by end of this year, two - three words sign.
Noam is a charmer! His sign is clear and beautifully expressed and shows a lot of parental input as well as an innate capacity to verbalize which comes from intelligence. Can’t wait to see what he grows up to be!
Your description of child’s development in ASL acquisition is bang on.
I have 5 boys, all hearing, including the youngest two who are twins. I have noticed the development of ASL in precisely the stages you described. I should add that I noticed my boys starting to look back and forth between my husband and me at abour 1 to 2 months old. As for babbling, I noticed my twins communicating with each other in ASL babbling at 10 months old. In fact, I captured it on my camera… unfortunately, I didn’t use camcorder…shoot!
You information is invaluable for parents and educators of the Deaf alike.
When a hand moves, a voice is spoken,
Comment »
Almost everyday, I taught Logan ASL “Milk”. I hope, One day Logan speak first ASL “Milk”.
My last son tries communication sign languages say “Milk” He did! He was 3 months and 2 weeks old. Amazing!
Amazing! I did give your URL to ISD so that ISD could check out your website and use it for reference as well.
Beautiful!
I work with a 17-mos old toddler and she has an abundance of signs– from “bird” to “yogurt” to blabber-fingerspell “OFF”! I can ask her what she wants and she will sign back– for a ball, book, or a frog doll. She only signs in one word– I look forward to the day she will make a sentence like “GIVE-ME WATER PLEASE”!
Anne Marie, what a beautiful site! This is a great place, safe haven for parents to come together, learn, and share. Your son Yoel’s message was absolutely precious!!!!
Both of my children’s first signs at age 3 months were “milk”, “more”, and at age 4 months, “banana” and “dada”, six months “apple” for apple juice. Babbling by voice-only continued well into approximately 10months, where they started with one-word utterances. Obviously their lil minds were at work with what they understood far earlier and yet couldn’t pronounce it but was able to communicate by signing. Really was inspiring to watch their growth in both languages!
KUDOS to YOU Anne Marie for establishing this awesome ASL Think Tank! Full of information too!
Sheri
Tts great vblog! it shows people to understand about deaf babies who can communicate at a very very early age.. even my kids were hearing too and they learned to sign and its less frustating for me. its inspired me. asl is part of the langauge comunity and kids should learn sign language because it teaches kids to use their hands a lot more. Sign language is a big impact in everyones life.
How charming Yoel is! He is living proof that parents who can sign can increase deaf toddlers’s vocabulary because Yoel’s language structure and vocabulary are much advanced! AGBAD must see that
videoclip of Yoel.
Yoel was turned 7 year old (one week after his 7th bday) when he made this comment about Noam’s hands movements. He is bilaterally hard of hearing with ability to understand spoken language visual language if spoken slowly in quiet environment.
Yes I should try to close caption it, it is not good with iMovie on my Mac, I’ll try to see if someone can do it.
I will keep on adding as I capture more Noam’s new signs on video and maybe by end of this year, two - three words sign.
Noam is a charmer! His sign is clear and beautifully expressed and shows a lot of parental input as well as an innate capacity to verbalize which comes from intelligence. Can’t wait to see what he grows up to be!
Anne Marie,
Your description of child’s development in ASL acquisition is bang on.
I have 5 boys, all hearing, including the youngest two who are twins. I have noticed the development of ASL in precisely the stages you described. I should add that I noticed my boys starting to look back and forth between my husband and me at abour 1 to 2 months old. As for babbling, I noticed my twins communicating with each other in ASL babbling at 10 months old. In fact, I captured it on my camera… unfortunately, I didn’t use camcorder…shoot!
You information is invaluable for parents and educators of the Deaf alike.
Shelley