Signing Girl

Posted by Traci at 9:56 PM

 “It’s cold!”  - Rosalee’s first sentence.  Right after the bath.  It was cold upstairs, but it totally shocked me to see her say something of her own will.  Yay Rosalee! 

I can’t imagine never being able to describe that feeling of discomfort when cold air hits your skin.  If you can’t tell someone you feel yucky then that someone can’t fix it.

When we first got Rosalee the orphanage ladies told us we had to take her to potty every three hours.  She’s four, and by all we’ve seen, crazy smart.  So that’s just nuts.  It took us maybe two days to teach her the sign for potty.  Potty watch done!  At the time she wasn’t signing much else, but I could see the wheels turning and she could read quite a bit.  For example, after just a few days if Chip signed “go to Mama” she would.

I have friends who have deaf spouses or are both deaf and sign all the time.  That is the ideal situation for a deaf child, no question.  We’re not there yet.  But we’re trying.  Wednesday nights it’s just the babies and me, so on these nights I try to sign and not speak.  Last week I gave them animal crackers, signed the animal, then pretended like each one scared me (I would sign the word “scared” and run into the pantry).  As I have NO IDEA what I’m doing in regard to teaching a child to sign, I’m just going with my gut and it seems to me the word “scared” is a pretty important one to know.  They both thought it was funny, but after we ate Rosalee ran into the pantry and then ran out and signed scared, then back to the pantry and back out and signed cold, bird, bath, potty.  Pretty cool language explosion. 

Of course we’re signing with all the kids, but it turns out Trey can hear some.  Way more than we expected.  He’s already imitating our speech quite a bit.  Rosalee doesn’t hear at all, so when I sign to her there’s an urgency in my tone that I can’t summon for Trey.  In my bones I know this girl is part of the future of ASL.  I can just see it in her eyes and long skinny fingers.

Here's a funny video of her speed spelling with Chip.  Of course she's not really spelling but her fingers have this great rhythym that I've never quite mastered.  Anyone can learn to sign, but that natural beauty and flow that nearly all Deaf people and children of Deaf people posess is an eluvise creature.  I truly don't think you can learn it, it either flows through your fingers or it doesn't (I'm a doesn't by the way).  


Can't wait to see what else she has to tell us.

For my records, words Rosalee is signing on her own at approx 1 month in:           

Wet - one morning Eli spilled his drink on the table and she signed wet before I got there

Bath – a million times a day she requests a bath

Toothbrush – requests this one alot as well

Potty

Lights on/off
Give me a kiss

Sleep

Get Dressed – she signs this after breakfast most mornings

Trey

Eli
Come here
No

Socks
Shoes

Pretty – she signs this when I show her what she looks like after I get her dressed(she's right)

More – mostly related to food

Drink

Milk

Finished – a very helpful word meaning all done