Happy Name Signing!

Happy 18 month birthday to my little TD! The list of signs that she has learned so far.... MORE, HAT, TUBBIE, FOOD, SLEEP, POTTY, CHAIR, DRINK, DOG, SHHH, TELEPHONE, TABLE, HELLO, TRAIN, ELEPHANT and GOODBYE! At the same time, she has learned several spoken words and has recently started putting together 2 word sentences.

The process of language acquisition has been fascinating to observe. There are still some words that she will only sign, some she will only speak and still others that she prefers to sign and speak at the same time. Another interesting thing that she has begun doing is assigning "name signs" to people. In Deaf Culture, it is common for American Sign Language (ASL) users to have a personalized sign that is unique to their personality. For example, Peter Cook is a World Famous Deaf Performer. He has had a pony tail for years and it has become his trademark. So, people in the Deaf Community refer to him with just the sign for PONY TAIL. If you are talking about performing or story telling and you use that sign, chances are people will know who you are talking about without even using his full name.

Without being taught, my little Baby Signs Superstar has begun to assign name signs. Her first one was PEEK-A-BooBoo.....let me explain.....we all call my Grandmother Boo Boo (don't ask) and she is always playing PEEK-A-BOO when she sees her. So, every time we see her now, she does PEEK-A-BOO! That is the gesture that she associates with my Grandmother and thus a name sign has been born.

An interesting aspect of this development is that normally only a Deaf person or native user of ASL is culturally "allowed" to assign a name sign. So, I pose the question to the Deaf Community: Because my daughter is learning ASL from birth, does she have name sign assigning rights? Hmmm......deaf friends get back to me on this one.