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  • All infants come into this world ready to be loved and ready to learn.

  • What is the key for acquiring language,

  • particularly for a deaf or hard of hearing baby?

  • As parents of a newborn, the love you share with your child is natural and instinctive.

  • This is your bond.

  • This bond inspires an innate desire for communication.

  • Your baby will learn about the world through familiar smells, the sense of taste,

  • the warm touch of your skin, and most of all, through the eyes.

  • For your child, world experiences and language

  • will come most naturally and easily through the eyes.

  • The eyes are your child's single biggest strength.

  • I just wanted to say that it's a journey as a parent. That you start off with the very simple...

  • You know, you want to know the eat, drink, mama, dada, because those are the important things.

  • And as your child grows, your signing kind of grows with them... kind of blossoms because you want to keep up with them.

  • And so, my son, who is now in first grade... is becoming, now, a kind of teacher to us.

  • It's a journey and it can be rough at times but when you communicate, it's just the most awesome feeling.

  • Sign languages are complete and natural languages.

  • Just like any language, American Sign Language

  • is acquired through meaningful exposure and interaction.

  • Today, ASL is the fourth most widely used language in the United States.

  • It is taught in high schools and universities for credit.

  • Babies acquire language along a developmental continuum.

  • ASL builds on the earliest connections you have with your child, allowing your deaf or hard of hearing child

  • the opportunity to process and understand

  • the meaningful family interactions directed at him or her.

  • Babies exposed to and interacting with American Sign Language will typically produce

  • their first words around seven to eight months of age.

  • American Sign Language has been a gift to me and a gift to the children that I work with.

  • An amazing resource, an amazing key to open up their minds and their ideas.

  • I've worked with high school students, all the way down to infants.

  • Because it's so critical for children to have the relationship to their parents, to have the attachment to their parents...

  • and to have the love and caring that their parents can give them,

  • and communication is the key to that. So here is this beautiful gift for families to use.

  • Really, my job is being a parent. And my priority is to communicate with my daughter.

  • And I figured my job as a parent is to open doors,

  • and ASL was a door that I opened.

  • Along with speech therapy, and hearing aids, and everything else.

  • And I have a daughter that can walk around through many different doors and feel very comfortable.

  • It's been a blessing, and it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

  • Early acquisition of a language provides the foundation for cognitive growth,

  • the thinking and learning skills that children need throughout their lives.

  • Through cognition, children are able to engage in more complex actions and think more abstractly.

  • Early language is a critical aspect of this process.

  • Babies and toddlers will use ASL to communicate

  • their needs and their wants, spontaneously, without effort.

  • Age appropriate language and concept development leads to

  • higher level thinking and abstract concepts.

  • A baby's brain is a powerful organ.

  • It's designed for learning language.

  • For deaf babies, it's important that language is clear, accessible, transmitted in a positive setting, and interactive.

  • Access to learning has to be visual, through American Sign Language.

  • Children rely on their eyes and what they see in order to learn.

  • The children who have full access are happy, ready to learn, motivated.

  • They can express their thoughts and feelings. They feel safe.

  • I teach toddlers and babies, and at such an early age they must feel safe in expressing what they want or need to their parents.

  • When the parents can respond and explain the answer to them, they feel satisfied and safe.

  • They know that for the rest of their life, they will be secure.

  • Rich language, expansive and flexible communication empowers both parents and children.

  • When language is shared and communication is easy,

  • confusion and frustration can be minimized.

  • Oh my goodness. The brain just opens up. The flexibility of the brain, the plasticity,

  • the ability to acquire and use different resources of the brain.

  • That's what those children have: they have a language resource, rich resources

  • that they can use to move on to the other language.

  • All children are capable of learning several languages. There is no need to limit them to just one.

  • It's not harmful. The process is beneficial because it helps develop the building blocks of language.

  • It allows the child to be flexible and interactive.

  • [in Spanish] It's very important for me because I have to be able to talk to [my sons] man-to-man.

  • You probably know families who use sign language with their very young hearing infants

  • to communicate and foster spoken language development.

  • Early sign language supports the development of critical linguistic foundations

  • that are necessary for later complex thinking skills.

  • Alex is now two, and he signs more and more everyday.

  • And it's been wonderful to watch him grow and learn new signs.

  • He... uh... I wish I would have started signing with him earlier.

  • Hearing children do with their hands, well, children play with their hands and look at them.

  • But the deaf baby... We've been looking at them and studying them.

  • The movements are different. They're picking up the subtleties of language.

  • They're trying to talk, they're trying to communicate with their beautiful, beautiful hands and they do.

  • The shapes become more refined, and they turn and mold it into beautiful communication:

  • words, ideas, and thoughts. That's what babies need.

  • Families and their new baby can learn American Sign Language, now and together.

  • Self-esteem and identity come from positive shared experiences within the family.

  • As the family learns together, they can also

  • meet other parents with deaf and hard of hearing children

  • and discover the diverse people that make up the vibrant deaf community.

  • I do... I remember when she was real young. We would go to deaf coffee night and come home.

  • And I would watch her as a three-year old, sleeping, moving her fingers in her sleep.

  • And it was just so beautiful.

  • Now she's ten. We come, and the code switching is automatic.

  • She can be with hearing kids and she'll use her voice.

  • And she will be with the deaf community, and voice off... and be fluent in both.

  • Research shows that the family is the single most

  • important factor in a child's academic and social growth.

  • The family plays a critical role in establishing foundations for learning.

  • That means playing games, reading books daily,

  • being involved with other families and pre-schoolers,

  • knowing teachers, and helping with homework.

  • Mealtime, for example, is an opportunity to discuss daily and current events.

  • With ASL, you will be able to introduce new places, ideas, and vocabulary to your child.

  • Growing up as a deaf person,

  • I often felt my parents didn't know me.

  • When my daughter was born, she was also deaf.

  • I wanted to make sure we had a relationship:

  • that I knew her, and that she knew me.

  • I knew the key was language.

  • The first language she learned was sign language.

  • And through ASL, now I feel I know my daughter.

  • I can't imagine what it would be like to live with someone and

  • never speak the same language that they spoke.

  • I saw her go into this huge world that I hadn't known

  • and I saw her go comfortably. And welcomed well.

  • And after that, each step she was ready to take, it was easier to let her go.

  • Start today.

  • Communicate with your child.

  • Show the cup, say "cup", sign "cup".

  • Point to things, then get a book and learn a few signs. Go to a class.

  • She told me why she wanted to learn sign language. But my observation is that she loved me so much.

  • She wanted to have a relationship with me, like any other parent wants a relationship with their child.

  • My mother wanted the same thing. I believe it was love.

  • You're right.

  • The capacity for language is in all of us.

  • It is an essential part of the human experience.

  • Natural early language development through American Sign Language is the key to your child's future.

  • You might not be ready, but your child is.

All infants come into this world ready to be loved and ready to learn.

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