Anne Marie's metaASL

This is to get an idea how a signing baby develops language during his first month to about 8 - 10 months before developing a first sign word. I cannot subtitle a 12 minute long video clip. For non signers and new ones, you can scale to video clips to observe our deaf Noam at 4;5 and 7;0 starts using hands to develop “pre” sign vocabulary, known as protoword. Also you can watch how mom and her infant interact.

Nature moms – a brief clear explanation of how signing enhances early onset language development

Dr Laura-Ann Pettito’s most recent work on hand babbling

New York Times on Infant’s hand babbling to language development

More current research information on babbling and the transition to prototypical sign can be found in chapter 9 “The Form of Early Signs: Explaining Signing Children’s Articulatory Development” by Richard Meier in an edited book: Schick, Marschark, & Spencer. (Eds.). (2006). Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children. (pp. 202-230). New York: Oxford University Press.

Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, August 19). Deaf Noam infant at 7;0 mos already starts signing. Retrieved September 29, 2007, from http://annemarieasl.tumblr.com/post/9109141

I just found “ASL Now” card among old stuff in my box recently. Here is an explanation why I chose this card over “Deaf President Now” card even it was in 1991.

Jum Reilly the Deaf woman artist from Thailand

Easy to print a letter ready for Laurent Clerc

I somehow stumbled upon this web that a fellow George Kononenko posted and thought we should do it massively to get the Post Office recognize our most valuable Deaf teacher of the Deaf, namely Laurent Clerc. Public awareness is one important key to promote bilingualism in our Deaf Ed.

My deaf mother during Nazi time in Germany - narration abt 10 min with photos

My three deaf siblings and I are survivors if it was not for our grandparents who hid my mother in their house during her childhood. They had no choice but had to drill my mother to sound like a hearing to avoid suspicion. Many deaf people in Germany were sterilized. Despite my mother’s residual hearing with fairly good auditory speech comprehension, she still felt so suppressed from having to keep on concentrating. The psychological effect lasted through her lifetime. It would have made a huge difference if she and her family were allowed to speak, sign, and be bilingual.

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, July 27). Deaf Noam infant at 7;0 mos already starts signing. Retrieved September 29, 2007, from http://annemarieasl.tumblr.com/post/6927306

Let’s share our testimonials this weekend: video 1 and half min with a translation text.

I have been thinking about this upcoming AGB conference on July 27th and 28th..what we can do to continue open dialogue. I was impressed with Anon’s story on Deaf Cy Tea Time: Amy mother of CI children where he described his experience with cochlea implantation since age of 2 years. We really need to hear more stories from those who have been wearing CI since early age as 2 to 4 years. I am sure there are CI wearers who have positive outcomes with the device whereas some do not. We really need to hear more. As a researcher myself, I have read research articles on CI children, they are just methods with numbers, usually 24 children or more for statistics. Then there are analysis and discussion about results that do not reflect the actual picture of those who experience with language usage and socialization. It will be very valuable to hear more stories.

Now for these two days on 27th and 28th, how about we can make a tribute of truth by sharing a story about yourself, someone who you know, your friend, or family member’s experience with oralism excluding sign language and such suppression. I will be sharing my story with several black and white photos of my deaf mother raised in Germany during World War 2. She did had some hearing..and this will be coming this weekend.

Reading worthy sites:

John Egbert and Bilingual Coalition

Aquabb’s blog: Many choices, One Deaf World

Random thoughts n’ musing: More thoughts for hearing parents and for us to consider

Barb DiGi’s blog: It is no crying shame to be in protest

A recipe from our family friend Karsanbhai, with our affectionate thanks to Bindu:

Puri bread

A cereal bowl of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of semolina flour (cream of wheat)
1 stick of butter
3/4 tsp salt
Black pepper
Tumeric powder
1 clove of finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon of green chilis finely minced - to taste..until you feel palatably hot, that’s how it is to be!

Make dough with some amount of warm water added gradually kneading into a soft pliable dough. Roll into small balls, abt an inch in diameter and press them into “mini crepes”. Press them really thin then perforate holes with a knife tip. Fry them at medium heat until golden. Yummy!

Recently I landed on Pickled Relish’s blog Her site mostly talk about foods, I cannot help but say..fiiiiiiinally there is one good Deaf cooker. She reminds me when I was 20 years old 22 years ago.

Tips for deaf infant prereading skills development

1) Pick a book that has easy to see, single image each page.

2) Let your baby look at pictures before saying anything. It may take awhile before your baby will be ready to watch you signing.

3) Keep the image close to your face, allow the baby look at the picture then when s/he looks at you, s/he is ready.

4) Repeat same signs few times and stop when the baby looks away. That way s/he will learn it is the end of conversation when one is not looking.

5) Let baby touch your hand when signing, even on the image if there is texture to feel.

6) It is perfectly fine to fingerspell a or few short words. Even at this age, child develops acute receptive skills for reading fingerspelling important for English vocabulary development.

It is the beginning of child’s literacy and language development!

Author note: Please respectfully cite my work.

Embodiment of deaf consiciousness: Filtering mental processes, experiences, and selection of mnemonics

In response to how deaf people handle mass of instant information in Internet, deaf v/blog sphere: LightKitchen points out a blog dicusssion Is the web killing out culture?

Author note: I insist you respectfully cite the discussion.