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DR. Seshie's Deaf mother told her that she began to teach Juti signing at birth and Juti began to make physical responses of recognition of sign language, when she was 3 months old. These physical recognitions were bright-eyed or widened-eye responses, arching the back and smiling at the signs she recognized. 

Juti began making  "passive hand" signing at the age of  5-6 months old.  Her first words were milk, eat, more, hungry, mommy, daddy and work.

Ava Sophia, is Juti's newest grandchild, born Feb 2009.

Ava is learning to be a Smart Baby Signer

Babies at the age of 7-8 month old who  have not yet begun to develop verbal or oral communication begin to  show  signs of upset and frustration because they can not communicate and get their needs met. The upsets will be demonstrated by a baby pushing objects off their eating tray or table area. They throw objects, make  grunting sounds with bubbles/spitting, shaking head no, no, no and cry. 

Both child and parents will contuine to feel frustrated  because they are not able to  communicate with each other.

On the other hand, a Baby who is 7-8 months old, who uses sign language, has learned Smart Baby Signs and has increased their vocabulary and reduced their upsets.  Smart Baby Signers, can communicate with signed words like cheese, milk, cookie,  kitty, dog, home, sleep in addition to the previously learned signed words above. 

Some of the signed words can be mixed between passive sign language and full hand signs, never-the-less, understood clearly by family members.

At the 12 months stage, babies will be able to say 3-5 words, and the Smart Babies will Sign approximately 24 words and 15 spoken words. 

Overall, Smart Babies who use sign language show superior communication skills that results in less outbursts of frustration and tantruming, and little to no aggressive behavior toward their peers during play dates and childcare environments.

VERY IMPORTANTLY... According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders under the  National Institue on Health have said,

Early users of ASL, whether deaf or hearing, employ both the left and right hemispheres when reading ASL, whereas late ASL-users rely solely on the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere helps analyze the shape, motion and location of words in a signed sentence, known as its spatial syntax. 

Also, by age 4, hearing children who were taught and used sign language from birth, are cognitively and linguistically superior, when compared to hearing children who were not taught to use sign language.

I have heard people say that if babies use signs they will not talk as early as they should. This is a myth, misinformation and is simply not true. For the average developing child their Gross Motor Skill Abilities develop prior to Fine motor skills and verbal communication skills, Babies use Gross Motor Skills when using Sign Language. It is later when their Fine Motor Skills begin to develop that Babies transition from using Passive signs to appropriate hand shaped signs.

Currently my 2 year old grandson Ian, speaks Spanish, English, and Sign Language. Children can learn several languages easier than adults can.

Also, My husband Kofi, speaks 5 languages from his country Ghana. He speaks Ewe, Twi, Fanta, Ga, and English.

He is currently teaching himself  to speak  Spanish to commuicate with many of his co-workers. Kofi picks up languages easily because as a child he learned several languages.

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED?

HOW OLD A BABY IS WHEN HE OR SHE BEGINS TO NOTICE THEIR HANDS AND FEET?

IT'S RIGHT AROUND      3 MONTHS OLD.

AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN IS A PICTURE OF MY GREAT- GRANDDAUGHTER ARABELLA

SHE IS JUST 3 MOS OLD AND HAS JUST DISCOVERED HER HANDS AND FEET.

HER DADDY MATT ( MY GRANDSON) HAS BEEN TEACHING HER BABY SIGNS, SIGN LANGUAGE.  

WHEN HE SIGNS MILK TO HER, SHE ARCHES HER BACK AND TILTS HER HEAD BACK THEN RELAXES AND SMILES AND COOS AND LOOKS RIGHT AT THE SIGN FOR MILK.

ARABELLA, AGE 3 MONTHS

BORN JAN 5TH 2009

ARABELLA FOUND HER HANDS AND FEET ...4/18/09

When Juti's first granddaughter, Michayla was born they spoke to her in sign language and Michayla was able to get her needs met by recognizing the sign (milk) and responding with a smile at the age of 3-mos old.

Michayla was very receptive and would watch deaf people's hands move with fascination. AT 6-mos old she was signing passive language signs for milk,  more, cheese, home, sleep and shoes.

By the time Michayla was 1-year old her signing skills were clear and appropriate hand shapes with a very large vocabulary. She would point to items and look at us and sign more, we knew that she wanted us to sign to her the sign to she wanted to know. When Michayla started to talk, she used less and less of her signing and her vocabulary was very sophisticated for her age.

Michayla was an early reader and today at the age of 8 she reads far above her level in reading. In addition, she just won the Science Fair at her elementary school and was given a medal and will be going to compete at the next level with her science project.

Juti's children have taught some of their children to sign from birth. Traci, is Juti's second daughter and  is a mother of 2 children. Traci, is an interpreter and  teaches the Smart Baby classes and Conversational ASL classes for children.

       Juti and Traci