invented baby signing

Tue Mar 20 23:01:23 UTC 2001

It seems to me that all children create nonce words to name important
concepts. Consider how many children name their favorite item (a blanket,
pacifier, or toy) in a surprising way, and how many times they persist
until other people give in and use this name too. In a way you could
consider home signs to be this process, with all the shared, learned items
that originate from other people stripped away.

Carolyn Ostrander

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Don & Theresa Grushkin wrote:

> 1.  Can any of you who know ASL think of what sign she might actually be
> trying to say? I suspect there isn't any, which leads to my next question...
>
> 2.  Is 11 months old too young to be developing Home Signs, especially when
> she has a systematized set of input (ASL)?  It seems to me such nativization
> would occur in more impoverished circumstances?
>