It was quite useful reading, found some interesting details about this topic. Thanks.

Another perspective is, babies are always communicating. They cry, which is a form of communication. They also toss and turn, and push things away, meaning they are telling you something (and you have to figure out what it is). It doesn’t necessarily start with languages in the verbal sense. A baby merely laughing is communicating, so that’s verbal as well as physical communication.

I believe there is a distinction to make, deaf or hearing baby probably have access to “communication” at the same time, and it may be that a baby has a slight advantage with sign language as opposed to making distinct verbal sounds such as milk, mom, dad. Maybe at the same time, a baby is trying to say words, but is unable to do so, and can make a sign which we interpret as milk. I don’t know what linguistics define language as these days, does it still require the use of sounds as a criteria, or has it expanded to include sign language, body language without being restrictive in verbal use. I’m probably better off just using the word “communicate” for the sake of clarity.

Your message is an ongoing problem in this country. Most hearing people still thinks that Deaf people don’t have language or communicate because of our method. One time, someone was telling a group of people about deaf kids don’t learn language until after they get into school. I told them that it was not true, since I learned language when I was perhaps 8 months. My parents signed to me and I am communicating with them on what I need. Most hearing people are ignorant and doesn’t realize that we have language, and it’s just different from how hearing people is used to. They (hearing people) would think that if you don’t hear anything, you can’t “function” correctly. The best way to make this changes, is to educate them. I have had some people approaching me about “baby signs” and how wonderful it was. I would tell them that it proves that baby can communicate a lot earlier than those who don’t use signs at that age (8 to 12 months). I did some research in the past and one researcher said that both hearing or deaf child learning sign language will pick up language 6 to 8 months earlier than those who don’t. Thanks for sharing this with us and I look forward to more of your postings!