Well we never ended up doing anything with this. Since she did have a very large vocabulary at a very early age (her 1st words were "bye bye" on the video camera at 7 mos.) so it was just a couple of mos of this period where she'd get frustrated with not knowing how to tell us things, even though she already had the words in her vocabulary. She just needed to know how & when to use them, which came on it's own. She's now already pretty good at telling me what she wants herself. My sister is a speech pathologist & tested her verbal skills recently. My daughter was 16 mos at the time & we stopped the test at 23 mos - she was able to say or demonstrate she understood EVERY item tested for, which means she test for at least what a 2 yr should be able to do & probably more, but we didn't know since we didn't continue the test. I told my husband when she was born that she'd speak early if we constantly spoke & sang to her. I think it's paid off. Michie

there are a lot of little ones who don't/won't start talking until they are older. My nephew was one! Nothing wrong with him, just two lots older sisters who said everything for him, (and with those two, getting in a word of your own can be a challeng!), and he wasn't ready yet. When the child is ready, he'll start talking and you won't get him to shut up! The reasoning behind teaching an infant to sign, is that the "terrible two's" aren't as bad, because they don't get frustrated because they can't communicate since they can usually get their point across by sign. Dilly_dally, LOL! At least you must not have told them you were pleased to meet them improperly, then! The direction you are holding your fingers can make all the difference! That was explained with the above example, very emphatically by my instructor at the time. As the friend of a deaf person, you have my thanks for your efforts in making it easier for your customers. I'm sure it was appreciated. My DD is a photographer who has several deaf customers. She doesn't remember much of the signs themselves that I had taught her, but she finger spells a lot! If she couldn't remember, or didn't know, a sign, she finger spelled everything for them that she needed to. They were repeat customers for that very reason. Firemanswife, You are great! And what an accomplishment for your. You had great doctors. My friend, Gale, has/had an implant. She still did more lip reading than hearing, last I talked to her. Unfortunately for her, she had severe back problems and had to have surgery. Every time they had to do an MRI, they had to remove the implant and she would get an infection. And when she had surgery, of course the implant wasn't in because of the infection, and the nurses ignored her when she needed help, because they couldn't just answer the bell over the intercom. I don't know if she still has the implant or not. The only contact I have with her right now is thru email. Please ignore any typos. I am typing on a rubber keyboard and think I have typed a letter or made an upper case, or space and it didn't type! Tami

We have Amazon prime and love it. We buy a lot of stuff from amazon, so the yearly fee is worth it just for that (free shipping on most items) There is a large selection of FREE tv and movies! Not all are free though. But the free stuff is quite a bit, so I search around and add the free ones I want to see to be watch list. Currently watching a 20 episode feature on WWII. Had started to watch Vikings Season 1 as well. Watched Airplane a few days back,lol Helps kill the time on the Elliptical machine!

Three of my great grandparents came from Canada and spoke French in their homes. I was raised in a primarily Franco American community and attended parochial school through 6th grade where 1/2 of the school day was taught in French. Sunday Mass was said in French. My parents, aunts and uncles spoke good English but a fond memory I have of holidays are of conversations going back and forth between French & English. Relatives always sang and spoke to little babies in French because it was "softer". As a child I used to dream in French. What a rude awakening, though, when I took French in HS! My background sure was a mixed blessing. I could read and write well, roll my r's but there was such a distinct difference between Parisian French & what I grew up with that it I had a lot to unlearn. I ended up doing well in both French & Latin. But sad to say, by the time we did a student exchange when DS was in HS with a family from Brittany, I hadn't used my polished up version of French in decades and what surfaced was my Eliza Doolittle version ;) At least we could all communicate. I've always wished I'd kept up with it. When we visited Paris in 2011 I was able to read, but was too shy to try to use my French. I wish I could learn Turkish. My DIL is from Turkey and DH & I did our best to learn a few phrases before we met her family. It is a hard language to learn. My DS is fluent in 4 other languages but struggles mightily with Turkish. He & DIL have lived in Denmark for 7 yrs. With my 2 yr. old GDD they speak English at home as a family, and DIL speaks Turkish to her and she Skypes in Turkish with her other grandmother. At daycare they speak Danish. Surprisingly, GDD, seems to be grasping all 3 languages and answers in the language spoken to her. That's the time of life to learn easily, it seems. Holly-Kay, go for it! And thank you for the inspirthing post!