tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 15 00:19:51 1994

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Re: Speaking tlhingan Hol



According to d'Armond Speers:
> 
... 
> > Personnaly, I'd be very interested to know whether your young son's first wor
> d
> > is in English or tlhingan Hol.
> 
> Actually, it'll probably be neither.  My wife and I are also speakers 
> of American Sign Language...

> > KoSneH
> 
> --Holtej

I've known several children now who learned some signs as or
before they learned their first words. One is visiting my house
now. Besides learning to communicate earlier, signing also
helps them to communicate more clearly, since gestures tend to
be less ambiguous than child sounds. It is also incredibly cute
to watch a toddler sign a clear message while busily exploring
the world. "Let's go look for the horse" becomes a clear
message coming from Timothy, who is not quite yet two years
old. "I want to throw a big rock in the pond and go 'splash'!"
is another favorite.

Saturday night, we were picknicking and he was exploring the
woods behind us. He called out for help, calmly. I peeked in
through the trees and he was calmly signing and saying, "come."
I went over to him and one of his feet was caught in the
underbrush. I held the offending snare down as he stepped out
of it and he smiled and went on with his exploring.

That's a pleasant change from the more traditional shriek and
whine that most traditionally verbal kids use to solve such a
problem.

charghwI'



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