A really interesting thing happened last week after church. The kids went to play in the church gym while I talked to some people after church, and 10 minutes later Martha came back crying with a bleeding toe. I guess she sorta got it closed in a door. One of the branch dads who is deaf was down watching the kids, but didn't see the accident. He just got a crying 4-yr old. He tried to comfort her and she kept saying things to him (probably, "I want my mom!") but he can't hear her. He tried and tried and tried to get her to sign what she wanted, but she just cried and wailed. Finally, someone came and got me, and I calmed her down.
I pondered over this all week. Sure, Martha can sign. But in her moment of crisis, she couldn't do it. She was just frozen, and all she could do was process the language she learned to think in. I thought about the branch dad who helped Martha - do his kids sign when they're hurt? Does having a deaf dad get ASL deeper into your brain than having a family that signs for a little bit every day?
Gah, language acquisition is so darn fascinating.
And, Martha's toe was fine. And she got to ride the stroller back to the car, since she had a bandaid on her toe, so she thought that was pretty great. Jane loved getting to walk. So it all worked out in the end.
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