Wild and crazy Friday night

My husband is off working and my baby is snoozing. Meanwhile I decided to amuse myself by taking an online quiz from ASL Pro.

Though I knew none of the signs they quized me on, I know enough ASL that I was able to guess correctly on ALL of them! And they weren't easy either: paradise, chip, Scotland, earache, pale, sheet metal screw, halo, spoil, describe, either, air condition, corn, fire detector, weight limit, welder. How could I even find a use for those 15 signs in my life?!

Next I took the fingerspelling quiz. First, the slow speed. Did pretty well. Then the fast, just for the fun of it. Four out of five right, though I admit to hitting the "repeat" button a couple of times. The word I missed was Xylidine. I spelled it Xydliene. Oh, the shame. They aren't playing fair!! (I did get Zymosis right though.)

Now off to practice my cued speech. I only know 2 handshapes so far, but I can say such things as: "Mmmmmm! Me eat smurf meat!" but I can only say it one word at a time. Barry is having a much easier time at the cued speech than I am. I have to think about every syllable of every word. If I dare think ahead to the next word, I screw up whatever I'm on.

One of the other moms I know is taking the class with us. She told me she's definitely sending her son to that school. I think it's because she's from another country and wants to be able to teach him to speak that language as well. How nice to have your mind made up 13 months in advance! I'm jealous.

Barry and I decided if we had to chose this second, we would send her to the cued speech school for the first few years as her speech is really developing and she is learning proper pronunciation. Then we would move her to the aural-oral school and maybe eventually mainstreamed into her neighborhood school. (If cued speech is what she needs to succeed then of course we would let her keep going with that. But come on, dragon is such a cooler mascot than cougar!!)

Barry and I will keep learning ASL for now at least. I am still very interested in the language and being able to communicate with Deaf adults and children. We will use with her for another year or so until her speaking capabilities improve. She is using it expressively so much at this point I am not going to cut her off. Receptively she is responding so well to our voices. I will say "Do you want to eat?" with no visual cues and she will immediately start signing "eat." She also signs elephant, help, dog...the list is getting too long. I am losing track! I guess technically we are in total communication mode at the moment. Anyway, we will encourage her to learn ASL when she is older but will not be using it in the school setting for reasons I will go into later!

That is today's decision. Stay tuned, as I seem to change my mind at least three times a week.

Now I am back to learning how to sign more scientific words that I have never even heard in my 30.999999 years.