Sometimes asking a question can unearth beautiful stories worth sharing. A few days ago we received a video submission featuring a beautiful little girl signing her heart away with great enthusiasm. Her mom forwarded her video as part of our popular Summer of Signing Challenge. In response to her submission we asked a few questions to get a better idea of what worked for her and her babies. Her reply to our questions absolutely melted our hearts.
Sophia, words cannot express how precious you are and how much we admire all that you do to make your brother’s life awesome.
We are sharing Sophia’s mom responses verbatim. We hope this story encourages and fills your heart with happiness and hope.
1. What is Sophia’s favorite food?
Sophia loves macaroni and cheese. However she is not picky, she will pretty much eat anything!
2. Is Sophia speaking now?
Yes but she prefers to sign.
If so what was her first spoken word?
She initially babbled mama and dada but her first spoken word was hat!
3. Does Sophia have siblings?
Yes one brother, his name is Kalob
4.Does she sign with her siblings?
Yes she does! Sophia is such a jewel. She is charismatic, caring, funny, and lovable. Sophia’s brother Kalob is special needs. He has CHARGE Syndrome along with other impairments like hearing loss and vision loss. He understands sign but does not communicate back with sign or speech yet. Our goal was not only to get Sophia to communicate her wants and needs with sign, but to get her to communicate with her brother! The sweetest thing is that Sophia signs with him all the time. If we go to the aquarium, she makes sure she goes up to her brother and signs “fish” so he knows that there are fish in EVERY SINGLE tank! She is the perfect sister for Kalob.
5. What is next? What are you working on at the moment in terms of developing her skills and abilities?
We will continue to sign and we have no plans to ever stop. Sign language is very important to us since we will always need it to communicate with our son. I feel like it has opened up a whole new world for Sophia. At such a young age, she can tell me when she wants to eat, nap, go outside, play, take a bath and more! Her first sign was “milk” at 7 months of age. I know she is a hearing child and will use verbal communication for her primary language, but our family will make sure that she will always know sign language.
Sophia Learned to Sign Using Our Premium Baby Sign Language Kit. You Can Buy Yours Here
