I met this kid today. His name is Ethan and he can sign, but...

[TomInTib]

he is too young to speak.

Got me to thinking...
How far behind is our learned verbal response to our cognitive resonance?

Think about it.

Spit.. we blink.

Lie... we think about it.

[pitohui]

1. what does cognitive resonance mean when it's at home?

some of us on the autistic spectrum will never be able to see and send nonverbal communication, not if we live for a thousand years

there is no "our" learned verbal responses, all brains are different

[TomInTib]

5. See my feeble response at #4 nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I have a friend who had a hearing impaired sister so she knew ASL

and she taught both of her daughters as babies to sign before they could talk. It was awesome. They communicated like no babies I had ever seen.

I think the key here is not learned verbal response but language development. My friend's babies were proof that the brain is ready to learn and produce language long before verbal skills develop.

[TomInTib]

4. My idea here was that if you could figure out how to kick the inner self

in the crotch then why would one worry about the verbal?

Rove and Co., 'ya know.

I just wish that I was more expressive and more agile on the keyboard.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. You are asking the brain to change the way it develops

That is probably not possible.

[pitohui]

9. a bit like that john varley story i suppose

i dunno, tom, shoot me now

the verbal was pretty hard fought for me, i'm not willing to give it up :-)

[Richard Steele]

3. Well, some studies show verbal development lagging far behind...

...the actual 'ability to communicate'. And some believe
that the ability to communicate with others is actually
stunted by focusing exclusively on SPEECH, that it makes
no sense to neglect that developement until the ability to
SPEAK finally comes along. It's been likened to preventing
a child from crawling until she's able to walk.

[TomInTib]

6. That is kinda where I was heading.

See #4

[Richard Steele]

8. Yeah. It's an idea that makes a lot of sense.

And not just to toothless hilbillies like me.

We have some friends who are using American Sign
with their baby, and he's doing well with them.

His signing is well ahead of verbal skills.
Not just in physical ability, but in communicating.

Last I saw him, he had the usual number of baby-words
for a fella his age. But the words were still a novelty,
and their use fairly random, as is considered normal.

But when he signs 'book', there's no doubt that he MEANS 'book'.
Maybe he SEES his book, maybe he WANTS his book...
but there's little doubt that he not only KNOWS that
the sign means 'book', he knows that using it is
COMMUNICATING the idea of 'book' to whoever he is signing to.

He might repeat his words to himself for his own amusement
the way babies do, chanting 'ma-ma' or 'buh-buh' repeatedly.
But he only SIGNS to other people.