The power to communicate: Mothers teach their babies how to use
sign languageGRAND FORKS – Before she could talk, Maya Bodin had
a vocabulary of eight words – words she “spoke” with her hands
in sign language. When she was about 7 months old, her mother,
Colleen Bodin, of Grand Forks, began to teach Maya gestures to
communicate words such as “juice,” “milk” and “water.” By:
Pamela Knudson, Forum News Service, INFORUM GRAND FORKS – Before
she could talk, Maya Bodin had a vocabulary of eight words –
words she “spoke” with her hands in sign language. When she was
about 7 months old, her mother, Colleen Bodin, of Grand Forks,
began to teach Maya gestures to communicate words such as
“juice,” “milk” and “water.” “I thought it was something she
could learn, something I could do with her that wasn’t playing
with toys,” Colleen said. “She’s always been a very interested
toddler.” Some of her friends and family members had taught sign
language to their children, so she decided to try it with Maya
“as kind of an experi