How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Line)
Quote #4
Nobody's experimenting on my child, Mama said. If that's the way he came into the world, that's the way he's staying. It's us we need to change. And she and Daddy started learning sign language. By the time I was born, Sean was two and a half years old. I grew up learning how to speak and sign. (8.42)
Sean's family doesn't treat him any differently because he can't talk; instead they just resolve to learn sign language so that they can all communicate freely as a family. It doesn't make things any more complicated when you've grown up with it all your life.
Quote #5
"I just know it," he said. "I just do. Maybe from when I was a baby or something."
"Well it's not something a person's born knowing," I said.
"Well, now come you know English?"
"Because my family knows English and that's what they taught me." (10.40-43)
When you're a baby, you pretty much pick up on whatever language you're around—and Frannie and Jesus Boy both learned sign language seamlessly that way. They don't even really recall learning those signs.
Quote #6
She always said she was too old to learn another language by the time Sean came along, but most times, when I tried to translate, she already knew what Sean was signing. And she had a way of signing back that only her and Sean understood most of the times—a kind of secret language that just about burned me up. (11.7)
Grandma and Sean have their own private language. It may not be the official American Sign Language, but they understand each other just fine—and that's what matters.