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Sometimes Michaela would join Jimmy
and me as we went over the material, and
her interactions with us ranged from
hilarious, to serious, to reflective of her
literacy skills. A natural ham, Michaela
liked to act out or exaggerate the
characters’ expressions or behaviors. In
Jump, Frog, Jump, she brought the frog to
life by forming her right hand into a V
handshape, bending her fingers, and
jumping the handshape on the pages of the
book. Then she formed her left hand into a
net (linguists might say that she used a
bent 5-classifier handshape) and trapped
the frog. Then she transformed herself into
a frog. She let out a gasp, shook her leg to
wriggle and jump free, and repeated the
jumping movement of the frog handshape,
giggling the whole time.
She made rules for us, too. When we
practiced Cookie’s Week, Michaela refused to
accept our assurance that the cat’s name
was indeed Cookie. She had her own name
for Cookie, which she repeated half teasing,
Cat plus Black-Orange-White, the colors of
Cookie’s fur. We explained to her that her
dad’s name is Jimmy—not Jimmy-plus-
Black-Hair-and-Black-Shirt.
Kris daCosta-
Warshauer, M.A.,
ASLTA certified, is
program director and
instructor of American
Sign Language with Falls
Church City Public
Schools in Virginia and a
tutor for the Shared
Reading Project.
“After three
years...Michaela
has learned to
maintain steady
eye contact with
her father, who
cherishes his
daughter.”
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