A mysterious baby communicates with his deaf grandparents using sign language.
Six-month-old Jane McCullough posted this photo by her mother. Daughter’s TikTok “Talking to Grandpa and Grandma in sign language”
“Notice how she waits her turn to sign back,” her mother, Marla McCullough, wrote in the caption of the video.
“She’s trying to communicate!” the proud mother added.
Mara spoke more about the video in an interview. WJXT TVHe said he was surprised by the amount of attention his TikTok video has received, which has been viewed more than 10 million times.
“It’s really wonderful because our daughter is starting to show us that she is trying to communicate and she is trying to use language,” the Florida mother told the station.
In the video, subtitles explain that the baby’s grandmother uses sign language to tell the baby, “You love talking to your grandpa.”
Jane responds with an emphatic hand movement and appears to sign the word “yes.”
The grandparents continued the conversation by asking if the baby had any “sweet dreams” during his “long nap” that day.
Jane again responded to her grandparents with energetic hand gestures that her mother called “babbling signs.”
Marla told WJXT-TV that her daughter is “just speaking sign language, she doesn’t have the correct sign language yet. She’ll probably be able to do that in a few months. She’s showing us that she’s starting to understand sign language.”
Despite the awe-inspiring connection captured in Marla’s video, the bond Jane has with her grandparents isn’t all that surprising, a sign language expert told WJXT-TV.
“You can’t waste time teaching kids,” says private tutor Karen Lewis Hanna. “Kids are like sponges, so you have to get them to learn right away.”
The baby’s mother said the six-month-old has plenty of opportunities to learn sign language because Jane, her parents and grandparents live in the same house.
“We knew it was coming because she’s been very observant since she was born,” Mara said in an interview. “Good morning, America.”
“It’s really eye-opening for people to know that babies can understand language and are very intelligent,” the young mother said.
“I think a lot of people already knew that babies can sign before they can talk, but seeing her babble in sign language has really taken it to a new level for a lot of people,” Marla added.
