Deaf family shares the beautiful moment their 9-month-old deaf son signed 'milk' using ASL

Estafani and Oscar have two deaf children and run the TikTok account @thatdeafamily where they share videos showing the joy of teaching their children ASL. They recently posted a TikTok video of their 9-month-old child learning the sign language for "milk." In the video captioned, "oh my goodness I love his smile so much," the child can be seen getting extremely excited as his parent tries to communicate with him using the sign for the word, "milk." 

In another video, during a trip to the supermarket, the mother can be seen signing "milk" to the toddler. The text inlay read, "I introduced my baby boy to ASL after we found out he is deaf." She mentioned that she signs and tries to communicate the word "milk" to him every day. "I caught him signing milk while we were shopping," the mother wrote in the caption. In another frame of the video, where the mother is holding the child, she signs to him and he gestures it back to her, copying the sign. The text inlay reads, "He finally signed MILK at 9 months old." The mother wrote in the captions that she "wasn’t sure if he meant that or just staring at his hand movement." She wanted to know if the child understood her so she "signed milk back to him." The mother added, "And then he copied me. I was like oh my goodness you signed MILK!!!!"

According to the American Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, "American Sign Language (ASL) is a complete, natural language that has the same linguistic properties as spoken languages, with grammar that differs from English. ASL is expressed by movements of the hands and face." It is used by people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Both videos have received appreciation from people on TikTok. While the first video has been viewed more than 200,000 times, the second one has been viewed more than 230,000 times until now. Many TikTok users were moved by the child's smile with one user commenting, "He is so cute 😍😍😍 that happiness in his smile is worth trying for 9 month 🥰is it possible to get the hearing aid?"

Another user said, "Seeing babies learn and apply like that always makes me smile," to which the parent replied, "Yes he's been observing his hand movement for a while, he does understand milk but finally signed it."

Another user appreciated the parents' patience and love for their children. A person commented, "I just want to tell how special you are to your kids because it takes a lot of patience and time proud mama." 

"This is so sweet! Thank you for sharing your family with us. It’s made us hearing people, understand the difficulties you have to go through," another commented. A TikTok user even shared their own experience of teaching a child ASL. "My nanny kid is hearing but I've been doing some signs with him. It's amazing to see the explosion of language this week with ASL!" they explained in the comment. "Right now all done, car, wind, and toys look identical but he's using them in context. :)" 

The family shares other videos about experiences with their children and the progress they are making while communicating with ASL. Their toddler has even started responding to the sign language for "bear" among other things, as observed in their videos. Their TikTok account has more than 10 million likes from people appreciating the family as well as finding inspiration from them.