Welcome to HomeSigns
Hello, digital space traveller !
Welcome to the website of Anastasia and Ivan, a family who developed their own unique communication system. HOW COOL IS THAT?!
This space will introduce you to some of the family's home-grown ways of communication, or family homesigns. Because of cerebral palsy (CP), Ivan doesn't use oral speech or hand gestures; instead, he relies on the resources of his body and home space to communicate. These resources include head, eye and face movements, rising in chair, pointing at objects, as well as typing letters and words using an eyetracker. You'll soon be able to see for yourself how all this works ! The site uses small videos and gifs to illustrate the intricate ways in which Ivan and Anastasia make meaning together.
Ivan, a widely-smiling pale-skinned person with hazelnut eyes, is sitting in his chair covered by a light plush blanket. He sits in front of his desk and laptop which is open and shows a Russian alphabet and a typed phrase “hello cosmos.” A pale grey stripe of the eyetracker is attached between the upper and lower parts of the laptop. Behind Ivan, on the wall, there are a lot of posters with school rules from Math, Russian, and English. The wallpaper peeking through the posters shows beautiful red flowers scratched a little bit at the bottom by cat’s claws.
About this project
My name is Sasha Kurlenkova and I created this site as a part of my PhD project at New York University. Many ideas presented here belong to Anastasia Smirnova, an experienced speech pathologist, educator, and mother of Ivan. Oher ideas and observations were developed in the process of my research with over 100 hours of video-recordings made by Anastasia and Ivan from Fall 2020 to Spring 2022. While you can find detailed results of this work in my dissertation, this website is a simplified and hopefully more accessible way to share Ivan and Anastasia's communication with other families, speech pathologists, educators and everybody interested.
Sasha and Anastasia met each other in 2020 thanks to Ivan Bakaidov, a Russian blogger and programmer with CP. Since that time, Anastasia and Sasha have gradually become close allies in their goal to "destigmatize, yet center" (Henner, Robinson 2023: 13) the ways in which people who don’t rely on oral speech as their primary modality communicate with their families, friends and communities.
At the origins of this project lies Anastasia's observation that many families of non-speaking people with developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy or autism, don't tap enough into the communicative potential of the body.
Anastasia strongly believes that a family can develop a system of communication based on any body part that a person can control - be it hands, face, eyes, or other body movements.
This is a headshot of Anastasia and Ivan: Ivan is in the foreground, sitting in his chair, looking in the distance, smiling; Anastasia is by his side and a bit behind him, she looks at and lightly smiles right into the camera, she has a playful fringe and a warm mischievous fire in her eyes.
Many families who contact Anastasia as a specialist in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are interested in possibilities of using eyetracker for their child's communication. While eyetrackers, as other high-tech AAC devices, are convenient in some contexts, there are many other ways in which people can communicate - through eyes, fingers, head shakes, what not! Ivan's example, Anastasia argues, shows how deep and complex such communication can be, based on the use of pretty simple, low-tech resources readily available in every household.
Many ways to language
People with developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and autism, who don't use oral speech, often communicate through their bodies, objects and environments "at home", with their close friends, caregivers, or in peer communities (such as autistic networks). At the same time , they may use their devices to speak with "strangers" or with "homies" at a distance through texting. But this also varies greatly, depending on the individual. The truth is - there is really no one way to language.
Ivan and his granny texting each other on What’s App in June 2023 →→ Granny: “These ones are the sour apricots.” Ivan: “hi granny this is ivan. where are you” Granny: “Hi, Ivan. I’m home 🏠. Watching 📺. (Are) you 🕹️playing?” Ivan: “how (is) granddaddy” Granny: “Granddaddy 🛏️. Sleeping.”
As a learning typist, Ivan actively uses words and phrases in Russian, as well as emojis, pictures and videos when communicating with his grandmother, classmates, his teacher at a distance - for example, in messengers and over Zoom. Since 2020, Ivan has been using eyetracker - to navigate the web, play video-games, watch videos on YouTube, and increasingly - to type.
The picture shows the back of Ivan's head; he sits in front of his laptop in the kitchen. Under the laptop screen, there is a thin grey strip of eyetracker. There are also several explanatory visuals placed on top of the image: a text that says "PCEye eyetracker," and an illustration of a profile of a head in front of the screen. Infrared light coming from the eyetracker detects and analyzes the movement of the person's eyes. This way, using specialized software, someone like Ivan can control their computer through their eye movements.
Despite the fact that eyetracker has become such a crucial part of Ivan's daily routines, he keeps using his homesigns A LOT in conversations with his mother. After all, this is his native language! Homesigns is something he's been using all of his life, they are very quick and efficient when used between such experienced speakers as Ivan and Anastasia ! Typing, in contrast, may require a lot of time, it's not that easy for Ivan to type, since he's never used oral speech and has dyslexia, as many other non-speaking people with CP.
Sasha and Anastasia decided to create this space to tell the world about the way Ivan communicates using his "first language" - his body coupled with his mother's assistance and space of their apartment. This site relies on short videos and gifs to show Ivan's basic vocabulary – from his ways to establish attention, homesigns for “yes” and “no,” to gestures which are tied to the space where the family lives, it's objects and activities.
Ivan and Anastasia sit at the laptop side by side. Ivan looks intently at Anastasia to make sure he has her attention (something I will call "summons"), before asking for her assistance.
While this site may create an impression that Ivan’s actions are the key and only element of his communication, it should be remembered that his mother and other communication partners play a HUGE role in co-constructing his conversations. As any “dictionary,” this one simplifies the reality of Ivan’s everyday talk which is always dialogical. There is a constant give-and-take between Ivan and his mother, so it’s best to think of Ivan not as a solo player, but as a member of a mutually attuned and well-rehearsed orchestra!
Lastly, I want to mention that many of the thoughts and ideas presented on this website have been generated in conversations with Ekaterina Rudneva, a linguistic anthropologist from the Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; Candy Goodwin and the whole team of Co-Operative Action Lab at UCLA; my most precious advisors Bambi Shieffelin, Mara Mills, Mara Green, and Galina Bolden; my co-author Antara Satchidanand and her advisor Jeff Higginbotham, and many many others to whome I express my infinite gratitude.
