(cheerful music) - Will you consider this?

We all need to communicate, and there is always some kind of a breach in that little two-way communication thing always, but now this young lady has a way of figuring it out.

And this is Abbey Cook from Communication Junction.

So we're gonna start with you.

Now, we talked to you three years ago, but we're gonna catch up.

You were born and raised here.

- That's right.

- All right.

And you went to school where?

- High school?

- Yes.

- I went to Richwoods High School.

- [Christine] All right, and then college?

- College, St.

Louis University.

- All right, SLU.

- Yep, and then I went to grad school in DC.

- Okay, now why did you go to grad school in DC?

Oh, you were married at that point?

- Nope, not married yet.

So when I was in college, decided on a career as a speech language pathologist, and I had always had a interest in working with the special education population.

And going back even further, being a Peoria kiddo, my mom was also a District 150 teacher, and she had the deaf and hard-of-hearing kids in her classroom.

And so we took classes through the Park District to learn how to sign a little bit so that she could communicate with some of the kids in her class.

So that had always been something that had stuck with me.

- [Christine] And how old were you at that point?

- Five.

- Okay, oh.

- Five to like, and then a couple different times throughout the years, but probably five to seven is when she and I took those classes together.

And so when I decided to pursue a career in speech language pathology, I thought, "Hey, I would like to utilize, you know, this kind of interest in sign language."

And so I went to Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, which the undergraduate population at Gallaudet is all deaf and hard-of-hearing kids.

And then the graduate school population is for those who are deaf and hard of hearing or who want to work with deaf and hard-of-hearing kids.

And so I decided I wanted to be a speech language pathologist to help or to work with the deaf and hard-of-hearing population and not necessarily to teach them to talk, but to help with language skills and reading skills and things like that.

And so that was what I did.

When I graduated from Gallaudet, at that point, I had met my current husband, or my husband.

(laughs) - Just in case.

- Right.

(laughs) And we moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and I was in a school for five years there working directly with the deaf and hard-of-hearing population.

And it was what I thought I was supposed to do with my life, but, you know, life has other plans for you, so.

- So where did the change happen then?

- The change happened because Andy, my husband, was in the military, and as a reservist, he got off of active duty, and as a reservist, he was deployed more during that time than he was during active duty.

It was 2003 to 2010 timeframe.

- [Christine] All right.

- So the second time he was deployed in the five years that we were there, I said, "How about we think about moving home?

I think I need a little support."

We're married now.

We've got a kid, and we've got one on the way.

So we moved back here to Peoria, and the job that I was doing in Virginia Beach that I loved was not available here.

So I had to think about "What am I gonna do now?"

- Right?

- Yeah.

- So what did you do in the interim before... I mean you had then two children, and what did you do before- - Oh, I started pretty quickly.

- Did you?

- So we moved home in September of 2009, and I started my first class of Communication Junction in November of 2009.

- Wow.

- So we had kind of been brainstorming what to do.

You know, staying home was not an option, or at least staying home full time was not an option.

So we had started brainstorming what to do.

Our oldest was two at the time, and I had been signing with him, had started signing with Colin, our youngest, who was five months old at that time, and just thought, "Hey, let's see what the general population thinks about this."

I think this is pretty great.

You know, I've seen some benefits, and the interesting thing is, and maybe we'll get to more of this later on, is at that point in time, being young in my career as a speech language pathologist and young in my career as a mother, I was just like, "Signing is really great.

It's been super helpful."

But over the past 16 years, I've grown in my knowledge of language development specifically to this age group, zero to three, and how signing is absolutely so beneficial to that progression to spoken language, which is where we all want our kids to be, right?

- And necessary.

- [Abbey] Correct.

- So in addition to your speech and language, did you have to go to school in order to learn some of the psychology behind what you were teaching, what you were sharing, with the kids and families?

- Well, I think that was probably just part of my degree, part of that two-year degree.

And then a lot of it has just been continuing education along the way as well and also just like seeing it in practice.

- So we never even said it's Communication Junction.

- That's right.

(laughs) - Communication Junction, and you were established in 2009.

It's right on your shirt there.

And like you said, well, I think that I read something that when your first son was born, you wanted to read to him right away too.

- Oh yeah.

- So you know the relationship between reading and communication as well.

- Yeah, yeah, all of that.

Like, so much goes into your little one's first words, which is what we're really focused on at that... You know, research says at one year old, your child should have one to three meaningful spoken words.

So that's really where we focus our energy, is on what are they saying at one to 18 months old, something like that.

But there is so much that happens before that that lays the foundation for great spoken language success.

And so that's really where I try to focus my efforts with families, and let's catch them and support them when they're young, as you know, as you're doing as well, so that when they get to that point for spoken language, we've set just a solid foundation for them.

- For them to communicate.

Yeah, so full exposure, (Abbey laughs) I am taking my youngest granddaughter, she's six months old now, taking her to "What is Your Baby Thinking?"

And now if I could only remember all the things that we're thinking, and we're supposed to repeat it all the time.

That wasn't your very first class that came about, and how did that kind of evolve?

- Yeah, yeah, but first of all, just remember lots of resources are available to you, right?

You get an email every single week with lots of videos and lots of support for you, and of course I'm always just a text away, so feel free to reach out anytime you don't remember.

- It's my brain that doesn't quite... It's too loaded.

I have to get some of the old stuff out to get the new stuff in.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So "What is Your Baby Thinking?"

I think that the class itself has changed names a couple of times, and the curriculum has changed a couple of times.

But the foundation has always been to help parents pair signs with kind of those first 100 words that are documented that kids start saying so that they have access to the language to get to the word.

So to kind of back up, if you want some theory here.

- I do.

- Okay.

(laughs) - There are four skills that our kids need to have before they can get to that first spoken word.

The first skill is joint attention, which means that like when I look at that flower, you see that I'm looking at that flower, and you look at it too, and now we're both going to talk about that flower.

- So we've communicated with each other visually.

- That's joint attention.

We both have attention on that.

- I like that.

- You also have to have cause and effect, which is if I do something, something happens, right?

You have to understand that.

You have to understand object permanence, which means that something exists when you can't see it.

So, for example, as grownups, things that we say a lot, "Where are my keys?

Where's my phone?

Where are my glasses?"

- I say that a lot.

- Right?

- Yes, okay, got it.

- So that's object permanence.

You know it's somewhere, but like where is it?

Our little ones don't know that yet.

So those three skills are needed before spoken words.

And then what I think is actually the most important of the four that they need for spoken language is imitation.

They have to be able to copy us in order to get to that first spoken word.

- So the first copying is if we look at something, and they look at something, they are copying us at that point.

- Right, so there's a hierarchy of those imitation skills, and the first one starts with your little one imitating body movement.

So it might be a turn of the head.

It might be starting to like wiggle when you play music, things like that.

The second level up is gestures.

So things that are... This is the area that has the most research because it's so familiar to people.

Gestures are things like waving, clapping, pointing to get your attention, reaching up, blowing kisses, giving a high-five, those kinds of things.

There's a lot of research about the number and quality of gestures that a child has at 16 months old and how that predicts their spoken language at three years old.

- [Christine] Interesting, okay.

- So then after gestures come signs, and signs are, in their most basic form, gestures with specific language behind them, right?

So I might clap, and what you say when I clap is, "Yay."

But then when I put my hands together like this, I mean, you might say, "Yay, and somebody else might say, "Whoo-hoo," and somebody else might say something else, right?

But then when I put my hands together like this, we all know this is the sign for more, and more is the word that we say.

So there's just a little more specific language behind it.

And then after our little ones are starting to imitate signs, they start to imitate sounds or like parts of words, so like "uh-oh" or "boom."

Or you know, so maybe Zofia knocks something off the tray, and she goes, "Uh-oh," like those kinds of things.

- [Christine] That's communicating.

- That's communicating, and then they imitate those first spoken words.

And the reason that that progression kind of exists is couple of things.

First, motorically, that's how our little ones are developing, right?

They develop in a gross motorway first before they develop in a fine motorway, which is the muscles in your mouth.

And then the second thing is when we're doing all of those things, we're pairing it with some sort of a spoken, maybe not a word, but some sort of a vocalization, right?

So they're hearing all of those sounds, and when their body is ready, then we get the spoken word.

- So like an "uh-oh" or "oh no" or something.

- [Abbey] Yeah, yeah.

- (sighs) Are you exhausted by learning all this and communicating it to so many people?

- It's a lot to communicate for sure, and I think there's one more important thing that I wanted to say in that, is that when our kiddos are at the age where spoken language is accessible to them, we see that when they learn the sign for something, typically they learn or say the spoken word about three months later, which is pretty cool to be able to see that progression and like, "Oh, it's working," right?

Because we know that our kiddos are supposed to have that one to three meaningful word by one years old, but prior to that, you don't necessarily know what to look for.

So I feel like this hierarchy that we share with our families gives them like something to be watching for to know that language is developing.

- And they need it in their lives.

Now you start with brand-new babies, practically.

What's the earliest age that you start at?

- Well, I say that our classes, it's kind of ambiguous, zero to three.

Some places says zero months.

Some says three months.

Really, the reason that it's ambiguous is because there's never a wrong time to start because for most of our families, this is something extra that they're doing to support their little one's spoken language.

And becoming a parent is life-changing, right, in so many ways.

- It is, it is.

- And so if you feel ready, you know, day three out of having a baby to start signing with them, awesome.

But a lot of times you need a little bit of time to get yourself regulated, to figure out your little one's patterns and routines, and then to come to class.

So I would say, like, I encourage parents to start signing as soon as they are ready because it's just language input for your little ones.

But I would say that most families start joining us between four and six months old is when they start joining us.

- See, and I thought... Well, I took Zofia.

I thought there's just no way she's gonna pay any attention, and she is just so focused on you.

They're little sponges.

She's absorbing it all, and the other kids in the class are too, which is pretty amazing.

But you also offer Zoom.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Zoom lessons classes and things for people all over the world.

- Yeah.

- So tell me about that.

That kind of really evolved.

It really caught on when we had the pandemic.

- Yeah, it's been amazing, (laughs) really, quite honestly.

- A lot of work.

- Yeah, a lot of work for sure.

But so, prior to the pandemic, we have kind of a very unique program with it being like it's not just some people that know how to sign and are teaching you.

We're all highly educated.

We have teachers of the deaf on our staff.

We have early childhood experts on our staff, and then we have a couple of speech language pathologists.

And we really pool our knowledge to make sure that our classes are very educational, you know?

And so families would move away and say, "You know, we've moved to Texas.

Do you know anything like your program?"

"No, I'm sorry, I don't," you know.

And so people were asking us to replicate our program in some sort of a virtual way, and it was just like, "I don't know that we can do this."

We offered like a story-time program over like Facebook Groups at that point in time, 2018, 2019.

And it just was not.... It just wasn't kind of kicking off the way that we wanted to.

Well, then, the world shut down.

- Right.

- And we had to pivot.

We were right at the beginning of a session.

We had all of these local families signed up for classes, and we're facing the uncertainty that a lot of businesses were facing at that time about like, how do we provide this service that you've already signed up for and still make it a meaningful and, you know, relevant experience for you?

So we jumped in with both feet in that space and kind of pivoted our whole program in the span of two weeks, honestly.

- [Christine] Wow.

- It was a lot of work.

It was a lot of learning experiences.

It was a lot of tears.

(laughs) - I bet.

- For a lot of us.

- Well, frustration.

- Yes, frustration, you know?

And since then, it has just grown, which has been so cool.

It was almost like I needed that, like, push to jump into that space because I was too hesitant of like maybe being in my own head of, "How can we replicate this really cool experience in a virtual space?"

Now, the virtual families, what they don't get that you get in class with Zofia is that kind of side conversation and a little bit more community.

- Right.

- But we do try to replicate that the best that we can as instructors.

- So by recognizing the kids who are on the Zoom call.

And they really pay attention that way.

They're focused on the screen.

- Yeah, yeah, and you know, really, my philosophy is I'm teaching you to teach Zofia and the same thing across the screen.

I'm teaching those parents to teach their kids because we're together only 45 minutes of the week, and all of the other people in Zofia's life or all of the other people in any of these kids' lives are with them all of the other hours of the day.

I need to do the math so that when I say that, I have got better numbers.

But they're with them- - In your spare time.

- Yeah.

(laughs) You know, the other 23 1/2, six days a week- - Exactly.

- Minus whatever.

And so that's where the magic happens, is being consistent with the signs that you're modeling, the gestures that you're modeling, the words that you're saying.

That's where the magic happens.

So could we have class without the kids there?

Absolutely.

And would the benefit be the same to them?

Maybe.

It's just fun to be able to have them there with us and for me to model for you like how to play this game with Zofia.

Now let's practice it together.

So when we were in class yesterday, I said like, "Okay, we're gonna play this silly game about getting dressed, and we're gonna, like, put shoes on our head, and we're gonna put socks on our hands and, you know, put our shirts on our legs and that kind of thing."

And never once in that setting did I necessarily expect the kids to get that that was a mistake.

- [Christine] The humor, but they did.

- Well, some of the older ones did, right.

- Yes.

- But you'll see that if you do that activity with Zofia over and over and over again, and every time you put your sock on your hand, and you go, "Uh-oh," after the, you know, 10th, 12th repetition time, you're gonna see some sort of imitation from her.

And that's what we're looking for, and that's not what I can provide in a 45-minute class.

I can just give you those tools so you can go home and be doing those things too.

- (sighs) Okay.

Well... (both laughing) So where do you go from... Well, first of all, how many instructors do you have?

And you have a place in Bloomington- - We have a classroom in Bloomington.

We have a classroom here in Peoria.

And then we have a very robust virtual program.

And so we have a team of 12, and that team includes an office manager who does not teach classes, and one instructor who is specific to our story-time program.

So I guess we have 10 instructors.

- All right, all right.

And then has anyone approached you about replicating what you do in other areas of the country?

- Oh, yeah.

- All right, and you're just not ready to do that or?

- No, I'm too... - Hands on?

Okay, (laughs) I got it.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But they could learn a lot from you, and they could also imitate you as well.

- I'm just very concerned.

I've been asked that a lot.

Almost all of my employees have been hired from within, so they are parents who have come through the program who, you know, meet the requirements that I have to join us.

So they have like an investment in the program.

They've seen the program.

They understand it.

And so that has all been local people mostly.

And then I do get families who join us virtually who request the same kind of thing, "If you're ever interested in starting a program in Maryland... If you're ever interested in starting a program in Texas..." But I am concerned that the quality of the program that we offer, as you get bigger and grow and move out- - You lose some of it.

- You know?

And right now, it's me.

Like, I'm the face of the business, and I just wanna make sure that everybody's getting that same high-quality experience.

- Right, and that's gotta keep you up at night sometime.

- Oh yeah.

(both laugh) - All right.

So you thought in the beginning that owning this business was a really great idea.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - And what factors did you not add to the equation?

- So you're referencing an email that I sent out, and the one thing that I didn't necessarily share in that email, but WTVP has been a part of, is when I started Communication Junction, I had been utilizing a program called "Signing Time!"

with my kids.

And it was available here on- - PBS.

- On PBS, right.

And they started an instructor program, so that's how I was able to start so quickly.

And we were given a curriculum and all of those kinds of things.

And so I was able to kind of jump in with both feet with that and... What was your question?

(laughs) Where am I going with this?

And so that's why I thought it was gonna be easy.

I thought it was gonna be like Pampered Chef for signing, right?

Like, everybody knows "Signing Time!"

I've been using it with my kids.

Doesn't everybody know this?

- Right.

- No, they don't.

- No, and what would you say is the number?

Like maybe 1% of people know how to sign?

- Yes, absolutely.

And so I am so thankful that that was... Again, just like the pandemic and needing to switch my program virtually gave me the push I needed, having this already made-up program gave me the push I needed.

And I was one of the first 12 instructors in their program, so I had a leadership- - Role.

- Position or role in the organization and was able to help create some of these curriculums.

But I quickly learned after doing that, like, I had my own ideas, and I wanted to utilize my degree as a speech language pathologist understanding how language develops to create these classes.

- Not just teaching signing.

- Right.

So it was a great way for me to get my feet wet, and then I kind of moved on and started evolving my own program into the "What is Your Baby Thinking?"

class that you're taking now.

- And you're pretty proud of yourself.

Before we forget, (Abbey laughs) so how do people find you?

And I know that there's waiting lists for so many of your offerings.

- The best place to find us is on the web, communicationjunction.net.

We started a blog this year, another one of those things that I had been dragging my feet on or whatever.

Lots of great resources on the blog tab of the website if families are looking for more information about how to get started, why to get started, where to start, those kinds of things.

And of course, we're on all of the socials as well just under Communication Junction.

- All right, well, so, so where do you go from here?

It seems like you have it pretty well packaged, and you've already set up your boundaries, but so, where do you go from there?

Where do you move and shake a little bit in this whole process?

- [Abbey] Like, in terms of the business growing?

- Yes.

- Yeah, I don't know.

I'm not sure to be honest with you.

I think one of the things you asked me that I didn't answer was maybe what were some of those unexpected things about starting Communication Junction, and I think one of the unexpected or unplanned-for things is I didn't have a plan.

- Okay.

(laughs) You just, you had an idea.

- I had an idea.

I wanted to see how it went.

At that point in time, I did lots of different things too.

I did homeschool groups.

I did older kids.

I tried to do like a kindergarten age.

I was just throwing everything at the wall, right, to see what would stick.

So one of the things that I kind of pride ourselves in is that we have had the ability to grow with the need in the community.

And so as I hear needs, or as I see things happening, then we grow and respond to that.

So that's what's the future of Communication Junction is.

However the community continues to interact with us, we're gonna continue to grow in that way.

- Awesome.

And then there are some kids who come through the program who might never be verbal, so this is their only way of communicating.

- Yeah, one of the great things about the way that it all works together is that I have three early intervention providers on my staff, myself being one of them.

And so we can help those families who are accessing the early intervention program by including them in our classes as part of their whole plan of intervention.

And often we are the first point for some families too who are like, "Oh, I've heard that signing's supposed to help with spoken language.

I'm a little concerned about my kiddo not talking.

Let's try this first."

And my entire staff is trained on how to help those families transition to the early intervention system if needed.

So it's a great resource.

- Well, you're really something else, you know that?

(laughs) And I hope you get some sleep every once in a while.

Don't lose too much sleep.

(Abbey laughs) So future of Communication Junction looks pretty solid.

- Yeah, yeah.

- All right.

And you must be proud of yourself and all of your accomplishments and that of your staff as well.

- Well, thank you.

You know, it's one of those things when you're in it, you just keep doing it, right?

You just keep doing it.

But it is really cool to be able to look back on all that we've done or reflect on that too.

- And all that lies ahead.

- That's right.

- Well, thank you, Abbey Cook, for being with us.

- Absolutely, thank you.

- From Communication Junction.

I said it another time.

(Abbey laughs) Okay, well that's good.

And I hope you get to come back again and update us on any new stuff that's happening there.

- I would love that.

- All right.

(laughs) And thanks for joining us.

And again, we were just talking before we started taping, if you have any ideas for other interviews that I need to do, please get a hold of me.

In the meantime, be well.

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