Assignment One

ABC Familys Switched At Birth

Note: The observations listed below came from the first 20 minutes of three different episodes;
This Is Not a Pipe, American Gothic, and Portrait of My Father.
Relevant Background Information: The setting of my figured world is the Kansas City
metropolitan area during the freshman year of high school for the two main characters, Daphne
and Bay. The main scenes of the show take place at the Kennish household (Bays house), East
Riverside (a low-income neighborhood in Missouri), and Buckner Hall (the school which Bay
attends). It is key to understand that Switched At Birth is the first recognized television show
to have scenes that are completely shot in American Sign Language (ASL).
Figured World: A large organization that has certain regulations and proper behavior.
The ABC Family television show Switched at Birth is my figured world. The show goes
through the lives of two teenage girls after they have found out they were switched at birth. Their
home, school, and various jobs are located in Kansas City. The rules and conventions for
appropriate behavior revolve around the realities of the hearing impaired characters, Daphne
Vasquez and the other deaf characters that she interacts with. The form of communication is
mostly constant in this show; it is American Sign Language. For example, instead of just
outwardly talking to someone, the characters have to use sign language or write down what they
mean. When deaf characters encounter someone who does not sign, they have to lip read. Instead
of doorbells, there are flashing lights, and when talking on the phone, characters do not talk
but video chat. Music is not a big component of the show either. Loud volumes of noise would
be unexpected because some of the characters could not hear them. Inappropriate behavior would
include characters making fun of the deaf characters. People who scream or talk in slow motion
would be inappropriate even though they are trying to compensate for the deaf characters.
Inappropriate behavior also includes family members of a deaf person who do not attempt to
learn sign language or treating deaf people differently and not giving them the same
opportunities as hearing characters. The various communities of practice include the family,
which has a common goal of getting to know each other better and a common way of
communicating (sign language). Groups of school friends share the common goal of going to an
all deaf school, a common interest in signing, and communicating by sign language.
Actors: An individual who a has a certain role in a community. These are not all of the actors
in the show but only the important characters for this specific observation. Only the most
important actors are listed.
Bay Kennish: Bay is one of the two teenagers who got switched at birth. Having been
raised in a very wealthy neighborhood, Bay takes her wealth for granted. She has always

wondered why she was so different from her family including her blood type, which she
finds out is impossible from the two blood types of her parents. Bay is artistic and
passionate, unlike her mother .At first, Bay has a very hard time adjusting to the idea that
her parents are not her biological parents and takes out her anger on Daphne, the other
teenager who was switched.
Daphne Vasquez: The other teenager that had gotten switched but was raised in a lowincome neighborhood. Being raised this way, Daphne is very humble which is expressed
through her loving interactions with people around her. Bays rigid characteristics allows
the audience to see the innocence of Daphne. Daphne will soon face the challenge of
moving into a different neighborhood and attending a different school while being
hearing-impaired. Daphne loves to cook and is naturally athletic.
Kathryn Kennish: The biological mother of Daphne but the legal mother of Bay.
Kathryn is filled with hospitality, for example, opening her home to Daphne, Regina
(Daphnes legal mom), and Adriana (Daphnes legal grandmother). Kathryn is very
enthusiastic about cooking (which we can infer is where Daphne found her love for
cooking), and learns to deal with the switch by writing a book from her point of view of
the switch. Kathryn also has a husband, John Kennish, and a son, Toby Kennish, who are
very influential in the decisions made about the girls.
Regina Vasquez: The biological mother of Bay but the legal mother of Daphne. Regina
raised Daphne alone after her legal father knew that Daphne could not be his biological
child. Regina has a strong opinion about most things and is not afraid to speak her mind,
many of these attributes we see in Bay. Regina raised Daphne in East Riverside with
Adriana (Reginas mother) where they were surrounded by many people of different
ethnicities and races. This environment allowed Daphne to grow up to be very wellrounded. Regina has taught Daphne to be very independent and take pride in who she is.
Regina has sacrificed a lot to be able to provide Daphne with the deaf education she
needed. This was very tough because Regina struggled with alcoholism which halted her
artistic career.
Artifact: Something that has special meaning in a community of practice and therefore in the
figured world.
The Switch: The Switch is the incident when Daphne and Bay were switched at birth.
This is what the whole show revolves around and is a constant factor throughout all
episodes. The Switch is what is behind all emotions and all events. It affects every single
character in a different way that we see throughout the series.
Bays Attitude: Bays attitude is what initially causes all the tension in the family
revolving the switch. It makes the show more interesting to watch because everything is
not flowers and butterflies and it makes the show more relatable. Bays attitude also ties
into the connection we see between Bay and her biological mother.

 Comfortableness: The idea of being comfortable drives many decisions that take part in
the show. Regina and Daphne move in with the Kennishes to be able to get to know the
family on a more personal level.The characters act a certain way to prevent other
characters from being uncomfortable, and the way the moms change who they are to
make themselves comfortable are examples of how this concept is important.
Communities of Practice: A group of people who have a common interest and better
themselves in their group more than they would have alone.
The Switched At Birth Family: Bay, Daphne, Kathryn, Regina, John, and Toby. All of
these characters were directly affected by the switch and start to live together to explore
their common interest of getting to know their own biological children. Their shared way
of communicating includes regret and remorse about the current event, but also joyful
because they are able to have an addition to the family.
The Doctors and Nurses: Even though we don't see much of the doctors in the
observation, they play an important part in the development of the show. They all have a
part in the main purpose of the show, which the physical switching of the babies. The
communication includes the idea that the hospital, which all participants work, had no
connections to the consequences that came from the switch because Regina found out
years earlier.
Domain: The specific factor that ties a community together.
Family Relationship: One of the many things that the main characters have in common
is the longing for a normal family relationship and bond. The characters go through many
trials and tribulations to achieve this goal. They share the unique situation in which their
family has to go through and all the feelings that accompany it.
Hearing-impaired Problems: Though Daphne is the only main character that is deaf,
she introduces a deaf community that interacts with the hearing cast. This domain
involved a new influx of deaf characters that cause the hearing cast to learn sign language
and to be put in different situations where they are not comfortable. Characters such as
Kathryn, Toby, and John (Kathryns Husband) have to learn sign language. Bay is also
included in this list but has a unique incentive to learning sign language because she
starts dating a hearing impaired guy.
The Need to be a Normal Family: This is one factor that ties everyone together. In the
first efforts to get to know one another, the two families are just trying to figure out how
to be normal. Various obstacles are thrown in their way such as other peoples opinions
and disagreements on how to raise the girls.

Practices of the Community: The way the community comes together to complete a goal or
task.
Getting to Know Each Other: Many of the initial scenes in Switched at Birth are
targeted towards the family getting to know one another because essentially they are
strangers. The community of practice understands that to make the switch easier for
everyone, they must get to know one another and build a relationship with the opposite
family.
Investigating the Switch: As part of the community of practice, the doctors and nurses
take the precautions necessary to prove that they are not responsible for any damages
involved in the switch. These methods include lawyers and private investigators to
acquire more information to help build their case. The Kennishs and the Vasquezs also
did their own research to find out a way to counteract the hospital and in this effort they
found out more information about themselves. For example, Regina knew that the girls
were switched for thirteen years. These details put strains on many relationships in the
family. The trust that was built between the family dynamic was broken and took some
time to overcome. The dishonesty was definitely a catalyst that lead to the family
splitting apart even more. The family stated taking sides and it was evident that Regina
was on her own.
Literary Practices: A certain way of communicating within a community.
Sign language: The most common form a communication in the show is sign language.
Characters use their facial expressions and their whole body to convey a certain
message. Finger spelling can also be included for characters who do not know complete
signs yet.
Lip reading: This form of communication is mostly used by the hearing-impaired
characters. It is used when the person they are talking to does not know sign language, so
in order to communicate they have to lip read.
Flashing lights: Flashing lights are another way of communicating day-to-day activities
that usually correspond to sound. For example, door bells do not ring, but are flashing
lights, and phones have the same signals.
Observation One: This Is Not a Pipe
3:00mins: The show starts off with slow motion montage of the kids at Buckner Hall in
their prestigious uniforms. Then, you start to hear Bays Biology teacher begin to teach
on genetics, as usual Bay is not paying attention to the experiment, but to her lab partner,
Liam (her boyfriend). To find out their blood type, the students prick their fingers and put
it on card. This foreshadows that Bays blood type will not match her legal parents. The
next scene shows Bay at the dinner table telling her parents that her blood type is AB

which is genetically impossible given that her parents are both A. We move into Bay and
Kathryn being in the car where we see the extreme personality differences of the two.
Bay thinks the picture on a wall is art, while Kathryn thinks its graffiti. Bay recognizes
and confronts her mother about always being so different from her, and asks her to do
something crazy.
10:00mins: As the families sit down and meet for the first time, we recognize the
similarities between the girls and their biological mothers. Bay is outwardly expressional
with her feelings just like Regina, and Daphne is allergic to Kiwi just like Kathryn.
Daphne begins to take a tour of the house with Toby (her biological brother) and starts to
play him in basketball. The audience realizes that Daphne is very good and can infer that
she got her athletic abilities from John who was a professional baseball player.
15:00mins: As the show continues and Daphne is getting along well with her biological
family. Bay feels immensely displaced and starts taking it out on the people around her.
She is beginning to have a identity crisis but does not realize the value is being raised
with the parents she has. As John takes Daphne home, the audience can see the
compassion and gratitude that Daphne has for John just by letting her come into his
home. At the end of the scene, John is standing along outside of Daphnes home in East
Riverside finally able to realize that he just met his real daughter.
Observation Two: American Gothic
5:00mins: The Kennishes and the Vasquezs are settling into their new living
arrangement. Since the Kennishes had an extra guest house, Daphne and Regina move in
to be closer to everyone. One of the first scenes is Daphne waking up in the newly
renovated guest house and smiling to herself about her new surroundings. Kathryn invites
Daphne and Regina to breakfast to welcome them into their home. Daphne decides to go,
but Regina stays behind signifying the resentment she feels towards Kathryn. As Daphne
settles down in the kitchen to have breakfast, the Kenneshes start talking normally,
forgetting that she is deaf. We then are showed Daphnes point of view and how she only
sees the lips of her biological family moving but no sound.
9:00mins: The Kennish's notices that Daphne rides to school everyday with Emmett (her
good friend that is also deaf) on the back of his motorcycle. Immediately, Bay is jealous
that Daphne gets to do this and she has been grounded for drinking a beer. Later that day,
Kathryn goes to visit Regina to talk to her about the motorcycle and Regina is doing
some permanent remodeling of the guest home that leaves Kathryn furious and distracts
her from the real reason she went over to talk to Regina. Kathryn is having regrets
inviting Regina to come live with her.

13:00mins: Bay is pleading with Kathryn to let her off of her grounding for one hour.
Kathryn does not budge and tells Bay she only has four more days of her grounding. In a
plot to go behind Kathryn's back, Bay goes to ask Regina if she can leave for an hour. In
Bays surprise, Regina backs Kathryn up and tells her that she would have grounded her
for longer and that she has a mild punishment of staying in mansion for a week with TV,
pool, and her own art studio. In this moment Bay realizes that Regina is not the easygoing mom that she thought she was.
18:00mins: As Daphne is studying at school in the courtyard, Emmett taps her on the
shoulder to show her that someone is looking for her. The guy that seems to be looking
for Daphne is Liam, Bays ex-boyfriend. The two had met when Daphne was touring
Buckner Hall, where Liam went to school. They started talking and realized that they
both love to cool, so plans were made to where they would see each other again. Later,
Bay is helping Regina paint the walls of the guest home and a boy comes to bring Regina
her mail from her last home. The boys name is Ti and he is from East Riverside and very
good friends with Daphne. The audience can see that each girl is interested in a boy from
their opposite world, and we can infer that this will cause some problems.
Observation Three: Portrait of My Father
4:00mins: A friend of Kathryns stops by the house to drop off a donation for an
upcoming auction. The real reason she stopped by was to find out who the woman was
staying in the guest house and coming in and out all the time. This is an example of how
nosey their neighbors are. Not knowing what to say, Kathryn diverted the question and
when the neighbor left she called a family meeting to inquire on what lie to tell their
friends. Regina and Daphne are confused at why they can not tell the truth, but in order to
reduce conflict they play along.
8:00mins: In an effort to figure out what her life would have been like, Bay goes to
dinner with Ti at a restaurant in East Riverside. She notices a wall of pictures of people
from the neighborhood. Bay recently had asked Regina about her biological father and
didnt get much information about him so she decided to ask Ti. Ti said the same thing,
that her dad left when Daphne was little. Bay and Ti continue to ponder what her life
would have been like and how different she might have been.
19:00mins: Daphne goes to Bays room to return some her clothes that got mixed in with
her laundry. They get to talking and Bay brings up her father again. She asked Daphne if
she knew anything about him. Like everyone else, Daphne doesnt know anything about
him or seems to care. Bay explains that she just wants to get to know her dad for the
reason that just because he didnt want to be Daphne's father, does not mean he doesnt

want to be hers. Daphne storms off in frustration because Bay implies that her father left
because she was deaf.

The Interview: Daphne Vasquez

1. Tell me about your initial reaction when you found out that you were switched at birth?
a. D: I have always wondered why I looked so much different from my mom, but
switched at birth was never a conclusion that came into my mind. I was shocked
and scared for the future. I was also nervous to meet the other family, my
biological family, especially since they had no idea I was deaf.
2.

How did it feel going to a hearing school, when you were deaf?
a. D: It was very difficult to keep up my school work. I was exhausted everyday
from reading lips and I never really made any friends. No one really understood
me or how to communicate with me.

3.

How did life change when you learned to sign?

a. D: My life changed dramatically when I learned how to sign. I was actually
walking home from school when I was younger and a deaf boy saw my hearing
aids and stopped me to play. That same boy took me home for dinner and
introduced me to sign. I will be forever grateful to that little boy, his name was
Emmett.

4.

Explain your feelings about lip reading.

a. D: My lip reading has gotten better over the years and it is quite easy to follow in
on conversations as long as the person I am talking to faces me directly. I would
much rather sign though.

5.

Give an example of a time when lip reading or sign language has been used to your
advantage.
a. D: There has been many times where signing has been used to my advantage. An
Example, when I want to tell my mom something private while we are in public,
and it is very useful for talking about people without them knowing what you are
saying.

6.

Tell me about a time when you were in a difficult communicative situation. Why was it
difficult? How did you solve the issue?
a. D: I have been in many difficult communicative situations where people have had
accents and I couldn't understand them or when people get frustrated with me

because we are not able to communicate in the same way most people can. It was
difficult because it was frustrating, but I have learned that not everyone is
accustomed to sign language as I am. I resolve most of the issues by remaining
calm and trying to type out what I need to say or speak if I need to.
The Interview: Bay Kennish
1.

Tell me about your initial reaction when you found out that you were switched at birth?
a. B: It has been obvious to me for some time now that I am very different from my
family, especially my mom. So it was a shock that I was switched at birth, but it
also answered a lot of my questions.

2.

How did it feel going to school so close to your new sister?

a. B: It was very different because it was weird when she would talk and make
friends with my friends. For example, she started dating my ex-boyfriend. It was
an adjustment that took me very long to get used to.

3.

How did life change when you learned to sign?

a. B: Life changed for me because I was able to better communicate with my new
family. It was also so that I could talk to my boyfriend, who was deaf. It wasnt
something I had to force myself to learn because I wanted to be able to
communicate with the ones I loved.

4.

Explain your feelings about hearing-impaired schools.

a. B: I firmly believe in hearing-impaired schools. In fact, I am thinking about
transferring to Daphnes school. I think it would be better for me and my ASL
skills.

Real Life Example:

Through my research I found a real life example of two baby girls being switched. Like
on the show, one of the mothers knew that the babies were switched for approximately forty
years and said nothing. This shows that reality TV shows do come from some sort of truth and
these situations can happen in real life. This happened in 1951 in a small town in Wisconsin.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/360/switched-at-birth