For reasons too elaborate to explain I have to lie down on the floor and make like a starfish when I turn the radiator off in S-’s room. I had forgotten this random fact until recently when I noticed S- lying on the floor on her tummy, kicking her legs in the air, as she peered with keen interest under the radiator cover.
I guess sometimes we forget just how much our kids are watching us parents and how much they pick up from their observations.
While we were waiting for S- we did lots of reading about parenting. I remember writing in my notebook: ‘it’s all about language – you’ve got to give your child a language’.
Now I see it slightly differently. Watching S- I’m beginning to think that children have language innately: they would pick up some form of communication whoever they were with.
What we parents give them is the all-important vocabulary and the equally vital mode of expression. In other words, both the way and the manner in which they can transmit their desires, feelings and needs.
March 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Watching and listening to my children develop language was fascinating. I would have loved for my children to have had the opportunity to learn two languages. They developed their own form of bilingualism – with me they talk “southern” and say “barth” and with their father they speak “northern” and leave the “r” out.
My eldest son went through a phase when he was a toddler of holding up his arms when he wanted to be carried and saying “carry you, carry you” rather than “carry me”
because I always asked “do you want me to carry you?”
But yes, the way we talk to our children is so important in giving them a wide vocab and the means to express themselves clearly. We use dinner time at our house as discussion time – we debate things and my children are pretty good these days at discussing an issue, listening to the viewpoints of others and not taking it all personally. Little debating goes on in schools these days. But basically I have always talked incessantly to my children. I always find it a bit sad when I see mothers wearing ipods as they walk along with their toddlers.
Enjoy the rapid language development phase.