Language Immersion

As Mike mentioned in the previous post, Holden has recently been surprising us everyday with a new word (or new primitive version of a word). He's also been demonstrating new signs at a fairly rapid rate, which is making me realize that WE need to learn some new signs to teach him. I also realized recently that only we can fully understand his developments--that is to say, when others see him babbling and flapping his hands about, much of it seems like, well, babbling. And when I'm around other kids whose parents SWEAR their child knows numerous words, I'm left wondering if they're imagining things.

I'm not bringing this up to belittle my or any other child's language process. Rather, I just want to highlight the collaborative process that makes language happen for a child. Scholars often liken the child's learning process to that of someone in a foreign land. First a person learns crude versions of the most necessary words ("si," "por favore," etc.), often using gestures to help make his/her intent clear. The longer one is immersed in the foreign land, the more their language, then tone and even sense of humor, develops. But I think in the case of toddlers, this goes both ways. Parents who are immersed in their toddler's world learn their child's particular quirks--their sense of humor, what bothers them, what makes them laugh. And they respond to their mumblings because they understand the context.

Thus, even if it sounds like "ba ba," the parents know it's "blackberries" (or "brown bear" in another context) because they have interacted in an intimate way with their child. Signs help, I think (even if they child creates his/her own unique version of the sign). They help the parents know when "mo" means "more" or when it means "milk". And incidentally, it helps the daycare provider or anyone else that might know sign language. But what makes language development so exciting and so magical is the intimate collaborative process between parents and child, the co-discovery of new ways to communicate. I LOVE that I know exactly what my child means when he says "mo" or "no" (which means "snow" not "no," in case you were wondering). And I love that he trusts me enough to try out new unsophisticated versions of words. And I thought learning to walk was cool. Not even close to this process.

The Word

At this stage in his little toddler life, Holden's brain seems to be on fire. He's just processing so much, and trying to communicate more and more each day. In the past few weeks, he has definitely begun to understand a lot more that we are saying, too. And he's constantly working on new words and new sounds. And that brings me to tonight's word ... or words, rather.

The past couple of days, Holden has two big words that he has been working on. The first one is "blackberries." For quite some time now, this has been one of his favorite foods ... and they've been on sale at the grocery stores, which is even better. He can shovel down about half a package of blackberries at one sitting, even when the berries are really sour (aka "out of season"). Tonight at dinner, he decided this was his new favorite word. Except, when he says it, it sounds more like "bla-ba's," but he points feverishly at the blackberry package. He probably said it more than a dozen times this evening while he was eating the last of our blackberries, and then he got so mad when they were all gone.

The second word that Holden has been working on this week is "Isla" (pronounced "eye-la," although Holden makes it sound more like "yay-ya"). This is our friend Kimberly's daughter, Isla, who is just a bit younger than Holden. They go to the same daycare, and used to be in adjacent classrooms -- although I'm not sure how often they see each other at daycare these days, with Holden moved to the toddler room. Last weekend, Kimberly and Dave (and Isla) invited us over for brunch, and Holden was practicing saying "Isla" before our visit. And ever since then, whenever he sees the picture of Isla that is on our fridge (from their holiday card), Holden gets super excited and starts saying "yay-ya," "yay-ya" in his best attempt to say "Isla."

So, Holden's definitely continuing to work on his words, now making valiant attempts at much more complicated words like "blackberries" and "Isla." He's been doing a really good job recently with simpler words like "ball," "book," "done," "more," and even taking a stab at "water" (which is "wa" or "wa-wa") ... and this is all on top of the sign language he uses on a constant basis. But this all means that he's comprehending a much larger vocabulary, and then trying to make some of these new sounds on his own. Like I said, his brain is on fire.