baby talk
since we came back from the philippines 2 weeks ago, i am constantly amazed to see how jan changed. physically, there might not be a noticeable difference; he probably grew just a centimeter, if at all, and his weight seems to be on a plateau. but his social and mental development seems to be on an exponential rise at the moment.
the dramatic increase in his vocabulary sometimes takes me aback. he’s spitting out new words like never before and mimics us when he hears a new word from us. he listens intently when spoken to and parrots the keywords. one word i think i’m regretting him learning so early is the word ‘buy’. if he asks for an apple and we tell him we no longer have any, his eyes sparkle as if a bright idea just came and exclaims, “buy!”. once, i tried distracting him and said, “we can’t get more apples because we have no more money.” he paused and said, “ummm…buy!”. after about 5 rounds of me telling him we don’t have money and him insisting we buy, he was getting frustrated and i was getting confused. so i asked the absurd: “buy money?”. with a sigh of relief, he replied with a resounding “ja!!!”. okaaaay. next step: how do i deal with a 21-month old’s logic?
yes, he’s speaking in both german and english, with just a smattering of tagalog he picked up during our visit. there are terms he prefers to say in german, but most are in english. i’ve a tiny bit of worry that he’ll mix up the languages, but right now, i’m just happy that he’s starting to speak at all. we have been warned early on by our pediatrician and the teachers in his kindergarten that his speech might be delayed. they said the other older bilingual girl in j’s kindergarten started talking around 26 months, which was already quite late considering she’s attending the playgroup. the only other bilingual kid we watched grow up was justice’s little princess, alyanna, who also spoke her first word (a variant of “apple juice”) when she was past 2. so we were already expecting jan to be “speechless” for still some time. but it seems that being with the other kids in the playgroup helped, and the visit to his pinoy relatives fanned the coals. di pwede ang tahimik sa pilipinas, haha!
his memory and ability to concentrate on tasks also improved lots. prior to our visit, i was always worried when he wouldn’t concentrate on his shape-sorters and would lose interest halfway through a puzzle. now you can nearly hear his mental gears grinding as he pauses to think something out. he knows all his playmates and teachers by name. when we read him a book, he knows what’s coming even before we lift to the next page. he recognizes the way to the playground and points me to that direction whenever we go out for a walk. i don’t know how much of it is due to increasing neural connections, and how much is just out of coincidence. if these go on at this rate, shucks, this kid is gonna outsmart me in just a couple of years!
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6 Responses to “baby talk”
June 17th, 2004 at
tuwang-tuwa ako sa post na to, kasi kaka-relate ako sobra. even with the speech concerns! we speak tagalog at home, but when it comes to nouns we teach him the english terms naman. mas madali kasi, imagine us teaching him ‘pusa’ instead of ‘cat’ or ‘aso’ instead of ‘dog’ (which seb pronounces as god by the way. hehe) or ‘upuan’ instead of chair. parang weird kasi. and besides, mas madali ata ang english nouns, less syllables. hehe. his babysitter talks to him in german most of the time naman.
now he knows some terms both in english and german, like airplane and flugzeug. or both in tagalog and german, like labas and raus or bihis and anziehen (during those times that he bugs mommy to go out).
ako i believe na ok lang na ma-delay ng konti yung speech nya compared to other kids as long as eventually eh matutunan nya.
June 17th, 2004 at
naisip ko na i-correct yung sinabi ko. of course he cannot pronounce anziehen, flugzeug/airplane clearly yet. he pronounces them in a way that only us, his parents, can understand! hehe.
and besides, my concerns regarding his speech development is always erased everytime i realise that he will speak more than one language at an early age! it might be difficult at first, but it will pay off naman di ba?
June 17th, 2004 at
when your son has mastered how to buy money (w/o money) - i sure hope he can communicate the strategy to us…in whatever language!
June 17th, 2004 at
I remember Asawa and I were worried that Alyanna wasn’t at all showing interest with books or “thinking toys” (when she was almost 2) but when the time came, she’d sit in a corner “making sound stories” (remembering how we read it to her) about the picture books. Plus, when we’re off to HL she says “shopping” as soon as I make the turn to the main street (without me telling her where were gonna go)—good post! nag-reminisce tuloy akong bigla.
June 18th, 2004 at
jhing: oh yes, jan talks of “eypeyn” all the time since we came back. sometimes it’s a bit embarassing when he points out grubby looking people and says, “dowty, dowty!” buti na lang, ako lang nakakaintindi that it means dirty, yikes!
michelle: yeah, right!
justice: hay naku, soon, you’ll go thru it all-over again with keanu!
June 18th, 2004 at
OO nga eh…the third time around. And I sure do enjoy listening to baby talk…I never really got bored with it. Pero parang this time, una ang Dad…puro dada and baba ang sounds eh.