Status Report on language development

Our Bilingual Journal  Part 1

It is so difficult to look back on and recall the milestones on the road we have already come along and make a summary of it. I assume it is way easier to just record our status now and then start logging what is ahead of us...

The little Chatterbox is now 21 months old. I kept a record of every single new word he uttered, but I stopped doing that a while ago, there were so many new words ... I try to put some of the most important details down.

Groups of words he knows:

Family:

Mummy, Daddy, anya, apa, papa (sometimes he calls granddad apa (probably because of the Hungarian nagyapa), an interesting thing about his language development is the way he switches between languages. Mummy and Anya and Daddy and Apa is a great example for this, when talk in English, he calls me Mummy and his father Daddy, and when Hungarian he calls me Anya and his dad apa. This proves that he know the difference between the two languages.

Colours:

Purple, white, yellow (sounds like 'hello'), red, green, black, orange, pink (knows them in Hungarian as well) an important thing about picking up the words of colours is the way he did it ... A couple of months ago I was desperate to teach him the colours, I do know why, I just had a thing about it... (I am exaggerating, I was not desperate, but gave it a go occasionally and always with the conclusion that he was way too young to distinguish the colours ... and then I just did not pay attention to it (did not overdo it probably) and then one day, not too long ago, he started using the names of the colours and also was and is able to sort things by colours. It amazes me still.  I am very much inspired by the Montessori tools focusing on colours (I have made some tools inspired by the Montessori Method; I'll dedicate an entry for them later). The first colour word he learnt was PURPLE and he stuck to it whatever came (meaning everything was purple to him).

Animals:

Farm animals: horse, dog, cat, duck, piggy, cow (I am not sure, he might just says moo moo), chicken, rooster and is able to produce all the sounds they make ... well he could produce all the animal sounds way before he started telling the names of the different animals.

Zoo (or wild) or other animals: spider, tiger (among the first animals he could name, because of his favourite drinky drink Sio Vita tigris), elephant, bird, turtle (the very first animal name, purple-turtle sound alike), snake, snail, bunny, dinosaur, fox, monkey,

Means of transport:

bus (most frequent word), car (among the very first words), digger, crane, choo choo train, aeroplane, mixer, tractor with a bucket, caterpillar, pick up, tuk tuk, bike, fire engine, ambulance, helicopter (bit struggling to pronounce this word, do not blame him), 'nino car' for all the ER cars, truck, monster truck

In Hungarian: busz, autó(val), kocsi(val), kamion, bici(kli), autók mennek úton

Parts of the body:

Eyes (among the first ones), nose, ears, mouth, chin (whenever he asks for cheese, he keeps signing (he uses his own sign language, never taught how to sign properly)... he points at his chin and says cheese), elbow, toes, tummy, belly button, thumb (fe fi fo fum ....) put in choo choo train on (the) track (he uses 'put in' when put it would be more appropriate.

Toys and games:

see-saw ( he says see-saw mummy daddy, because he knows that mummy cannot do see-saw to him on her own, we need daddy to help, we play see-saw at home with a great big blanket to give him a good old swing)

Book, pen (when he wants to play with something new, he just say THIS and pokes me with the toy... stacking.

This set of stacking nesting blocks are beautiful and arty too, he likes it very much along with the Helen Doron stacking song.

Audio-Visual
Number One: PEPPA PIG in capital letters (haha, he just adores it and me and daddy too), Helen Doron Baby's Best Start, Mother Goose Club on You Tube, some AudioGo CD-s I bought the downloadable versions of and a number of books like

I bought this book second hand in a good condition, it has fallen apart since (very nice book, nice colours, illustrations are great, extra fun with the jig saw).

He cannot say the name Thomas instead he uses 'tasz' or something.

A series of books, called talkabout books, very colourful and educational, with a pinch of activities for toddlers (like shadow matching, and prompting questions).

One of his faves, there is a part he asks me to read over and over again, when the big bus says tootoot to the little bus rumbling out of the garage... nice story, nicely illustrated, I like it too.

Tickle, Tickle by Helen Oxenbury (he just adores it, it is ideal to leaf through this book before bath time, bed time becuse it is exactly about the evening routine.

More complex language elements He also started using a more complex language both in English and in Hungarian. For example today he said ‘autók mennek úton’ and he says’ Sid the snake says ‘thhhhhhhh’ (well, this one has a history, we have a native teacher and she has a story about different animals who pronounce some very British sounds like ‘th’, ‘w’ and ‘t’ I will write about her later) anyway he started saying things like:  ·         Nino car (i.e. police car) says niiiii nouuuu niii nouuuuu. or ·         Doggy says vau vau (it is mixture of languages, but he consequently says so, well it is probable my fault, because I did not tell him that the English dogs bark differently). ·         Duck says quack quack quack etc. Singing songs and nursery rhymes together That is my favourite part. I just adore the way he started singing and telling a whole story on his own, well sometimes incomprehensibly, sometimes he fabricates some new words or syllables but most importantly recognizably. He joins in when I sing the Incy Wincy Spider, the first one was the Baa Baa Black Sheep with our Native Teacher, and the Wheels on the bus and now thank goodness the list is so long.

 

More complex language elements

He also started using a more complex language both in English and in Hungarian. For example today he said ‘autók mennek úton’ and he says’ Sid the snake says ‘thhhhhhhh’ (well, this one has a history, we have a native teacher and she has a story about different animals who pronounce some very British sounds like ‘th’, ‘w’ and ‘t’ I will write about her later) anyway he started saying things like: 

·         Nino car (i.e. police car) says niiiii nouuuu niii nouuuuu.

or

·         Doggy says vau vau (it is mixture of languages, but he consequently says so, well it is probable my fault, because I did not tell him that the English dogs bark differently).

·         Duck says quack quack quack etc.

Singing songs and nursery rhymes together

That is my favourite part. I just adore the way he started singing and telling a whole story on his own, well sometimes incomprehensibly, sometimes he fabricates some new words or syllables but most importantly recognizably.

He joins in when I sing the Incy Wincy Spider, the first one was the Baa Baa Black Sheep with our Native Teacher, and the Wheels on the bus and now thank goodness the list is so long.