Monday 24 October 2011

Poppette's Language Development

Now we have moved into the exciting phase of Poppette starting to speak and try out more and more sounds, I have decided to create a log to help me keep a clear picture of her language development. If you are interested, you can access this log by clicking on the tab marked ''Poppette" at the top of the page.

Three days ago mum and I were sat playing with Poppette. She had been playing with her bilingual games cube. Suddenly, it chimed out 'au revoir', which it does whenever you don't press any of its buttons for a while. I immediately repeated the words. Then, to our total astonishment, so did Poppette!!!! I kid you not. Now, I don't actually think at this stage that she knows the word or the context in which to use it. I think she was definately just mimicking the sounds. For that reason, it doesn't make it onto our language development log just yet. But still, what a fabulous, fabulous achievement for my little one year old girl.

A French-speaking, English friend came to stay last week.  She was amazed to see Poppette's response to me speaking to her in French. She commented that Poppette clearly understands a lot and responds accordingly. Like me, I think the fact that it is French that Poppette is responding to is what amazed my friend and that had the same interactions occured in English it would have almost gone by unnoticed.

It was great for me to have some honest third party thoughts on the situation.

A few examples of what Poppette understands are :-

'Tu veux manger?' (Do you want something to eat?) - to which Poppette will either say 'Ouais' (yeah) and point to her highchair, or simply shake her head to communicate 'no'.

Tu veux boire? (Do you want something to drink) - again Poppette will either say 'Ouais' or shake her head.

Va chercher Doudou! (Go get Doudou) - and off she goes :-)

Passe-moi tes cubes! (Pass me your building blocks) - which she does one by one until they are all back in the bag.

Viens! (Come on/ Come here) - whether she obliges or not definately depends on her mood :-)

Stop! Ditto ;-)

Non!

2 comments:

  1. First of all, I can go no further without saying that I'm so excited to be reading your blog again. I got so bogged down for so many months there, while I was in the midst of planning that big climate change event...and now that life has slowed down a good bit, I'm REALLY excited to not only find the time to blog again, but to visit the sites of my favorite blogger friends and see how you are doing. I'm REALLY glad to read that you've stuck by the French, and that Poppette is clearly taking it all in like she is. YAY!! And with this post in particular, I wanted to let you know that I really appreciate the detail with which you describe her responses to what you say. It paints a very clear picture for us readers, and helps me understand where she's at and what she's doing. Thanks!
    I look forward to reading more soon!!
    Tamara

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  2. Hey Tamara... great to have you back online and thanks for your ongoing support.

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