I recently met and played with a young friend named Loch, (age 20 months), who made me think hard about the role/importance of those very first utterances. Here is what happened.
Loch and I took to each other immediately. He seemed to know that I understood the power of his pointing finger in conducting deep and meaningful conversations. So when Loch directed me to lift him up and transport him to the screen door so that we could both enjoy looking at the dog sleeping on the front porch, I responded with perfect obedience . With extended pointing finger, Loch announced that the dog was to be called Day-dah, I agreed and repeated Day-dah to see if my effort at identifying the said dog met with his approval.
Indeed it did. After some chat time we returned to the carpet to push some trucks and cars around.
It wasn't very long before I was directed back to the screen porch for another meeting with Day-dah.
Off we go. Loch points emphatically and with enthusiasm clearly articulates " Day-Dah". We chat, We return for some carpet time. After a very short interval, I was once again directed toward the screen door. This time, I opened the screen door and Lock sat a few feet in front of the dog and repeated Day-dah many times. (He wasn't interested in touching the dog. Pointing and repeating "Day-dah" seemed to be the Big Ticket items of this conversation.)
So how many times did Loch direct me to accompany him to see the dog, look at the dog together and repeat Day-Day? Over the next two hours...Forty-four times!
When I was looking after Brody, age 15 months the other day, I had a chance to listen in (via baby-monitor) on some babbling and self-talk that was happening as he was waking up from a nap.
Over and over again, I heard Dog uh. He changed the pitch and volume of the utterance a couple of times. I also heard some laughing. Of course, you are right in your prediction that Brody is into dogs in a big way and he spends a lot of time directing me towards the many dogs in his life (including this pull toy favourite) and extending the pointing finger to identify the dog as DOG UH. We have lots of chats about dogs, but it seems to me that Brody is highly motivated to inform and educate me on how to identify dog. I am now on a mission to watch and listen to the very young's dedication to repetition and practice as they create and modify the dog concept to their world. Laying down the dog schema is no easy task and I want to know if this dedication and persistence to repeating the new word/concept is essential or just fun. I am also curious about the drive to bring me in on the whole labeling event. It is as if Brody is teaching ME the word. He thinks it is important that I learn the word.
My Brody watching will be filled with counting and recording those very beginning words and concepts. I think there is some profound learning that is going on and I can't wait to ponder the how and why the very young figure the mechanics and semantics embedded in communicating. Let me know if you are counting first word attempts and we can chat about what it all means.
As always,
In friendship,
Donna
