Hestia Homeschool for Young Wild Women

I've been thinking a great deal about the way that my nineteen month old daughter Shelby is acquiring her language skills.  After a month long lull--- she had the flu--- Shelby has had an explosion of  new words and signs added to her vocabulary.  Shelby is obviously learning language in a different manner than her sisters did.  She generalizes words to mean many things, and she does not babble.  She supplements her words with Sign.  For example, Mandy's boyfriend tried very hard to teach her to say "Asha" while watching a Barney video. Now she says "Asha" for Barney, but also has generalized it to mean television in general. (Asha was a friend's name). Shelby says "ball" to mean anything round, but also to mean that she wants something to eat. (Apples--aka "balls" were her first  food).  All four legged animals were initially either horses or dogs.  Now she makes the noise of "meow" for cats and "moo" for cows, but Signs "elephant" for any very large animal--especially dinosaurs, elephants, and rhinos.  She says "Ma" for nursing, as well as my name. "Wash" means water, bath, fish, and drink.  The funniest thing she says is "doo-doo" for "Bird". (We cautioned her to watch out for the pet pigeon's doo-doo, and instead of learning "Bird" she learned "doo-doo."  She says "doo-doo" and Signs "bird" simultaneously. After never either saying or Signing "Shoe", she used both "shoes" at the same time (and got two new pairs of shoes as a reward. :-)The most interesting thing for me to observe is how desperately she wants to join in our family conversations.  First thing in the morning, she will look at us and say questioningly "Dog?  Dog?  Horse?  Doo-Doo?"  The whole family agrees that she understands almost everything that we say to her.  She did stop saying a few words.  Book, one of her first words, is never mentioned.  She does understand what "book" means, however.  I am so fascinated by her. What a joy she is. Her bright eyes are so intelligent and focused.  There is an incredible little human in my home, just bursting with life and enthusiasm.  I am so happy that we decided to teach her Sign.  It is facilitating her communication  and that makes her happier---as well as enchanting us.

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• #1 Comment from fuzzypanda68 
  7/9/04 12:01 AM | Permalink

  That is just amazing to me. I'm just in awe that she can sign. I would give anything if I had the patience to homeschool Cameron. Now that he's 14, he's so darn hard headed and if he thinks I'm doing something to teach him he refuses to participate, which in turn makes me angry. I can't believe not one person commented on this entry.
  
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