I assumed that for a toddler, language acquisition would be straight memorization, and that his pronunciation would improve when he gained the motor skills to do it. But recently I've noticed Little Man practicing pronouncing things that are tricky to him.
Yesterday we were leaving church, and he asked me, "You have a la-lay-la?" Huh? "La-lay-la? Lum-lay-la?" Umbrella! The whole way home he pronouced, slowly and perfectly, "Um-brel-la." He even got the l's.
When he finished dinner he told me he was going to ride his "mozormichael." As I got him cleaned up I said, "You'd better go find that mozormichael." He knew I was teasing, grinned, and said, "No, Mommy, 'Mo-zor-mich-ael.'" Okay, so he can't quite fix that one even with practice yet, but he knows he doesn't quite have it right.
Later we were playing outside. He said, "I want some hock." Huh? "Hock. Hock. Ch-ock." Chalk! Instead of getting frustrated when I can't understand him, he's slowing down and thinking about it.
Which is not to say that he's mature beyond his 27 months. We're still working out the whole discipline thing, but the language acquisition thing is going nicely.
7 comments:
Cute! Alex still has some issues with big words, too, and he's so funny--when it's clear I'm not getting it, he says, "No, Momma, you're not understanding me!" Not in an angry way, but in a very serious sort of adult way that makes me smile (except THAT makes him mad).
what's this talk of discipline?
I long for the days when the pronunciation improves. We both get so frustrated when Axel's so close to being able to tell me something, but I'm not sure if ba ba means ball, bottle, bubbles, balloon, etc., etc...
Like Oz, I can't wait for us to be there. I'm amazed at how well Eddie can communicate, but there are still so many holes. Yay for language!
He's a smart little cookie! Alden is still working on his grunting which is starting to take the form of words....
He's a smart little cookie! Alden is still working on his grunting which is starting to take the form of words....
it's amazing how they work out words and suddenly they just come out right!
"mozormichael" is still my favourite. :)
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