Comments on: Sign Language

By: Sheela

Sheela — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:48:21 +0000

Been reading some of your prolific and thought-provoking posts… seems like just about everything that went through my mind is here, only laid out clearly!

Be it the process of gender self-identification in kids or introducing their mom’s and dad’s cultures, even mythologies… the one about setting up expectations was something i wrote about a couple of years back that helped with Ana (yes, ‘A Very Particular Girl’ Chula resembles my very own Ana in that respect) as we by-passed tantrum phase with our own system of “A Plan” that you talked about

Since we speak multiple languages at home (English being the only common one), baby signs has worked out well for my kids from about 9 months to about 18 months… And now, my 41/2 yr old has quite an awareness of other languages her dad and I speak at home – viz., Welsh, French, Tamil, and Spanish – including scripts – she recognizes Hindi, Tamil and Chinese (that her dad writes on and off for practice)… I say awareness, as I am not worried about her being able to speak Tamil here in our house when I am the only one with any good command of it – that’s where immersion comes in, in my belief – 3 months of Summer in India did more to her than I could have ever done alone trying to get ehr in touch with her Indian side… and am sure 3 months in Wales would get her much deeper into her dad’s than he can do alone here in a 3rd culture…

You wrote it all so well – babies (we) are born wired a certain way and we constantly process data and keep rewiring ourselves to adapt to our environment as needed to survive, to meet our needs…

Sorry, rather than leaving a comment in each of the lovely posts you have, here is a consolidated novella for you

UTBT SAYS: I thoroughly enjoyed your comment Sheela. Thanks, coming from you, I am very proud of your kind words

By: Priyanka

Priyanka — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:17:46 +0000

WOW, loved reading your post, absolutely fantastic! I just wrote a post on Baby signs and Boo directed me to this one.

By: Tharini

Tharini — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:39:22 +0000

Very interesting. I learnt so much from this.

If possible could you do a post on mastering 2 languages, if you have some infortmation on it.

I despair of Akhil speaking in Tamil no, tho he understands perfectly. He started off as an avid tamil talker, and once he started school he switched to English totally. How to get him to be fluent in Tamil again? Any ideas?

By: the mad momma

the mad momma — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:30:07 +0000

and you didnt tell me? i just bumped into this by mistake…. well written

By: utbtkids

utbtkids — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:10:03 +0000

Kowsalya, Kiran, RBDANS thanks.

ITW,that is very true.

By: itchingtowrite

itchingtowrite — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:27:03 +0000

my kids too rely on sign more.. probably we speak multiple languages at home that’s why

By: rbdans

rbdans — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:45:05 +0000

Very well analyzed post. Never once occured there is so much to it

By: thirtysixandcounting

thirtysixandcounting — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:49:38 +0000

As usual, a well researched and educative post…

By: utbtkids

utbtkids — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 07:31:47 +0000

Don’t even worry about it. When Toddler started day care, she didn’t know one word of Spanish. But now she speaks fluent spanish at her day care, only at her day care, mind you. At home she tests some words, phrases with me and uses them only if she thinks I understand them. So they figure out languages, subtleness and nuances at a speed that will amaze you!

By: B o o.

B o o. — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:54:35 +0000

thanks for an informative post. I think sign language in part is good. I mean, Ashu talks in Tamil and no one understands her here but shes getting by and would soon learn English too. (I hope!) So now you cant say she has English language speech delay right? RIGHT?