Robbie's Language Development (Part 1)

I plan to document, as much as I can, my observations (and hypotheses?) regarding my nephew, Robbie's language development. This is my first attempt. Hopefully, it won't be the last.

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When Robbie was born last year, I had an initial idea of "experimenting" about his Language development. I thought, this is the best way to apply and test whether all those language learning theories I have learned and read are true or not. I tried coming up with a documentation by videotaping him using my cellphone. But I can't capture his antics all the time.

As he grows up (and as I grow busier by the day), I have concluded something at the onset of my attempted longitudinal study: IT IS REALLY TEDIOUS! I have then become more appreciative of Skinner and Chomsky (and their disciples) from carefully doing observations and experimentations on child language development.

I decided not to observe closely, and merely do random observations.

However, there are basic truths that I have realized upon my short-lived observations. One of them is the power of listening (which would later on bring us to the power of spoken words upon children). The first thing I "tested" when Robbie was born was his ears. I tried flicking my fingers near his left and right ears to find out if he would respond. He did, and I realized that his ears are very sensitive to sounds because he would later respond/react to TV ads even if he is inside the room and our TV is in the living room (about 5-8 meters away).

Later, he started to discern the pictures posted on the walls of their room. This is proven to be helpful in developing a child's visual skills. In a matter of 7-9 months, Robbie starts responding to commands such as "Where's the monkey?" Due to constant training, perhaps, he one by one, learned to point out the animals in the poster.

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However, what prompted me to finally write this blog was his telephone conversation with his mother just a few minutes ago. My ate asked (in Filipino)

"What are you doing baby?"

To which he quickly responded, "TOYS!"

Could Chomsky be correct in his Innatist/Nativist Language Learning theory, which pushes for a Language Acquisition Device that processes Primary Linguistic Data that learners receive?

"Toys" may be interpreted as "playing". But no one told him that Toys=Playing. But indeed, if we do basic Semantic Analysis, aren't toys meant for playing? How in the world did Robbie realize that TOYS is an appropriate, if not acceptable, response to mean PLAYING?!

This very simple scenario that I have observed today really made me more fascinated with the brain's capacity to accommodate language inputs, process them, and later on use them for communication.

Indeed, talk is never cheap. Because at the backroom, there are millions of neurons being used to get information, process them, and transmit them back via responses--verbally or non-verbally.

For now, I shall pause here. I hope to find other free time to write my observations and hypotheses.

James Thurber's Little Red Riding Hood

One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of food. "Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother?" asked the wolf. The little girl said yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the wood. When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she
saw that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

Source:

Tatar, M. (ed.) (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W.W. Noron & Company, Inc.