Language joggling

Well, the summer is almost over, and we have been keeping busy for the last couple of months. There was a lot to do at Denver Public Libraries in June (clowns, balloon ladies, trained pigs - you name it), and in July we took Sasha on his first trip to Russia.

The timeliness of this trip was amazing. As described by multitudes of authors, 18-24 months are commonly characterized by a rapid growth in child's vocabulary. At this point, a child is using as many as 50 words in his speech, mostly nouns. This is also time to be vigilant about your child's language development. If he or she does not use any words, now is a perfect time to get a referral to a speech therapist. The earlier the better. I have seen on my friend's example that starting therapy in a timely manner gives great results. If your child drops most consonants, he might have a hearing problem. So, ears should be checked out again in such case.

In either situation, dropping the second language as a solution to speech delay might be a mistake. According to Barbara Zurer-Pearson, there is no study that either confirms or denies that switching from bilinguism to monolinguism is a likely solution to speech delay. In fact, speech therapy that gives results in one language can also imrove child's second language skills.

While in Russia, Sasha picked up a whole bunch of new words, and now he also uses three-syllable words, which he couldn't do before. He is eager to copy patterns of speech, although mostly he repeats last words in conversations he hears. Another thing Sasha started doing is singing. He can only sing one word from Russian songs that he learned (total of two), but it's a start.

We are back home, safe and sound. And yesterday, we noticed that Sasha chooses between his languages depending on whom he is talking to. Before (and during) our trip to Russia, he only had one word per concept in his vocabulary. Now, he actually switches languages when he talks. Yesterday's situation was in the kitchen, and he was demanding: "Food! Food!", because he got hungry. With me during the day, he uses the word: "Кушать!" (to eat). Or he might request a specific thing in Russian - банан, кашку, or яблоко (banana, porridge, or apple accordingly). But yesterday evening, Greg was home, and so Sasha chose English: "Food! Food! Grapes!"There are still plenty of words that he uses exclusively without switching languages: bus, ball, cheese,walk, ягода (berries), буква А (letter A), облака (clouds).