This is one of Del's favorite ways to prove her toddler dominion over us lowly parents. She usually says it when we've all sat down for dinner, and Daddy F and I are catching up. She, not being the center of attention at the moment, will turn to me and say "no talking," then she'll turn to her daddy and shake her head and sign the same thing.
She's definitely got the deaf thing down, relaying messages from me to daddy, and helping to get his attention when he can see her but not me. She even starting signing and saying "deaf" and "hearing" recently. We will go through the family on both sides and ask her if they are deaf or hearing. It's so much fun watching her observe and make sense of herself and her environment!
But. . . Language is why we are here! And so here are the highlights from recent months:
ENGLISH
phonemes
At this point, Del has acquired or is in the process of acquiring most of the sounds of English, with a few (adorable) exceptions. She produces all of her oral and nasal STOP (e.g., when the air flowing from the lungs is completely stopped by two articulators coming together) consonants correctly (puppy, ball, mommy, time, doggie, no, kite, girl) but often demonstrates a FRONTING pattern (e.g., when a phoneme is produced more anterior in the mouth, such as saying /d/ for /g/ in "go" /do/) with her velar /k, g/ from time to time. Since she is in the process of learning these sounds and sometimes still makes mistakes, the term used is that she is currently acquiring the phonemic contrast between /d, g/ and between /t, k/. Del has figured out some of her FRICATIVE sounds (/s, z,
- right at two years Del started using gerund/present progressive verb forms (doggie running)
- at two years two weeks Del started using regular plural forms (two cats)
- at 25 months her language included possessive morphemes (daddy's car)
She strings together 3-5 word sentences regularly, to comment ("mommy new green shirt" or "baby emmett sweet"), to request/demand ("Del two big crackers!?") and to question ("what that right there, mommy?"). She sings along with lots of music, whether or not she knows the words!
She's definitely got the deaf thing down, relaying messages from me to daddy, and helping to get his attention when he can see her but not me. She even starting signing and saying "deaf" and "hearing" recently. We will go through the family on both sides and ask her if they are deaf or hearing. It's so much fun watching her observe and make sense of herself and her environment!
But. . . Language is why we are here! And so here are the highlights from recent months:
ENGLISH
phonemes
At this point, Del has acquired or is in the process of acquiring most of the sounds of English, with a few (adorable) exceptions. She produces all of her oral and nasal STOP (e.g., when the air flowing from the lungs is completely stopped by two articulators coming together) consonants correctly (puppy, ball, mommy, time, doggie, no, kite, girl) but often demonstrates a FRONTING pattern (e.g., when a phoneme is produced more anterior in the mouth, such as saying /d/ for /g/ in "go" /do/) with her velar /k, g/ from time to time. Since she is in the process of learning these sounds and sometimes still makes mistakes, the term used is that she is currently acquiring the phonemic contrast between /d, g/ and between /t, k/. Del has figured out some of her FRICATIVE sounds (/s, z,
- right at two years Del started using gerund/present progressive verb forms (doggie running)
- at two years two weeks Del started using regular plural forms (two cats)
- at 25 months her language included possessive morphemes (daddy's car)
She strings together 3-5 word sentences regularly, to comment ("mommy new green shirt" or "baby emmett sweet"), to request/demand ("Del two big crackers!?") and to question ("what that right there, mommy?"). She sings along with lots of music, whether or not she knows the words!
