Lights, Cámara, Babble!

The linguistic side of how infants learn to speak is fascinating to me. I wanted to write about the order of introductions of the sounds they produce, but my pregnancy brain still has a hold of my academic brain and I couldn’t remember. Just as I was in the middle of researching how it all transpires, I came across Tamara’s blog http://www.nonnativebilingualism.blogspot.com/ and she addresses the sounds beautifully. So, it makes more sense to refer you to her posting, coincidently, on today, February 24, 2010.

A conversation about language development with the illustrious Dr. Kata Murphy-Judy made me realize what I needed to do—(I realized it because she TOLD me to do it). How cool, not to mention, linguistically fascinating to have a video record of Sofía’s language progression. Right now it will just be documenting her initial vowel and consonant sounds and words en Español, but eventually, when she learns some English, I will have an account of her bilingual progression as well. Very, very, very sharp, Dr. Kata! As I was going back through videos I have taken of Sofía, they are mostly of what she is physically able to do, like move her legs, clasp her hands together, crawl….and not so much of her sounds. I was able to find one video of when Sofía was two months old. She is actually interacting with the sun from her baby gym which I used to refer to as her “crack” because she loved it so much! I will post other videos as I get them. Now I’m running around the house trying to video tape her saying the words she knows how to say, like “gato” or “Nacho”. So, if you have not started recording your baby’s bilingual progression—don’t dawdle…. Every day they learn to say something new and better!!!