You & Your Baby Magazine Article

"Mummy, Baby want Oxford English Dictionary."

What is it about being in the presence of a baby that will turn even the most intelligent, successful and articulate human being into a barbling, coochy-cooing nutcase? We can imagine them thinking “What on earth is this crazy lunatic talking about? Ha ha, I’ll just laugh at them until they stop”. The fact of the matter is, however, that we’re not all crazy and this bizarre behaviour comes from a deep-rooted urge to talk to our offspring from a very early age. It has even been discovered that a foetus will begin to respond to its parent’s voice in the womb.
The way in which children learn their mother tongue is a fascinating subject. It was largely believed that language was mostly learnt by mimicking, or imitating those around them. This theory doesn’t really hold water though as children that grow up without any other human intervention and who are then taught languages in adulthood, fail to grasp them and remain unable to communicate verbally. Others believe that children feel the need to learn language as it ‘serves a purpose or function for them’ (Haliday), in other words they know they need to learn to talk in order to get what they want. There is an element of truth in this which maybe why one of the first words a child will learn is either ‘Mama’ or ‘Dada’, meaning ‘bringer of milk, cuddles and clean nappies’!
From the beginning, most parents are content to chat inanely at their tiny babies accepting a giggle or murmur as an intelligent response e.g;
“What a lovely day it is today!”
*gurgle*
“Yes it is a bit warm isn’t it? Are you too hot in your jacket?”
“coooo...dada..da”
“Okay we’ll leave it on then.”
Up until the age of around 18 months most babies will be at the Holophrastic stage, or the one-word stage to you and me. Words such as Mama, Dada, bot-bot, bikit and so on, are heard on a fairly regular basis. From 18 months until around 24 months the baby begins to develop syntax, i.e. ‘dink milky’, ‘baby sleep’ and ‘mummy come’. The context is all-important, young children will imply their meaning with actions and expressions, but the scenario itself will explain a great deal.
By the age of 30 months the child will reach the Telegraphic stage, or many-word stage. The will be speaking longer sentences but often leave out function words such as the and is. They will also start to pick up prepositions such as on and in and the addition of –s to make a word plural.
By the time the child is 3 years old they will have come on in leaps and bounds. They will even be able to cope with irregularities such as man-men and mouse-mice. A common sticking-point though are tag questions such as:
“They can’t go, can they?”
They won’t go, will they?”
“They went, didn’t they?”
Obviously these are highly complex and it is extremely difficult to explain the reasons behind them, even as an adult.
After the arrival of ‘and’ however, the child will be well on its way. You will have ‘ands’ coming out of your ears; “I went to school and my teacher was nice and we did verbs and I got them all right and I ate my sandwiches and they were really nice and....” Other conjunctions such as if and because appear in their fourth year.
Whilst your child is learning to talk everyday will have some element of wonder for you as a parent. This language journey is absolutely delightful and one of the many wonderful surprises your baby will have in store for you, not to mention the day your child will ask you on the bus, in a loud, crytal -clear voice “Mummy, why is that lady so fat?”