Benjamin's Progress

Benjamin (now six) has made a lot of progress this year.  It reminds me of the progress he made prior to his sister's birth.

Back then, he had several favorite words and a growing vocabulary.  This time, the number of words might actually be uncountable.  Not really, but it seems like it.  This is because it seems like he has finally connected the utility function of words.  Where before, his words seemed more like a 1 to 1 cause and effect, "If I say this, I get that," now he seems to be thinking in those words instead, which is a vast improvement.

Previously, I eluded to the new words he has related to with LazyTown.  It is expanding.  Before, it was just the word "dancing" relating to the song "Bing Bang."  He really likes "Bing Bang."  Now, he has connected "cake" to the song "Cooking by the Book."  He comes up to me and says either "dancing" or "cake" and won't stop until I repeat it to him also.

I think he assumes this is how communication is done.  Say it over and over until the other person says it.  That's how we talk to him, so it makes sense he'd return in much the same way.

Instead of flailing his arms and grunting, he's coming up with words about 25% of the time now.  This is all new behavior within the last three months.  He is also closely following the "what's next" question with the correct answer as long as it's a routine thing.  If it's not routine, he has no idea.

This is unlike Hannah (almost three) who is able to connect the "what's next" question with mere abstract ideas she has heard of.  Once, Hannah got a flower from someone, and a random person told her how pretty it was and how she should put it in a vase when she got home.  Hannah was shy with this person implying she perhaps didn't absorb the information but insisted on a vase when she got home.  She never did that before with a flower but she had the procedure down.

So it's interesting to see where they both are.  I can ask Hannah questions like "What does Mommy say?"  The answer according to Hannah is, "She talks."

"What does a doggie say?"  "He goes ruff."
"What does a cow say?"  "He goes mooooooo."
"What does a kitty say?"  "He goes meow."

And when asked, "What does Benjamin say?"  She answers, "Eeeeeeeee!!" while flailing her arms.  She speaks fluent "Benjamese," such that we have to remind her to talk like Hannah quite often indeed.

This has resulted in Hannah requesting that Daddy talk like Daddy, though I'm not sure what she heard that made her think I wasn't talking like Daddy.

It's an amazing contrast to witness.  Right now, the juxtaposition is that Hannah can spell cake (due to all the birthdays this month and people trying to be covert around the kids) and Benjamin can say cake.  Ok, Hannah doesn't know she's spelling cake, per se.  She just thinks it's a long word for the same.  "Can I have some cay-ay-kay-ee?"

Posted via email from Anthony Martin's Weblog