PC is still at the level of unintelligible babble when he "talks" to us, but it's fascinating to listen to him experiment with sounds (give a short listen). And I do mean experiment, because often times he is making the sounds and reacting to them in a little bit of PC Theater. This is the age of continual surprise, and when he surprises himself with the sounds he can make, it can be funny.
When adults talk like babies it's weird. The folks at babycenter.com actually coach parents not to repeat baby sounds, but to speak to your kid with fully formed words and good diction and some sense that what you're really doing is showcasing vocabulary (and memes, I guess. Is there a linguist in the house?) PC's grandpa reads books about this, and so I'll leave the science to him and my friend Gretchen at FSU, but suffice it to say that even in societies where parents don't speak to their kids much at all, kids on average grow up, learn language, and do just fine.
It's even more strange when adults talk baby talk when there' s no baby around, but this is what happens outside my office door now. Students, usually women, stop by to catch up and they see PC's pic (it's the same one from the profile to your right) and they are of course awed by the overwhelming perfection and they kind of start talking to the photo. Using baby talk. It's weird.
3 comments:
that is totally not weird. you have totally made baby sounds at PC's pictures, admit it.
ps i saw on the main richmond page today in their little slideshow of pictures one of RSP I outside (unless you kuswa and dr. simpson have team taught a class i'm not aware of). made me sad to be all graduated and brain drained.
Joshua loves a DVD called "Baby Babble" (and its sequel) from some speech pathologists (from Minnesota I beleive). It is really low budget production, but I love it as well...it teaches signs and shows exercises to do with your baby to help them make sounds (J has had some speech delay b/c of his ears). Anywho, I know everyone says "No TV until at least 2," but these dvds have been a life saver on many levels :).
www.talkingchild.com
yeah deb the UR website does have the crew from the RSP class (well, the crew plus some fake students invited to a photo shoot anyway). I think it's funny that you talk to baby pictures.
thanks for the DVD rec Tex. I'm looking forward to the Wiggles age.
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