Kids say the darnest things! :)

Tristan started saying a lot of things that surprised me. It's amazing how children learn and pick up language. He only need to hear it once and he can use it like a pro.How to use what word when. :)

He's vocabulary is pretty good for his age (3+), he is using words like:

'modify'-daddy taught him about car modification

'team'- he asked me if I was strong, I said yes of course and he said: " then you can join my transformer team. Pretty good. moving from 'I' to 'team'. hhmmm :).

I have a puzzle about the human digestive system so he's pretty good with it. He can say 'oesophagus', 'intestine'... and can explain where the food goes and what happens :)

'hangar' we kept passing by this new exhibition hall and Tristan kept saying "Ma, that's a Hangar". Well this is quite embarrassing cause I don't know what a hanger is, I thought he meant 'hanger'? Ha, he saw a documentary on Discovery channel and Uncle Raj explained to him once and he could remember and apply that. It's true.. the hall looks like a hangar. :)

'Inuit' now who lives in a Igloo? Most people would think the answer must be eskimos! But no, the answer is Inuit. The correct term to use for people who lives in Igloos.


Trevor is now 13 months,
hasn't spoken much yet, but he's taking interest in reading which is great! And he can say :
1) 'ish' as in Fish. He was watching the penguins swimming in the water at the bird park. He kept saying 'ish ish ish' maybe he thinks they are fish-they are swimming like one :) or maybe he is right cos its' feeding time and the penguins are having fish for lunch.(see the picture -> the boys are mesmerized with the penguins)
2) 'Psss' in Please
3) 'Ssssh' as in Shoes
4) and other random syllabus of sounds or babbling: I just learn from Kindermusik seminar that these sounds are called echolalia…babbling gives the child the opportunity to use and control the mouth, throat, and lung muscles.
5) And some Signs : Here's also an extract from my Kindermusik class: From early in infancy, it is evident that Baby is aware of his environment and has the desire to communicate. Introducing signing to hearing babies has the benefit of allowing Adult and Baby to communicate before Baby’s vocal chords are developed enough to speak. This form of communication raises self-esteem, eliminates the frustration of not being able to communicate and engages Baby as an active participant in the learning environment.

Trevor can sign : Aeroplane, Apple, Bye Bye, Elephant, Milk
I've been signing everything I know to him: Eat, Please, Stars, Dog, Cat, Boat, Bird, Banana.
He hasn't sign back but he understands when signs to him.

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Well I guess children are never too young to learn and some people assumes that certain words or concept is too difficult for children. But they are never too young, and there can be a simple way that they can understand words, concepts, ideas and how things words. So don't underestimate a child's capacity to learn and use correct terms for everything. Their minds are keen and memory sharper than many of us! :)

Here are some links I found on language development in young child

Language Development Institute
- has a chart which shows when a child can do what in terms of language development

Teaching your child speech and language

Top 6 ways to teach early language skills

Some tips from me :) Try it!

- Personally I believe that treating children with respect and they might look too young to understand but they have the ability to understand.

- Have patience and take time to talk to them in the way that they can understand and always speak the truth.

- Create a love and curiosity for learning, be amazed and show enthusiastic in learning.

- Read everyday! have a bookshelf full of age apropriate books that the child can easily access by himself. Before bedtimes are great time to read.

- Bring them everywhere with you if you can. Kids learn a lot when you expose them to different environment, different situation, weather...etc.

- Make everything a learning experience. e.g. You can talk about anything and educate your child from them. Bring their attention to their surroundings and let them use their senses to learn.For example you can ask: " Look what is that?Do you know what it does?" " Listen, can you hear the birds singing? ", " Can you feel this? what does it feel like?"

- Bring learning to life. Tell them and they might forget, but if you let them see and experience water for themselves they can remember better. Let's say if you are teaching your child about water, it's easier for the child to learn about water when he is playing with water.. etc. bath time. And you can then teach them concepts of wet/dry, full/empty, float/sink...etc :)

- Singing to your child and singing together. Listening to music on the CD player is great, but singing with your own voice encourages your child to sing along and they learn the words and language very quickly with songs. When you sing to them, they can listen and watch how to you pronounce the words clearly and it's a great for bonding too.