Miles-blogging #22
Mr. Miles was nineteen months old a few days ago. This boy is in a hurry to go somewhere: in the last couple of months his vocabulary has shot up high to somewhere between 120-150 words, plus a dozen or so words in Thai, and he's now starting to string them together. When a small object fell on his head a few days ago, he quite clearly said "bump on the head"; he wasn't copying something said to him just then, although he was probably recalling the phrase from some time before and trying it out. After an enthusiastic response from me, I think he then started internalising things a little more, maybe thinking about the words "bump" and "head", both of which he knows well, and how connecting them can express something that has happened. The next day I got him to use other words he knows with the phrase "Miles is a big boy", and he must have understood what was going on because this seemed to give him a template - the next day, looking at a neighbour's Golden Retriever, all by himself he came up with "Laila is a big dog". He's also starting counting: just last week "two" meant any number more than one, but today on Skype he showed me he's able to count various objects up to six, which means he's made another small conceptual leap.
Meeting several other parents with their kids in the last few weeks has given me a little more perspective on language acquisition and cognitive learning. Many kids at Miles's age are still at the 'babble' stage of early talk, not actively learning language but still experimenting with sounds and discovering how shaping your mouth and tongue together in all sorts of ways can give you an ability far beyond just using them for eating. All kids progress at different speeds, but one mother we met said that with her first daughter she made the mistake of repeatedly sitting her in front of the TV, from which she could learn nothing about how to talk, and as a result her progress was impeded and she didn't start forming words at all until way past two years old. With her second daughter, there was no TV and she started shaping proper words at fifteen months, roughly the same as Miles, and she's a much more communicative child.
We have a TV at home of course, but over the entire duration on Miles's life it's probably been switched on just twice (although that might change next month when we're planning to get a 42" LED). The problem with TVs is that children discover they can't get any meaningful feedback from them; they have a different purpose. When Miles and Benji stay with her family in the south for the weeks I'm in the UK his grandparents prefer to have the TV on there nearly all evening, and the distracting barrage of news and crap soap operas keeps him active and playing well past 10pm, often disrupting his normal sleep pattern. He's far more regular with his sleep when he's at home in a TV-less environment.
Last week we looked at a few nursery schools that came recommended to us. One was a pokey little place where we felt Miles wouldn't flourish at all - one British neighbour has his two children there and they are still both rather introverted. The second was exponentially better and a fantastic, new and unique environment for play and learning. After seeing Miles with the older kids there last week it's obvious he'd already fit in just fine, but although I'd prefer him to start as soon as possible we're enrolling him from September when he's just over two, and when arrangements will be more practical for us.
Miles current obsession is now Thomas the Tank Engine, after getting him a few of the books. He absolutely loves Thomas and we've taken him to explore the old steam engine and carriages (now a small library) that sit permanently alongside Hua Hin station. One downside to Miles discovering Thomas is that he now points at pictures of the Fat Controller and says "Daddy!" I am not impressed.