Life ramblings and the journey through adoption.
As I've mentioned previously, Malka's a bit behind on the verbal language front, but since she has receptive language, we aren't too concerned.
It DOES however, pull at my heartstrings just a bit when I hear of babies of friends, and baby friends, and fellow kids in Malka's daycare chatting up a storm. Now Malka does indeed "chat," but we're not sure what she's saying.
We know, that since we're teaching her Hebrew, English and Sign, and she's getting some Spanish AND French at daycare, that she's either really confused, or will spew out 5 languages in a matter of months!
But here's what she does know/show/speak so far:
Sign:
-Water
-Eat
-All Done
-More (she had been using this to amplify all done, as in "I'm SO done, mommies; but we think we've clarified for her that it's just related to wanting more of something, like food, or a book, but in reality, I guess it could mean she's even "MORE" all done!)
-She understands the signs for: Bath and wash.
Speaks:
-Todah, which means thank you, but it always sounds like "daduh"
-Narda? We both spin aorund and FREAK out that it really really sounds like the kid is saying Narda. A LOT.
-Eeeeeeemmmm - Eemah, perhaps?
-Ka - either cat or just the sound to hear her own voice (see what I mean about not being "quite" sure...)
-'nceee- Quincy, the cat
-mmmmm'mmmmm - Tasty
-iis? - This, said while pointing to a random object.
-erm, that's about it, really. She'll repeat sounds and inflections, and she babbles a LOT (just like her Eemah, heh), but no concrete words.
But If I ask her to do stuff or point to stuff in either English, or Hebrew, she will. So that's something, right?
7 comments:
I, too was raised in a multi-langual familly, and didn't utter a word until I was almost 3. I just didn't feel like it I guess ! Malka seems to have her own agenda ; she might just surprise you one day and start speaking in full sentences, out of the blue...
Everything that I've heard says that kids raised in multilingual environments tend to start speaking a little bit later, but not to worry.
Their brains are just laying in the wiring for all those different languages -- as you have observed, she's fine on the receptive side. When she's ready, she'll talk to you in all those languages, and she'll be able to contextually respond in the appropriate language. That's gotta be hard to learn!
There's a (in hindsight) funny story about my mom's terror and hysterical phone call to her own mother insisting there was something wrong with me because I talked late. (In only one language.) I think Malka sounds great.
Malka is doing great, and she's not even 16 months yet, right? Helen is just the cutest little talker ever right now, and she definitely didn't have more than Malka at 16 months. It will come.
All children should be so lucky to have the many linguistic opportunities that Malka has. Just you wait...pretty soon Ms. Malka will be talking SO much that you are going to wonder when she will slow down a bit.
:-)
I understand your concerns. I had a lot of similar concerns with Alexander, especially with Lauren's communication delays...
Alexander didn't speak much at 16 months, but now at 2 years old we can't get him to stop.
I know how hard it is to "just wait and see" but at this point I think it's your best bet. Multilingual children do tend to talk later and I think Malka will be just fine.
She is doing great :) and you ladies are too btw... we are generally unsure of the mini's babbles as well but if it sounds like cat we nod and grin like idiots so then it eventually turns into cat... maybe that's how it works after all.
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