I love observing the ways children acquire language. I listen to Elena and wonder how a four-year-old can remember so many new words without knowing yet how to spell them and what they look like on a page. Once we know how to read, don't we all automatically spell out new words in our minds? Or write them down to fix them in memory?
"Dehydrated," for example--a four-syllable word she uttered the other day while swimming. In this case, however, she didn't use it correctly. She was trying to describe the feeling of having water go up her nose. In the effort to express what they mean, four-year-olds don't shy away from mistakes.
"I hear a sound in your engine," she said as we were driving. "It sounds like a--I can't think how to say it--Valacroy?"
"Hmmm?" I asked, having no idea what that might be.
"You know that thing you play with a stick?"
Thinking of sports, I suggested several possibilities, including pool.
"No, a musical instrument!" she said.
"Violin?"
"Yes, that's it! Violin! Your engine sounds like a violin is in it."
Whenever I ask her what she wants to drink, I hope it will be lemonade--because "littamade" is one of the only two words she mispronounces, the other being "Mazz-a-gine."
When we arrived at Jo Ann Fabrics to meet her mom, I told her that next door to the fabric store is a store that sells musical instruments. "Like violins?" she asked. "I bet there's lovely music in there."
She's always loved fabric. She was thrilled to be in a huge fabric store. "This is what I'm talking about!" she said, touching bolt after bolt of cloth. "This is so cool! Thank you, Yenna, for bringing me here!"
This is what I'm talking about? At four, children have mastery of language, including idioms and syntax. From here on out, it's just adding vocabulary.
She's bilingual, but she refuses to translate sentences for me. I'm curious about that. Maybe she can't yet switch codes in full sentences? But when I try a Spanish word, she finds my pronunciation hilarious!
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