Learning to talk

I had never really given much thought to all the work that goes into learning to talk; well, I hadn't given much thought to it until the last few months.

Abram turned two in November, and the day he turned two he still wasn't saying much of anything. I've had other kids wait for a while to learn to talk, but once a kid turns two, and still isn't talking, I start to worry. (Isn't that a mother's job?:) Particularly with Abram I was beginning to worry, because he wouldn't even TRY to repeat words that we would ask him to say. Happily, he "kissed the Blarney Stone" soon after his birthday and we haven't been able to get him to be quiet since!:)

Meanwhile, we started learning Spanish a few months ago. Everyone has taken their lessons at their own pace - Kami generally does a lesson as she gets ready in the mornings; Caden also prefers to take his lessons while he's walking his dog in the mornings before school. Shawn is moving the slowest on them because he only takes a lesson when he's traveling (One to get where he's going and another on the way home.) I take my lessons whenever I can fit them in throughout the day - if I catch a quiet moment at home or when I'm driving kids around. I'm surprised by how much the kids, and even Abram, have picked up from that! I am almost finished with Spanish I. (Which has taken me MUCH further than Spanish I in Highschool ever did!)

It has been so interesting to be in the process of learning a language at the same time that Abram is in the process of learning one as well. It's fun to watch him as he talks and see the wheels turning in his little head the same way that I can feel my wheels turning when I take a lesson. This learning process is just the same for both of us! (I think we're at a similar language level.)

When I'm taking a lesson, sometimes I have to hear a word repeated as many as ten times before I remember it. I've noticed the same is true for Abram. Sometimes we pronounce the words slightly wrong. Sometimes we use words in the wrong context. When we're trying to think of what and how to say something, our speech is halting and slow. It's hard to string more than three or four words together at a time, and we're pleased with our accomplishment when we manage it.

I'm sure that before too long, I'll still be talking halting Spanish while Abram will be speaking as fluently as can be. He does, after all, have the advantage of being immersed in the language. But I now have a greater appreciation for all the work and energy that a tiny little child puts into learning to talk.