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we're learning
Aug. 26th, 2020 09:06 pmSo, I've been trying for a while to get L to give me things when I ask for them. He will show me his toys ("Yellow bunny! Hop hop hop!" I gamely announce as he smacks the wooden puzzle piece of a yellow bunny against my face...), but no amount of "L, can I see your ___? Where's ___?" worked.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon I asked, "Where's your red ball?" and he picked it up and handed it to me right away, whereupon I threw an absolute party for him, exulting, "Yes! Red ball! That's your red ball! Good job, buddy, good job!!!" and so on.
So, trying to build on yesterdays's success, today I asked for a toy that has been one of his favorites for basically his entire life, a little stuffed bird with crinkly stuff in it that we, in our typically creative way, have always, as long as L has been alive, called Crinkly Bird.
"L," I said, "where's Crinkly Bird? Can you show me Crinkly Bird?"
L looked around and very proudly picked up... the red ball. And handed it to me.
"Oh," I said, trying not to be too visibly disappointed. "That's your red ball." And I picked up Crinkly Bird. "This is Crinkly Bird," I reminded him, because apparently the last thirteen-and-a-half months of referring to Crinkly Bird, who was once his absolute favorite toy in the whole wide world, by that name have meant nothing, and neither did yesterday's success at identification. I had a brief moment of "My god, what if he's not learning? What if he's never going to get it? What if I'm doing all of this wrong, or if he just isn't capable? There are dogs and parrots who can identify and retrieve 200+ named objects, but my baby, an actual human being, apparently thinks his red ball is the answer to all queries."
But repetition is how things learn, so about ten minutes later I checked that the little wooden puzzle piece of a blue dog was near him but not the current focus of his attention and asked, "L, where's your blue doggy?"
He looked around, picked it up, and handed it right to me.
If I had to guess, I'd say that the huge fuss I threw over the red ball, combined with the fact that I like to play with the red ball while he's not paying attention to me, convinced him that I REALLY like his red ball, and... somewhat confused the issue, perhaps. Or maybe he thought 'where is' meant the red ball. I don't know. It's gotta be really hard learning language as a concept rather than just learning a specific language. And, as The Boy pointed out, dogs and African Gray parrots are generally held to be as smart as human three year-olds, not fourteen month-olds...
Until yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon I asked, "Where's your red ball?" and he picked it up and handed it to me right away, whereupon I threw an absolute party for him, exulting, "Yes! Red ball! That's your red ball! Good job, buddy, good job!!!" and so on.
So, trying to build on yesterdays's success, today I asked for a toy that has been one of his favorites for basically his entire life, a little stuffed bird with crinkly stuff in it that we, in our typically creative way, have always, as long as L has been alive, called Crinkly Bird.
"L," I said, "where's Crinkly Bird? Can you show me Crinkly Bird?"
L looked around and very proudly picked up... the red ball. And handed it to me.
"Oh," I said, trying not to be too visibly disappointed. "That's your red ball." And I picked up Crinkly Bird. "This is Crinkly Bird," I reminded him, because apparently the last thirteen-and-a-half months of referring to Crinkly Bird, who was once his absolute favorite toy in the whole wide world, by that name have meant nothing, and neither did yesterday's success at identification. I had a brief moment of "My god, what if he's not learning? What if he's never going to get it? What if I'm doing all of this wrong, or if he just isn't capable? There are dogs and parrots who can identify and retrieve 200+ named objects, but my baby, an actual human being, apparently thinks his red ball is the answer to all queries."
But repetition is how things learn, so about ten minutes later I checked that the little wooden puzzle piece of a blue dog was near him but not the current focus of his attention and asked, "L, where's your blue doggy?"
He looked around, picked it up, and handed it right to me.
If I had to guess, I'd say that the huge fuss I threw over the red ball, combined with the fact that I like to play with the red ball while he's not paying attention to me, convinced him that I REALLY like his red ball, and... somewhat confused the issue, perhaps. Or maybe he thought 'where is' meant the red ball. I don't know. It's gotta be really hard learning language as a concept rather than just learning a specific language. And, as The Boy pointed out, dogs and African Gray parrots are generally held to be as smart as human three year-olds, not fourteen month-olds...
