Last night we played an impromptu word game with the little boy in an attempt to get him to stay put and not dash about (we’re quite tired chasing after him). So we started asking him questions like these:
“Where’s your mouth? Where’s your eyes? Where’s the fan?”
And the game went on and on, we asked him things that we know he has learned so that he will always get it right and we would clap. He loves the clapping and I’m guessing that he has the patience to play the game because of the applause he gets.
But soon we ran out of things that we thought he knew. He still looked on expectantly, waiting for the next question. So we just randomly asked about things that we didn’t teach him, like “upstairs”, “floor”, “TV”, etc.
To our utter surprise, he knew them all! Our eyes nearly popped! He got even louder applause for all that and he enjoyed the game even more. But we certainly came to a point where we were out of questions.
He is really surprising us everyday with new things. First, it was the walking, and now knowing what things are called. My gut feel is that he listens when we talk and describe things to him, and the babysitter must’ve taught him too. Now we realise that although he doesn’t respond when we go on talking to him, he is actually learning and picking up things. So don’t assume he doesn’t understand things around him. Be careful with your choice of words and actions too.
It’s been an amazing stretch of days for us to learn how much he has learned and grown. It’s really a fun time!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hearing is the first sense a featus develops. That’s why some mothers place headphones over their bellies. Research showed babies who listened to a story listened to it while in the womb responds to tbe same story as an infant, even when read by different people.
I didn’t put headphones on my belly (it’s shocking how expensive those headphones are!), but we did play him music every now and then
And like you said, I think he actually recognises that same music whenever we play it to him now.