My son is two and a half and is a bright light in life. He is a big boy for his age, now bigger than his three (and a quarter) year old cousin. However, his cousin has an amazing grasp of language – we can have conversations with him for the last twelve months. My little (big) boy has one word – Lola!
He reminds me each day that we all have different levels of various skills. I can get caught up in my inabilities rather than commend myself for all I achieve. I doubt I’m alone in this habit. My son isn’t aware of his inability to talk at the moment. He communicates in many other ways. He points, he shows, he describes with his hands. He describes with his great musical tone.
He inspired me to write this post because I realised that his patience to keep explaining his needs and wants has created a pattern of language that I understand, and there are no words involved. That is a great design achievement for a two and half year old boy.
His latest achievement is to describe to me that he wants to watch an animated show online. He found this programme one day and has occasionally requested it since. The thing is, words would not be any better in describing this need. The cartoon is Asian (I think it’s a Japanese show) and I don’t speak Japanese (or any Asian language, unfortunately!). We don’t know the name of the show because I can’t read the letters / characters that make up the title. So a simple way of describing this show, and it was the obvious description for my son, was to hum the theme tune.
He does the nee-naw sound for Fireman Sam, tchucka-tchucka-tchucka sound when he wants a helicopter themed programme, usually Budgie the Helicopter. Slurp, slurp is a want for ice cream; glug, glug is a drink of water. So, there is no larger language barrier with him than many other two year olds.
So, let me introduce you to a show, which is something to do with rescue vehicles. The theme tune is catchy, and the animated characters are entertaining to watch – especially if you’re under three years of age! If you know anything about this cartoon, could you let us know. Thanks
rothklee 