[etni] A baby's first 'second mother tongue'
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- Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 01:58:03 -0700
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(To read the whole article, go to - www.etni.org/news/secondtongue.htm )
A baby's first 'second mother tongue'
Haaretz - March 25, 2005
A few months ago, Naomi Gatnew visited her health maintenance
organization clinic with her infant daughter, Ma'ayan. She noticed that
Ma'ayan, who was then 1 year old, was opening and closing her mouth, a
gesture she took to mean that the girl had seen a fish. Since her
daughter, who is perfectly healthy and has normal hearing, turned 4
months, Gatnew did not make do with just speaking to her but also used
agreed signs to communicate with her. The signs are based on sign
language for deaf people and represent a basic vocabulary for children.
The sign for a fish is one of the clearest signs that the 1-year-old
acquired. Yet there was no aquarium in the corridor or in the waiting
room. "I knew she knew what she was saying," Gatnew says in all
seriousness. "I decided to look around, at the pictures on the wall,
the furniture. In the end we found a small fish immersed in a painting
on the table."
What may look like a routine story of clever things done by children,
which is usually fascinating for parents of children of a certain age,
is for Gatnew proof that infants who cannot yet talk have something to
say. It follows that if they are not taught to speak with signs, the
overall loss will be considerable. She relates that an early age her
daughter, who is now 17 months old, would raise one hand above her head
and open the palm to comment that the sun was shining, or to stroke the
back of one hand with the other - the sign for a cat - in order to tell
about encountering such a creature. Even now, when she is able to speak
the words "sun" and "cat,' Ma'ayan continues to make the physical
gestures. She also invents signs of her own, her parents say. For
example, for a motorcycle she makes a rapid hand gesture from left to
right and emits a sound that evokes a noisy engine. For a rhinoceros,
which she saw at the zoo, she places a finger next to her nose.
(To read the whole article, go to - www.etni.org/news/secondtongue.htm )
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