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Language Acquisition

Friday, August 31, 2012

The Brookline Parent

Fifty First Drafts

Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going? Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet?

Believe it or not, The Brookline Parent has reached a major milestone today, our fiftieth column. In its honor, we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the topics we’ve covered over the past fifty columns and contemplate the column’s place in the world. Or, as some of my friends might say, it’s time for a clip show. Ahem. A little less than two years ago, Brookline Patch approached Nomi and me about writing this column. We were relatively new parents, with our daughters a little over a year old. You might think that we wouldn’t have time to take on another commitment, but we jumped at the opportunity. Why? Well, on personal note, writing this column seemed like a nice way to help us process all the changes in our lives and share them …

Friday, July 20, 2012

The Brookline Parent

Muffin, Squeaker, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here

Scenes from a visit to the BU Child Language Lab.

“Truck.” It seems strange to me today, but according to what my parents told me when I was in my teens, “truck” was my very first word. Apparently, I was quite fond of a toy truck my parents had gotten me, and I played with it quite a lot. So, not surprisingly, “truck” ended up being my first word. After all, it was one of the most prevalent objects in my tiny universe. I saw this sort of thing replicate itself last year when Squeaker and then Muffin spoke their first words. We fed them each a sliced banana every day, and when it came time for them to speak, “banana” was their first word. It doesn’t hurt, I suppose, that “banana” is a rather easy word to pronounce. As all of our friends know, Nomi and I are fascinated with language. Nomi …

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