Re: [lojban] Supporting Lojbanic babies.

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Tuesday 01 November 2011 07:25:37 Sebastian Fröjd wrote:
> - Bilingualists seem to develop language slightly slower, but on the other
> side they perform better on some cognitive tasks, like creative thinking.
> Most important thing is to be consistent, that the same person use the same
> language under the same condition.

I know a Brazilian man married to a Costa Rican woman. Both speak Portuguese 
with their daughter, who is learning all three languages. He speaks English 
with an American accent, having come here at the age of 5, and Spanish with a 
Brazilian accent, which puzzles me, since I can pick up accents pretty well 
when learning a language. I guess they speak Portuguese since that's the 
least common of the three languages here.

I grew up speaking English and learning French as soon as I could read. I also 
learned to hear Spanish when my mother talked on the phone; my father never 
learned Spanish, and my comic books were mostly in French. I now speak 
Spanish pretty well, with the same accent as my aunt, though some Salvadoran 
accents sound different.

> - Sign language can stimulate early language development. The ideal would
> be a lojban-based (simplified?) sign language, but since no such thing
> exists today maybe "baby signs" would be a pretty simple way of
> communicating with infant as complementary to lojban. Other famous sign
> languages are american sign language, british sign language, swedish sign
> language, and in fact every geographic region got their own version.
> Another benefit of sign language is that it decrease the child's
> frustration in situations where the child is trying to express it's basic
> needs with the risk of being misunderstood by the adult.

I have a baby sign book; the signs are Ameslan, though some vocab is 
simplified (IIRR only one of the three negatives is listed). One reason for 
learning sign language is that hand-eye coordination matures earlier than 
mouth-ear coordination. I suggest teaching a baby two closely related spoken 
languages, a spoken language unrelated to the first two, and a sign language.


-- 
When a barnacle settles down, its brain disintegrates.
Já não percebe nada, já não percebe nada.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.