Re: [lojban] Supporting Lojbanic babies.

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

I'm snipping a lot because I replied elsewhere or have no useful
response besides "I agree" or "interesting".

On Tue, Nov 01, 2011 at 12:25:37PM +0100, Sebastian Fröjd wrote:
>
> - Sign language can stimulate early language development. The ideal would
> be a lojban-based (simplified?) sign language, 

I've been thinking about it for a while, and I think the idea of
"lojban-based sign language" is a bankrupt concept.  The sorts of
things that you would do in a 2 or 3 dimensional spatial language
that have the same sort of coolness factor and rigorousness as
Lojban would look *NOTHING* like Lojban itself, at all, and would
not be remotely compatible.  Imagine, as a random example, nesting
of lo-nu style clauses by moving down and to one side for each new
clause, rather than having terminators.

I can't see that Signed Exact Lojban, which is the other option
here, would have any advantages versus just learning ASL or
whatever.  If there was a half-way decent or well supported
international sign auxlang I'd be very interested in that, but I
don't think there is.

> - I don't know how much you have thought about gender issues, but
> I think no parent would like their children to have fewer chances
> to attain success. 

We have thought and talked about that a *great* deal.
Unfortunately, in a language with sex/gender specific pronouns,
our options are limited; refusing to disk the babies' sex just means
that people are hostile around them all the time, and that's not
fair to them.

> Unfortunately the "sex-typing" phenomena ("which involves treating
> others differently based on whether they are female or male")
> tends to form children into a gender-role that eventually will
> lead girls into a lower status and chance of less success compared
> to men under the same conditions. I think the gender-neutral
> potential of lojban together with a gender-critical thinking could
> be a good tool to help your daughters toward self-realization.

Yes, I certainly have gender-critical thinking, although I'd not
heard that term before, very high on my mental list of how to raise
them.  As a side comment, my favorite baby book so far is
http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Rules-Baby-Raise-Smart/dp/0979777755
because it's got lots of great research.

> - Other good stimulants for infants are massage, baby swimming,
> natural materials of good quality, good nutrition (organic?),
> qualitative sensory inputs like warm colors in the environment and
> classical music (Mozart stimulates intellect and reggae is the
> favourite music for the baby to sleep according to some research),

Yeah, you really want to read the book I just linked; the Mozart
thing is crap, I'm afraid.

> adults that can act as good behavorial models (they do as you do,
> not as you say to them) and of course a lot of love!. Not really a
> lojban topic, but anyway I'm just trying to give you some good
> advice! Good luck!

Thanks!

-Robin

-- 
http://singinst.org/ :  Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.
Lojban (http://www.lojban.org/): The language in which "this parrot
is dead" is "ti poi spitaki cu morsi", but "this sentence is false"
is "na nei".   My personal page: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/rlp/

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