(continued from Part 1- He Knows S)

So how did we find out that he knew E. O. and H? (Long post ahead with some thoughts at the back and some conclusion….I like to write descriptive stories…^^)

Story of E

I was reading The Alphabet Book by P.D. Eastman with Darius which I bought in Kinokuniya sometime back as he had enjoyed reading it when we borrowed from the Library for one of the Tot School week.  As usual, I was just reciting and tracing the letters with my fingers…”A…American Ants.. B..Bird on Bike…”

Turning the page to E, before I could continue, Darius said, “E” in a small voice. Given the earlier experience with S, I shouldn’t be surprised but yet I was surprised again because I underestimated his knowledge. I thought he couldn’t be reading letters at his age since he barely even talked. And again, I did not actively teach him at all that the symbol stands for E. So where did he gather that from??? I continued reading the story and he said, “S” again when he reached Skunk on Scooter. At least, that I’m not surprised anymore.

Still I did not actually tested him on “E” because I was still in a self-denial stage with S. I mean one letter is enough for me but two letters which I had never taught him at all? Why doesn’t he recognise ABC when I had been repeating that like for ages? Besides, he might just be saying the “Yi” (one in Chinese) since he always babbles “Yi…Er…” It sounded the same.

Over the weekend when we visited my mom, she took out this chart of alphabet letters and I just casually said that Darius knew S. She was pointing out A, B, C for him and when she heard me say that, she pointed to S and asked Darius, “What is this?” (in Mandarin). Darius immediately looked up and said loud and clear, “S!” It made her very happy also. On a hunch, I told my mom, “I think he knows E also.” She quickly tested him by pointing and asking again. Darius said, “E!” His E sounded very cute and made both of us laugh out loud.

As to how he knew the letter without me teaching him, I attributed it to the LeapFrog Magnetic Word Builder. He has a fondness for Letter E in small letter, and he would keep pressing it to hear the sound.

E is eeeee and E is eh. Every letter makes a sound! (on second press, an old man with a funny voice spoke) eh? It helps to speak up!

I myself like this letter too because it’s just so funny to hear the eh? It helps to speak up. He would be pressing it all the time until I rotate it out with another letter. So he must have caught how the E sounds because he likes this letter so much.

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Story of H

There’s not much story as this Letter H was slightly different. He pronounced the phonetic sound of it instead of the name. When I just casually put on the Letter H in the reader yesterday, he immediately looked up at me and went, “hah..hah…hah…” Oh that surprised me again.

It was another favourite letter of his since he likes to put it in the reader often. He also had more reaction on seeing the H panting in the DVD. He would look at me while they are panting and I would go, “hah…hah…hah..” too but that was sometime ago when we first started with the DVD. We hadn’t watch it for about three weeks since he got scared of the snake.

I wondered why he would say the phonetic H now after discovering S and E. I guess it was because he knew the Letter but hadn’t been able to say it out to me because of a lack of confidence. When he noticed how I was so happy with his Ssss and Eeeee… he opened up and started telling me what he knew about other letters too. I supposed “Hhh..age” was still too advanced for him to pronounce so he made do with the phonetic sound.

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Story of O

Also yesterday, he took this book out to ask me to read to him.

This was a gift from Hubby’s sister and I had been reading to him on and off to tell him what the alphabets were, often during mealtimes. But I usually say the phonics of each letter instead of the name. It was boring & tiring to read though and I rather read stories with him so we seldom touch that.

So we started from A, B, C so on, asking him to repeat after me or asking him what the letter was after saying it once to him but he kept silent. Upon reaching E, he said, “E”. Upon reaching “H”, he went, “Huh..huh..huh…” like someone panting so I confirmed that he really did know that was H.

Then, when we reached Letter O, I said, “O for Orange…Or”. Then, I pointed to the Letter O again and asked him, “What is this?” He actually said in a small tiny voice, “O”. Not Or but actually Oh! I was taken aback again because I never expected him to know it by the name. I thought he would just tell me Or but he clearly knew it was Oh and not Or as in Orange. It was totally different the way he sounded them.

Hubby happened to came back and I told him excitedly that Dar also knew the Letter O. I demonstrated straightaway, pointing the Letter O in the book and asking Darius, “What is this?” Darius said immediately, quite loud with confidence, his mouth shaped into an O, “Oh”. We laughed immediately at the cute sound and Darius went scooting off happily embarrassed at our happiness and fell promptly on his face like last time. =.=” It broke the happy mood when he started crying non-stop and we were worried whether he cut his teeth like last time.

So just a few days and he suddenly started sprouting letters at me. The sudden expansion of his vocabulary caught me by surprise and I felt overwhelmed all of a sudden. It was also interesting how he would say the name of some letters but phonetic sound of other letters. Maybe he knew both but he only knew how to pronounce them out for me for some letters.

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Here’s in video form how he sounded in case you thought it was all in my mind ^^.

Side-note

These days, he seemed to be having a thirst for wanting to read. He would bring books to us and pester us the whole day to read to him. It seemed to be the only thing he enjoys besides standing by the radio listening to nursery rhymes or stories. He would play with his toys only when he first wake up in the morning but sometimes, they could be left untouched the whole day on the playmat. If I keep them in the open boxes, it would stay that way forever til the next day.

This really made me shake my head because I thought kids learn through play? If he doesn’t freeplay, how would he learn? This is still making me worried now as he might grow too introvert, just reading the whole day. I’m happy about it in some ways since I’m a bookish person myself but he’s a guy. He should be more active. Nevertheless, once I brought him out of our house, he was still zooming here and there, happily running and exercising. Would anyone envy me having a child that doesn’t like toys? Having a boy that has no interest in toy cars, trains or buses? Or would you think it’s weird, strange? The Thomas and Friends Train set from Christmas was only played with when we were beside him and urged him to play. He doesn’t express much interest at all. When he plays with things on wheels, he doesn’t move them on the floor like normally what you do with a toy car, just vrroom and push along. Instead, he always takes them up and look at the underside, examining and touching the wheels, wondering why the wheels could move. We felt he had a scientific mind for examining things instead of just playing blindly.

He also started taking the boring picture books from the shelves which I hadn’t read to him for sometime after his first birthday to flip through by himself. Those pages had one picture, one word and he would look really intently at each page for a long time as if trying to memorise the words.

So what I’m trying to say is that, I realised that he knew way more than I thought. And we both feel he’s like a sponge now, rapidly absorbing everything we teach him. So we better start teaching him more.

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TODAY, another few discoveries. I pointed and said all the Letters for him, reaching M, N, O using that little book above and he pronounced “M as mmmm” which is a correct phonetic sound and “Uh…mmm” repeated after me. He still prefers saying “mmmm” though.  “N as ah…nin or nnnn”. On asking him second and third time, he could still say it. Just yesterday he hadn’t know it because I tested him and today, he pronounced them for me already!!! O___O

He also pronounced Letter R as “er…er” not totally correct but close. It is his favourite word to sound now besides S. He would turn to the Letter in that book and keep telling me, “er…er…” I replaced the bunch of letters on the fridge with new letters, r,m,n,i,j,l,o,k and when he saw the Letter r, he was actually a little afraid, not sure why. But he did tell me, “er…er” when he saw it.

He also said, “Pa…pa…pa” out of his own accord when he saw Letter P. It was as if he found it fun to surprise me with new sounds each day and is saving the others for other days…O_o

Also, when I started with the Letter A for the second time going through the book, he actually said to me, “Aaaaa!” which sounds like Ah. Then he went, “Aaaaa Paaaa” by himself, trying to sound Apple because I always say,”Darius, A , A for Apple!” I was saying Ay all the time but instead he said, “Aaaaa!” which is the phonetic sound of A. I did indeed say the phonetic sound to him on several occasions after we got the LeapFrog DVD so it took him only now to say it back to me when he had been tight-lipped for so long.

The strange thing was he doesn’t sound B for me even though I kept telling him “Ber…Ber..” the phonetic sound and also the name. He always repeated that after me when we played with foam letters during showering and also he would keep saying bababa all the time. My guess was that he was confused why it sounded like P?

So In Conclusion, not trying to be a spokesman for LeapFrog since they certainly never pay me for this but it really amazed me what passive learning could do. What EXPOSURE could do. We started out with the idea of exposure of these things to him even though he’s still too young for it but it actually worked!

Of course, we are not expecting him to be able to form words or anything by himself. Instead, we are only expecting him to treat it like any other toy he has, except that this Word Builder should help expose him to alphabets and phonics. It will be a win-win situation where he has fun with the toy while subconsciously learning more about alphabets and words. (wrote by Vincent on the 3rd of Nov 09 when we got him the toy)

Experts keep saying that watching TV under two years old doesn’t do any good.

Learning ABCs before 2 years old is not neccessary.(see ‘Article‘)

…can identify most letters between 4 and 5…can start teaching your child the alphabet when he’s around 2 — but don’t expect full mastery for some time. Toddlers learn differently from older children, so don’t pull out the flashcards and audiotapes just yet. Instead, rely on visual aids such as colorful alphabet picture books

But look at what learning through a DVD, which is only played occasionally did for Darius! That’s what made me speechless. And made me question what the brain of a toddler could absorb.

I’m for anything that works to help him learn more about things. Flashcards to me is fine if they are not too drilling or excessive. I’m lazy to flash physical cards, preferring to read books with him. That’s why I showed him the Wink-To-Learn Chinese Flashcard DVDs since he was just 6 months old til 14months (hadn’t shown for a while) and the Letter Factory DVD from 15months old even though he’s supposedly too young for TV. The key is to either watch with him and repeat to him the sounds at the same time the programme is showing or after watching, reinforced what was being shown to him by saying the words or sounds to him so he can watch how my mouth moved. Hmm, I think that’s how he learnt how to make the sounds. He watches our mouths intently whenever we talk or sing. I do not expect him to learn just by watching alone. What I was surprised throughout my accounts above was that he actually could associate the letter with the sound & say them, meaning good visualisation.I might even start showing him more educational DVDs from now on.

Probably tomorrow, he would tell me even more letters and soon know all the Letters of the alphabet by sight and sound if I start actively teaching him now and showing him more things through exposure. He certainly does not need to wait til he’s 3 years old to master alphabets.

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