I never thought to introduce numbers beyond ten to him thinking it’s still too early.
My mum was saying on last Sunday, “Too early for beyond ten lah…” And was stumped when she heard him say “nine-teen”. (he just started saying it a few days ago and thus wasn’t recorded in the video above)
One day, while reading this Counting book we have, I decided to teach him beyond ten, reciting 11-20 for him. His Daddy also started teaching him 11-20 through the book and other materials.
After hearing it, a whole new world opened up for him.

Just after two days, he started saying 11 and would urged us to carry on once we recite to 10 by saying his version of 11 (“ewer”) so he can hear the rest. With new numbers to learn, he started reciting 11-20 after us with enthusiasm and was able to read them on sight. He would read them on the letterboxes, and on different objects if he spot them.

The first after ten number that he pronounced accurately was “four-teen” but he tend to also pronounce 4 as 14. Recently, he has started making sounds for 8 sounding a bit like ai-ni. He never attempt to say this number before.
He could also pronounced nineteen with the “teen” more accurately.
What puzzles me is that, he DID pronounced teen for seventeen and eighteen sometimes but he choose to most of the time change their sounds to other things like sia (he says seven this way) with a -pu. 17 became “sia-pu”.

He stubbornly likes to affix his own made-up sound to a word and pronounce them exactly the same way everytime he reads. He thus knew what he was reading but it sounded totally wrong.
Not sure why he still refuse to pronounce or imitate us correctly but likes to do his own sound. (like the way he says Twelve) Is this creativity at work?
Example, he used to say “Apple” in the right way like purple but now pronounced it as “Aaa…bu”. No matter how many times I say it for him, he refuses to change.

In the case of numbers, he refuses to pronounce one and two and would say, “eh…” (same sound for both). So in the end, he speaks in a foreign sounding language when he decides to speak and only the two of us who hears it everyday would understand some sounds. A stranger wouldn’t understand him at all.

It amused someone at the bus-stop that day when she heard him standing there talking to no one in particular with high-low sounds and the words, ‘bus’ and ‘car’ thrown out a few times.
His speeches can last for a long time with different intonations, pauses, and expression, while playing by himself or just walking around looking at stuff.
He’s ‘talking’ but ONLY he can understand himself. That’s a pity because he knows and understands many things but could not express himself through words.

Someone asked me What was the book we read in the video?

My Little Counting Book

I bought this book at a sale and highly recommend it if you are still able to find it. There’s a lot of activities to do and the graphics are superb!
These are the details

• Title : My Little Counting Book
• Author: Roger Priddy
  
• Type: Board Book, Activity Book
• ISBN : 0-312-49568-4
• Publisher: Priddybooks. (http://www.priddybooks.com)
• Find here: http://us.macmillan.com/mylittlecountingbook

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