Guest guest Posted July 10, 2006 Report Share Posted July 10, 2006 <<<he would have a fit whenever he heard Bugs Bunny speaking Greek. >>> I think I would too, LOL! Margaret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2006 Report Share Posted July 10, 2006 That’s so interesting Anne Marie (forgot how you spell your name). I love stories like that. Learning a language is such a big deal for an adult (especially an English speaking one, I think) that it is easy to assume that it is the same experience for children but it really isn’t! Sara x bilingualism Hi Sara, First of all a big wow for your story; it made for very powerful reading and took me back to that phase in 's treatment four years ago. Keep going - you're off to an amazing start. Thought I'd share with you what we did re bilingualism, and like Caroline want to stress that the choice is ultimately personal and there are is no right and worng answer to this. On diagnosis we were told very firmly to dump the English (dh is Greek and we live in Athens - dd is fully bilingual and I had always been a great believer in bringing children up with both parents' langauges). I was resistant, dh thought it was a detail, not the issue they were making out of it, so I just carried on. Our ABA providers were English anyway, and N's only langauge when we started was alphabet, numbers and polygons. My husband decided to use English with him on a temporary basis, and would often repeat things in Greek. After a N had mastered a number of programmes in ABA we decided to move them from generalisation into Greek. He was very resistant to this and would scream 'No Greek' all the time. That was until he discovered the alphabet in Greek and would go with it, for labels mostly but refused to communicate in the langauge. After that he started school in English so there was very little input in Greek. He then started speech therapy in Greek and did exremely well, but for the first yearit was all labels. Something happened to him this year though and now he speaks Greek very happily to dh and participates in the Greek lessons at school and communicates very well with his aunt and uncle when he stays with them [they don't speak English] and is happy to watch his favourite cartoons in Greek, whereas in the past, he would have a fit whenever he heard Bugs Bunny speaking Greek. So there are also issues of flexibility involved. Obviosuly in our case the need for N to acquire the langauge of the environment was great, and this had to be balanced with his mother tongue [for a long time he wouldn't engage with anyone else]. Another issue was oral motor. It is much easier to produce 'car' than the Greek 'aftokinito'. Our ABA providers, who had had a lot of experience with this issue, said that they felt too much was made of the difficulties, and the important thing was to foster communication, and once that mechanism was in place, it really didn't matter how many languages were in operation. -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.10/383 - Release Date: 07/07/2006 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.10/383 - Release Date: 07/07/2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 10, 2006 Report Share Posted July 10, 2006 we lived in Greece for 15 years and the winner for me in that would definitely be " little house on the prairie', just hearing in Greek had me in stitches every single time,( the voices were never matched either, usually used the same old lady to do allof them and do painful child like voices) one I also love was that they could never say Charlton Heston cos his surname as a word in greek means S**it on him!!!!! very OT but classic, and how nice to be thinking trivially for a change!!!!!!! On a serious note, we want to move to galicia, UK was only supposed to be a short stop off for us, meanwhile Jay got his dx etc etc, I would be really interested to hear anyones' input about their kids and how they have coped with 2 languages. I dont doubt that they have great specialists in galicia, but with my Spanish just about getting me a coffee it is a concern for me and of course how jay will cope with hearing the 2 languages when learning his mother language is such an issue as it is, best wishes Josie ps by the way those enzymes I had have now got new homes, which is great! > > <<<he would have a fit whenever he heard Bugs Bunny speaking Greek. >> > > > I think I would too, LOL! > > Margaret > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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