Re: Kids learning Lojban

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

Reposting for karis.:

>In a message dated 97-10-31 19:39:26 EST, kris wrote:
>
>{Bob, please forward this to the lojban list, my address file has been
>destroyed.  Also, please send me a note with the correct address for the
>listserv, thank you.}
>
>> > > >Someone has to risk fucking their progeny up first.
>>
>>  I'm curious if anyone here thinks this is a serious risk.  Certainly one's
>>  progeny would be pretty malselgle if they were deliberately kept isolated
>>  from any exposure to natlangs -- they'd have to be raised in a basement
>>  and sleep on a mattress with the tag torn off (it has English on it!).
>>
>>  But seriously, it has happened that kids have grown up with only exposure
>>  to unnatural languages; like Signed English or pidgins; and as I
>--More--
>>  understand it they naturally flesh it out into something usable.
>>
>>  Do kids ever learn *2* languages at home at the same time?  Friends of my
>>  dad tried raising their boy speaking 3 languages at once: the two parents
>>  were from different parts of India and lived in the US, and each would
>>  talk to the kid in both their own language and English.  They panicked
>>  when the kid started mixing the three freely, and switched to all-English.
>>  Wouldn't he have straightened it out eventually?  Can't "code-switchers"
>>  switch off the switching when speaking to a monoglot?  If that's been
>>  shown to happen, it seems like this would calm the fears of parents trying
>>  this with Lojban.  English would be "enough" for their mental
>>  development, and Lojban could only add to it, if it had any effect at all.
>
>Yes, your friends quit without need.  Children exposed to more than one
>language at the beginning do go through a stage of mixing them, but quickly
>figure out who understands what and modify their speech accordingly.  They
>will continue to use a mix with someone who understands for a while, and if
>they need to these children will borrow a word from one known language and
>use it with another.
>
>The only concern I'd have (as a child development person) is that
>intelligible speech may be somewhat delayed in multilingual children.  It
>--More--
>wouldn't stop me from using a second language with my children, though.  The
>delay isn't typically much of a problem.
>
>In support of multiple language use, children taught some sign language are
>able to communicate at a younger age, generally, and are therefore less
>frustrated and less frustrating.  Both of the little girls I take care of
>were exposed to some basic signs before they had words for the concepts and
>they used the signs happily.  Once they had verbal words, the girls usually
>used both, at least with people who understood (me and their parents).  One
>is now 2 years-old and the other 18 months.  I see the younger one much more
>often than the older so she is exposed to sign more.  I've found that as she
>uses more verbal words, she is more interested in using signs as well.  Just
>last week she started signing "stop" to tell me she knew to leave her shoes
>on in the car.
>
>-- karis.