Speech & budding readers

I've noticed some odd speech patterns in my boys and was wondering if anyone else is seeing/hearing the same thing with their kids. I will be having mine both evaluated with EI in the next two months simply b/c we're about to become too old to qualify for services and if we are in need of anything I want to know about it now. I'm not really concerned about any of these things, simply curious as to weather they are typical for the 3- to 4-year old age group.

Interjection/Response agreement
You don't like cheese? Yes, I don't.



Lots and lots of clever sassiness
Look Out! You almost spilled your drink. No, I will not look out, I will look IN!



Budding readers moving backward
The boys are also obsessed with reading/pointing out any/all letters in our daily doings. However, they are spelling out words backwards (right-to-left). They says each letter, then make its corresponding (correct) sound, but start at the end of the word/phrase.
CAR WASH Look Mom, H-S-A-W R-A-C car!


Like I said, I'm not worried, I'm just pointing out which side to start reading on when they start backward. For the response disagreement, I simply repeat the corrected sentence back to them (No, you don't?) like I've done for any other speech missteps they've made along the way.

 

On the last one, I don't think they always "get" the whole left-to-right spelling thing, or that there is a true system to how we write. Bea will often say she is going to spell her name "silly", and she writes it backwards, or the letters not in a row, and if I say "no, we're not being silly, you need to do it the right way" then she's kind of like "hey, why are you being such a buzzkill?", but there are times when one needs to write correctly. They are supposed to write their names on the board when they enter the preschool class, for instance.

Mine don't really give a clever comeback to "look out" for instance, but they will ask "What means 'look out'?" when they don't get an idiom or figure of speech. Shoot, we had a book from the library a few weeks ago that was about a kid who was wondering about figures of speech, "crack up" for laughing, for example, and the kid was picturing people literally cracking up. If you run across it, that might be a good book to help explain things. Hmm, I guess that's not really your issue, I think it's just them figuring out opposites. A&B think opposites are hysterical sometimes.

 

All three of the examples you mentioned seem pretty typical and certainly no cause for worry. The first is indicative of your son trying to answer your affirmative question but not realizing that it requires a negative response. My daughter Cricket does something similar. Most kids grow out of this with no issues by 4 or 5 (according to my mom - an en elementary education consultant/30 year principal).

The second example is more a sign of intelligence than anything else. Your son is showing that he understands the association between words like "in" and "out" and can joke about it. It's actually a developmental stage common in preschool and early elementary.

The last example is also a developmental stage. Apparently reading left to right isn't intuitive so children have to train themselves to read that way. Both of my daughters tell me that they're going to read the book 'the mommy way' (turning pages left to right) and then they'll read 'the other way (turning pages right to left). It doesn't seem to phase them that the story doesn't make sense backwards.

All that said, there's certainly no problem with getting an evaluation, if for no other reason than to assuage any fears you might have!

 

I think all three of those are typical for the age, along with many other speech/language quirks. Nadia used to speak disjointedly, such as, "I want it, Mommy. Blue cup." and "Where is it? Shoe."

She grew out of it, and what's funny is Karina is now doing almost exactly the same thing.


Nadia used to do the sassing/clever thing, too, although I can't think of an example from years ago. Now, if she's asked whether she likes something, she'll say, "I do not like it. I LOVE it."


I'm glad you're not concerned -- I wouldn't be, either! But, I thought your guys were already 3? Here EI only goes through the eve of the 3rd birthday, and then kids are transferred to the school system.

 

The first one sounds like "Yes, [that's right], I don't like cheese." Makes perfect sense, even if it sounds a bit funny.

And about the direction of reading - did you know that when the alphabet was invented (in ancient Greece/near East), it was customary to write L-R, R-L, L-R, and so on? So when you get to the end of a line, you just snake around the other way, like turning your lawnmower around when you reach the driveway. There was also an "anything goes" period where you'd find writing L-R, R-L, and anything else you can imagine. So there really is no "intuitive" way of doing it, and (lucky) kids look at everything with beginner's mind!

 

1) Still goes on. Drives me crazy.

"Are you going to do that anymore?"
"Yes!"
"No, I don't want you to do that anymore."
"Yes, I not do that anymore."

Remember, they've only been speaking the language for a couple of years. These things are subtleties.

2) :laughing: Oh, I wish I knew sometimes for certain whether they were playing with me or just plain didn't understand. At any rate, it sounds very familiar. And they will never admit that they don't understand. Ever. They'll just say something bizarre in response and sometimes it's an hour later. They're men already.

3) T&T write backward sometimes. Trent more so than Trevor (he's the "maybe lefty"). I'm trying to think of whether I've seen them read backward and I'm not remembering anything like that. I'm sure it's related, though.

 

Okay, just since posting this I realize they aren't doing it ALL the time, (I think I'm just zoning in on the times they are). They are in that phase where they have to spell out every letter they see (our trip to the grocery store was interesting and s-l-o-w-g-o-i-n-g today). Of the 6,532 things they spelled between my last post and now, I'd say 25% of it was backward.

Yeah, I'm not worried at all, it's more of a psychological curiosity. And, apparently I was confused on the EI ages, so....won't be making that call tomorrow!



Tonight N said, "Mommy is a female. Daddy is a male. (Turning his attention to Dad) Daddy, you can mate with Mommy.

Daddy: Gee, thanks for your approval, N.

 

:rotflmbo: Are you sure one of them isn't my mom's XH?

Too much National Geographic/Discovery Channel? :rofl:

 

So funny, and cute!

 

My girls will do #1 and #3 often. As a matter of fact, everytime Sarah spells out something to me (she's my studious one) she will often start on the right and when she is writing out letters she will write right to left. I have been talking to her about the correct way to do it, but she is in the "I want to do it my way" stage so we're getting no where fast. I just think it is a part of development and not necessarily a sign of delay or that something is wrong.