Mellie Learns Language

So, as I mentioned in my last blog post, Mellie has been starting to express herself.  The way I see it, she probably has more words than I know because I may not recognize what she is saying.  However, here is a list of words I am pretty confident she speaks:

• mama
• dada
• Dee Dee (the cat)
• yeah
• huh?
• hi
• bye
• tree

The first three, she rarely ever uses.  I don't know why.  I have heard her say all three in a manner that was an appropriate use of the word, but for the most part, she doesn't say names.  She has never said anything I recognize or suspect is one of the dog's names.  One time, around Halloween, we were in the backyard at our patio table.  I was working on carving a pumpkin, and Mellie was wondering around in the area we consider safe, well away from our pool.  Dee Dee was wondering around in the back of the yard, well away from us, when we suddenly heard an encounter between two other cats.  Dee Dee was immediately interested and acted like she was going to go investigate.  I didn't want her getting involved, so I was calling her to come over to us instead.  A little background, Dee Dee is the only cat I have ever had who acts more like a dog than a cat.  She almost always comes when I call her, and she fetches better than either of the dogs.  Anyhow, I kept calling her, and I could tell she was torn between whether to come over to us, or go investigate.  Finally, Mellie goes right up to the edge of her acceptable area, and yells as loud as she can "DEE DEE!!!!"  Mellie absolutely adores Dee Dee, although I am not sure the feeling is mutual.  In fact, I am reasonably certain it is not.  I frequently play with Mellie and I sing the call Dee Dee song (it's just Dee Dee over and over again to the tune that of a clock ring), and despite that, that's been about the only time I have ever heard her say Dee Dee's name.

Anytime you ask Mellie a question, she answers "yeah," which leads me to believe perhaps she doesn't entirely understand the word.  But, she does understand that when you ask her a question, "yeah" is an appropriate answer, so I give her credit for the answer.  You can ask her about anything, and 85% of the time, she will answer "yeah."  However, when go to do whatever she agreed to do it, she will still get upset if she doesn't ACTUALLY want to do it.  Funnily, she will shake/nod her head, and when she does THAT, what she says is what she MEANS.  Yes, we find many ways to amuse ourselves with her automatic "yeah" answers.  They are also useful at bedtime.  "Mellie, do you want to go to bed?"  "Yeah."  "Ok, let's go."  That doesn't mean a meltdown won't ensue when you actually put her IN bed.  :)

Sometimes, when you call her name, she'll respond "huh?"  I don't see this as often, but Ms. Betty does, and so does Ronnie.  It's funny, because Ronnie does the same thing.

"Hi" is her favorite word right now.  When I get home, she greets me with "hi" multiple times.  I go into my closet, and she follows me, greeting me with a hi.  Ronnie takes her upstairs to get changed, when she comes down, it's Hi.  I don't hear bye as much as when I am leaving, she is entirely too upset to tell me bye.  Occasionally I will hear it when Ronnie goes, or when she throws something and I tell her "Bye *item name.*"  Byes are almost always accompanied by a wave.  In fact, if you tell her bye, she'll probably wave, but she may not say the word. 

Tree is her newest word.  It's also the word that she is using to identify everything in her world.  She points at the fan and says "tree."  She points at a cabinet and says "tree."  She points at ANYTHING and says tree.  As I said in my last blog, she learned this word because she has a little Christmas tree in her room that absolutely fascinates her.  Honestly, she is fascinated with any Christmas tree. I don't know that she recognizes that a Christmas tree is the same as the trees outside, either.

So, in my return to forensic interviewing (despite the fact that our center is not ready to do any actual interviews yet) I have become more sensitive to language.  Preschoolers have always been my weakness as an interviewer, and I am hopeful that Mellie will be able to help me be a better interviewer.  So, last night, I was trying to encourage her language development and was playing with blocks (and then once she started throwing them) we moved on to a different topic.  Since she loves Dee Dee so much, I was talking with her about what a cat says, Meow.  I could get her to see the me part and the ow part, but she wasn't terribly interested in putting them together, although she came pretty close.  It is exciting and fascinating, and I can't wait to learn the lessons she will inevitably teach me.