After plateauing for a few weeks, this past week he’s broken through in a few areas. He came very close to a 90 degree head lift during one of his tummy times yesterday (where he’s fully looking forward and out). Also, his vocal mimicking is taking off and doing very well. He’s said most of the vowel sounds as of this morning except maybe long U and short i.
We’ve watched a few Starfall letters together, but that’s been used more as a transition (going from one activity to another). It’s good for hearing the same sound over and over again.
Last night I finally had the wife get out the video camera to record one of our impromptu vocal games. Here you will see PokerCub repeat the long O sound (which I’m not sure if he did before this - and if he did, he never did it quite like this where he mimics my mouth shape).
My focus thus far has been: reading stories (but not systematically yet), vocal game play, EC, tummy time, and crawling track.
We’ve had family from out town visit - and I hate to say that when he’s around “ordinary” family members, his progress slows (in all of the above areas). This could be the reason for his recent plateau (coincided with their visitations).
I think he’s ready for EK - which I plan on doing a far more simplified version with PokerCub (as per the Moshi Kai “We Can Do” thread here on BK), but haven’t gotten it going just yet (I definitely find myself feeling guilty for what I do and don’t do for PokerCub sometimes!)
Anyhow, just wanted to share… if there’s a suggestion on what we could or should be doing at this stage, please by all means, chime in!
I’m impressed! It sounds like daddy is on top of it! Pokercub seems a lot more cooperative than my newest addition was. She kinda has her own plans. So, you are doing amazing in my book!
Wow, I’m very impressed! Since I read your blog post yesterday about pokercub saying “car”, I’ve been focusing on vocalisations with my 6 week old & he seems to be enjoying it.
What books are you reading to him? I’ve just been using simple board books but I think I might change to rhyming text.
Are you using music yet? I’m going to start that tomorrow, beginning with some Peter Wetherall science songs as the biology DVD is my 2 year old daughters current favourite.
Are there any resources you have found useful for EC?
Oh that is so amazing! I have seen young children vocalize like this ( my own spoke and mimicked very early, I doubt I recorded the dates though I clearly remember Natalya saying hello to a jogger, who nearly fell over in surprise as she was just a baby) but I have never seen it recorded. And 7 weeks is wonderfully early!
I read your blog, so it appears poker cub has said his first word! How exciting! " car" is a good first word for a boy too! :laugh:
For the record I prefer pokercub, as it has a more longterm life. My concern with pokerbub was that he would eventually grow out of it. So great substitute. Cub will last a life time affectionately.
So a few things I noticed in reading…
Firstly your wife is right on board! She is quite open to it all, and I believe is already seeing the benefits. It appears you may have an easier road there than you first anticipated. I noticed a comment in another thread about her wanting like age socialization for pokercub. My own children when given a free choice have always chosen friends a year older than them. From the very beginning in age based settings they have only played with the very oldest in the groups. With one exception, a child who was clearly more intellectually superior than her age peers, and has become firm friends with my daughter. ( thankfully there are usually one or two kids in each age group that are more mature!) just something for you to keep at the back of your mind for next year when pokercub fin friends interesting.
Secondly, it is quite clear from your posts that pokercub likes music. I think seastar was spot on with her question! You really could consider some music EL starting now. Perfect pitch, nursery rhymes ( key work rhyme!) and classical for music appreciation could fit in nicely…plus you might get to ditch the Christmas tree song lol ( natalaya soothed to Sting and the Police, from birth…it was much less annoying than the Christmas tree song…but i still never want to here it again! lol )
Thirdly, are you using visual stimulation cards yet? Poker cub seemed quite interested in the picture book pictures, the black and white infant stimulation cards could work now to improve his eyesight so he can enjoy them more.
Btw I think Cooper is just georgous!
PokerDad-
He is absolutely adorable and so lucky to have parents dedicated fully to him.
It does seem as though music is going to be an integral part of his world :yes:
Have you seen the reviews and research on the Music math system? The research is quite interesting, designed for ages birth-2. I purchased it after WaterDreamer reviewed it, although Alex was already nearly two. I wish It had been available when she was younger.
Regardless, Alex enjoys it and even asks for it at bedtime.
Super impressive. First real word at 7 weeks. Horray!!! Ok, he started imitating your vocalisations at 17 hours old, and that’s super super impressive. Hope you’ve recorded these advancements in his baby book.
Now you’ve given me ideas to implement with my next baby. My question - the vocalisation you did, was it based on Fowler’s ‘Talking from Infancy’ or Doman’s ‘How Smart is your Baby’? I intend to follow Fowler’s program fully from birth with my next baby. Your thoughts?
nee1, I’m also interested in which program to use. I’m currently reading HSIYB. can you point me in the direction of a summary of Fowler’s program as I can’t find a copy of the book for sale. Thanks
Looks like I have a lot to digest, thank you much everyone! I love this place and shutter to think where I’d be without it…
I’ll address this further on down in more depth. The whole thing started with “Brain Rules for Baby” by John Medina. It was next up on my queue to read when nee1 sent me a quote from it…
I’m such a rookie… before PokerCub was born, we bought loads of books and now have several hundred. After learning about Priddy Board books from DadDude, I made sure to accumulate a lot of those. My wife stocked a basket full of them adjacent to our nursing lazyboy - and on day one I realized those, while simple picture & word, are actually too advanced. So I’ve shifted gears from simple picture board books (of which I have plenty) to more read-a-loud type of books. My favorite are Curious George books. I don’t think PokerCub has a preference yet - except I’ve found “Curious George Visits the Zoo” to be just about perfect for where we’re at. The story is shorter than a typical George book, there are large pictures that take up the entire page and maybe one or two sentences per picture; my copy says it’s adapted from the film series and the pictures look like that way. Incidentally and perhaps one reason I’m favoring the George stories, is that I have a little song I sing before each George story that I stole from the film (cartoon) series back in the 80s when I watched as a child - you can youtube search for the old clips and hear the intro song(s) they use - I think the singing is more for me to get in the proper mood than anything else, but hey… one book we’ve read countless times is “Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes” lap board book - this one is so simple that now I repeat it verbatim without the book as almost a little nursery rhyme. I’ve also read some Dr. Suess books to him, and can remember one morning where I was sort of stuck in the chair with him and not wanting to get up, reading “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket” about 10 times straight; and so that one is also one of favorites and I can nearly recite it from memory. We have other books such as Goodnight Moon, etc - but I haven’t gotten as diligent in my reading yet to really incorporate more than a handful of books. I do remember early on I’d read him a Disney’s version of Three Little Pigs and he seemed to enjoy that one more than I thought he would.
As for music, we listen to a lot of music. Right now, mostly Mozart (Symp 40 & 41 in particular) & Vivaldi (Spring, etc). His aunt just so happen to give us a Baby Einstein Mozart toy that has the same songs on it, and he likes that. One time I was listening to Giorgio Moroder’s “Chase” and tapping PokerCub’s left hand with the snare beat and bouncing him to the rhythm like a dance… even if I did nothing, he’ll have a knack for music I think, but of course I plan on doing a whole lot more than nothing, ha ha.
With EC, we’re only doing the “E” part and not the “C” part yet. We’re doing traditional diapering with EC and not EC with diapering as of yet. I think there’s a difference in which method you’re relying mostly on. Having said that, I found “Infant Potty Training” to be quite comprehensive. Though, the things I read months before he was born are just some background knowledge now. It seems to me to be an undertaking of experience. Another resource I’ve found is the EC forum: http://www.mothering.com/community/f/227/elimination-communication
What’s interesting is that I find my wife has begun to imitate a few of the things that I do. For example, the vocal game play, she’s started to doing vowel sounds with him on her own. Another example I caught her doing this morning - so I’ve somewhat begun to do labeling and I told her yesterday how when I imitate Cooper making a fist like he does constantly, that I showed him my hand outstretched and said “HAND” and then close it and said “FIST” and repeated this a few times. This morning, I see my wife with a block from a set we bought yesterday and one side of the block is green, the other red… and she starts flashing one side to him and then the other right in his face saying “GREEN… RED… GREEN… RED”… I admit that I cracked a smile. Now that’s not to say that she’s totally on board. She’s finally admitted that EC’ing so far has had its benefits but absolutely refuses to put him on a potty even after poor little PokerCub peed all over her twice the other day during a diaper change. I can’t explain her aversion other than to just chalk it up to perhaps coprophobia… and I wonder what the heck she was planning on doing when he turned 2 anyway… we also have her dogmatic belief in some of the current education philosophy that I disagree with - but I have a few years before we need to cross those bridges.
I hadn’t really thought of starting music just yet. I think this is a good idea and I’m going to look into it. Do you folks think it’s too early for Little Musician? I’ve started whistling more instead of “singing” tunes. I’m far better at whistling on tune. He’s taken to that, and I can shift from the Christmas Tree song to some of the bits from Mozart or Vivaldi that we listen to - and he seems to like it. Though, he can’t quite figure out how those sounds are being made when he watches me do it
As for the visualization cards, we started those his first few weeks but I stopped when it seemed he could look at regular pictures. I think this was a mistake, so today I’ve pulled out the cards and am using them again.
I’m on the website now & WD’s blog post about it and will certainly look into this. Thank you!
I’m documenting in a little journal and on the blog. I’m guessing I’ll put together a book at 6mos, 1yr, 2yr, … etc. We’ve done his birth one.
As for vocalizations, yes, I’m planning on following Fowler’s progression. At this age he talks about vocal game play and turn taking. The only thing I’m doing differently is that I’m purposely trying to use actual sounds that he’ll have to master to speak English. Fowler mentions that the whole point of this phase is for the baby to practice sounds needed to speak the language. I took that to mean that perhaps in our turn-taking, my turn should be more directed and purposeful. Hence the vowel sounds I started with on day 1 and am continuing up through now. That’s quite a bit of repetition. In general my goal is to follow Fowler’s plan through the whole way and add in written text in a few weeks and throughout along with all the other EL goodies that we have today (which Fowler never touched on in his language program).
I’ve started gathering up objects to use in socio-drama and some of his other activities as listed in the book… so getting ready for the good stuff and can’t wait!
I have HSIYB and I admit that I’m falling short of the daily plans - actually almost the whole way short. Ouch. We’re doing a lot of tummy time (advocated by Doman), crawling track but not as much decline as recommended - and I recall Doman’s ideas for getting the baby to vocalize. That’s the whole object of the game: get baby to vocalize however you can. I often say something and then ask “What does Cooper say?”… he’ll often chime in with a sound or two! I think this is one of Doman’s ideas. I also remember rhymes and having the baby fill in the missing rhyme (we haven’t gotten to that yet).
As for a summary of Fowler or his book(s); the books are available at AMZN though out of print (early 90s) and therefore expensive. Actually very expensive (as in close to the price we pay for poker books sometimes - in excess of $100). Effectively, his program is for developing language and making it easier for a child to actually acquire language. We typically leave this to happen “naturally,” and as could be expected this gives mixed results. So much of this natural acquisition actually works against itself (as discussed at great lengths in books such as Give Your Child a Superior Mind) so that one thing interferes with another making it difficult for a tabula rasa to distinguish and actually learn.
At the early stage, according to Fowler, the objective is to get the baby to vocalize and to assist by introducing sounds while turn-taking. That’s the gist of this stage. His other stages are far more complex and in-depth, and I can try to summarize them in a later post (this one has taken me over 3 hrs due to PokerCub not wanting to take any sort of morning or noon (as of yet) nap!)
And then a special thanks to DadDude. Your compliment means a lot. You’ve done so much for your own kids, and through the power of the internet (ha ha) so much for countless other kids including PokerCub. I wouldn’t even know about BK if not for you… so thanks again and am looking forward to more updates when you post them!
If you get to a librabry you should check out some books by Iza Trapani. There are certainly more words than Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (James first favourite book he would choose for me to read) but they are written well and are able to be read liltingly.
I also love how well the books in the mini masters series read aloud. And they are based on famous artists works.
Terrible Two’s? I Thought this referred to years, not months!
Of course I use the term in jest, but seriously, PokerCub’s new little game has him physically improving rapidly - and it was a work in process that I started during week one (see pokercub blog latest Aug 22nd entry for more info). If you saw the work we were doing a half hour ago, you might be surprised (and that’s maybe saying a lot on a BK forum)… physically superb, here we come! :yes:
not pure muscle, ha ha… I’d say maybe a quarter inch at least if I did a skin fold caliper. We were concerned at how chubby he was getting in general, but the pediatrician reassured us that the first 6 months (for breast fed) tend to pack it on and the following 6 months lean out (and she warned us not to get too concerned when that starts happening).
But, we’re now exercising the heck out of him with his little sit-down and stand-up drill. I’d say we’re doing at least half hour to forty five minutes a day of this - so we’re starting to get him moving to get in shape!
And Doman was right about all that - he vocalizes louder, more confidently, and far more frequently while exercising then at any other time… so it sort of works two things at once.
We have a fabulous pediatrician that (with 8 kids of his own including a daughter with PKU) was wholeheartedly with our ‘outrageous’ EL goals, physical fitness ideas, and vegetarianism (although we did opt to go through a ped nutritionist just to be safe, with full awareness/willingness to modify our daughters diet accordingly!)
Some of the best advice he gave us when Alex would go through a nicely baby ‘chubby’ period?
“It is not chub, but insurance!”
Besides, I actually found that as soon as a bit of chub would go on, she would suddenly immediately demonstrate huge leaps in her physical abilities! With his ‘water skiing ability’ it will be no time at all before you will have to train yourself and mommy to leave absolutely nothing important on edges of surfaces you think are safe :yes:
Oh yes, don’t be comcerned at all about how chubby he is. Breasted kids just don’t get fat. They get something around their bodies but when you poke it it is sort of almost solid, it feels very different to fat. Go poke a chubby bottle fed baby and then yours, see if you can feel the difference. It’s a density thing Ok that is purely my opinion BTW, but i noticed it when I supplemented my ( rather thin, due to genetics and activity) kids for a few months. They got fat and their poo smelt really bad!
Your baby is a LONG way off worrying whether he is getting chubby. He isn’t even carrying enough extra to slow down his physical development.
I also noticed mine would get chubby then shoot up…either physically growing or suddenly developing new skills. I do like the doctors quote. Not fat it’s insurance! lol Beautiful!
PokerDad, I am very impressed with Cub’s progress with language. I just read the recent update you posted on your blog and saw him saying hello to the teddy. Good job, Cub. All in all, it shows that Fowler’s program for language does work. Keep the updates coming. And as I’ve always said, with a father as dedicated as you are, that little guy is covered for life!
P.S.
Seastar did ask a question about Fowler’s book sometime ago. PokerDad gave a complete response so I did not feel it was necessary to add anything. My only comment would that if you are getting Fowler’s book ‘Talking from Infancy’, ensure you get a copy that has the program’s CD at the back. The CD illustrates the concepts in the book well and with real babies so you can really see how to do it.
I’ve got a question. Fowler recommends you introduce each stage one after the other, with the understanding that if things are introduced in too complex a manner all at once, the baby may become confused. Now my question is this: does this not contradict research (e.g., the Hart and Risley one) that encourages talking to babies using all sorts of complex words, sentences, adjectives, and pronouns right from birth?
I know the Fowler stages move quickly, depending on the child’s mastery. For example, PokerCub is already in stage 2 at just 9 weeks of age after having mastered stage 1 (sound play). And I also know that each stage (even the initial stages) require lots and lots of words and talk from the parent (I’ve seen that in the program’s CD videos). And maybe I’ve answered my own question - that no, his method does not contradict the research, it only provides structure to the talking. Your thoughts?
AMAZING PokerDad! Congratulations and welcome to the world of life-long learning with Cub. Happy for you guys
nee1, I just have to comment, you’re such a great researcher! I can’t recall a topic in EL that you haven’t researched or studied yet. I would love to thoroughly study such interesting techniques. May I ask what is your current focus with you LO?
Oh wait that could be pure muscle!!! 