Language Acquisition in Babies

I have a toddler whose language ability is beginning to skyrocket. It's so intriguing to watch her, at 16 months, manipulate sounds and form meaning with those sounds on a daily basis. I often try to figure out how and where she picks up her language.

Talkin up a storm!

For example, several months back she started repeating te-eh-go or de-eh-go, we weren't quite sure what she was saying. Through sleuthing attempts, and after talking with her day care providers, I realized she was singing "Diego" from Dora the Explorer- a TV program that an older kid at her day care is obsessed with. He would sing the Diego incessantly, in hopes to watch the program, and my daughter began to mimic him. This same process happened a few weeks ago with her saying "Oh nah nah" for everything. We wondered what she was saying. And again, after a little digging, our home day care provider has a 15-year-old who likes to watch music videos on YouTube. We figured out that my daughter has picked up "Oh nah nah" from Rihanna's song (not entirely appropriate for a baby!), What's My Name? (Oh Na Na). What I find intriguing about these 2 examples is that in both of these cases my daughter's language acquisition was linked to music.

She has picked up a lot of other words from social experiences, including, agua, this, that, what is it?, doggie, and so on. But she her language acquisition seems faster and more accurate when the word is linked to music. Now, this is just my observation as a mother. I'm not basing this on anything scientific. I wonder, have any of you had similar experiences?

I came across this video from TED TV on a friend's blog. As a reading specialist and a mom, I was immediately interested in Deb Roy's study. He video recorded his family's interactions with his son from ages 0-3 with an end goal to study his son's language development. It's completely fascinating; he documents every word and sound uttered by his son and tracks how it morphs and develops.


It's fascinating to watch a child's language develop. Do you have any anecdotes from a student, child, or relative to share?

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