Communication 101

No, we are not going to debate whether or not there is such a thing as a distinct Canadian culture nor talk about the vastness of the Canadian landscape and the proximity to the US as we did in those intro communication courses at SFU. This is a lot more basic than that. Basic as in "a-goo."

There's really not much by way of vocabulary for Dexter but he is getting good at making himself understood. One recognizable and consistent sound he utters is "ning ning." As far as we can tell, "ning ning" means "no, no." He says it when we're trying to do something that he obviously does not want to do. For example, he might be cranky and when I try to change his diaper, he would cry, resist and say ning ning as if to say: "No, no, you got it wrong -- I'm hungry, not wet."

Jon's taken to calling him Flipper since Dexter started making these strange dolphin-like sounds: a combination of throatal, gutteral vocalizations along with some "aaaaaahs" and "errrrrrrrggggh" and other vowel-like, growly noises. I think it's his first attempt at speech. Sometimes the utterings follow the cadence of a real conversation, but most of the time, I think he's just trying out different sounds.

In terms of trying to understand the boy, we still rely a lot on non-verbal cues. Smooshing face into our chests or rubbing his eyes means he's tired. Crying and pulling his knees up to his chest means he's got stomach cramps. Tugging at his ears means his teeth/gums are ache-y. Crying along with a cough-cough means he's hungry.

We're trying to learn sign language so that he can communicate some of his basic needs. The theory is that the ability to comprehend along with the child's fine motor coordination predates the ability to speak. So, if we teach him basic signs for things like milk (fist squeezing as if milking a cow), eat (tips of thumb and fingers together and tapping the mouth), and happy (palm touching chest over the heart), we can communicate a little better.