Self talk and “I don’t like it no”

Two little quick ProLoQuo2Go stories for you from this evening. First, I overheard Jman doing some ‘self talk’ or ‘self narration’ on his ProLoQuo2Go this evening as he was getting a glass of water from the fridge. I don’t know exactly what he was punching in, but I definitely heard “drink” in there.

Many people make jokes about people who ‘talk to themselves,’ but in reality, ‘self talk’ or ‘self narration’ is an important developmental milestone. First we learn to listen to what others have to say, such as when mothers talk their babies or children through certain activities as the more experienced guide. Later those children will follow that model and talk themselves through activities, learning to ‘think like the guide’ even when the guide isn’t there doing the teaching anymore. Eventually the child learns to think and guide himself for many activities. If you watch little kids at play, you can see and hear them talking themselves through things out loud. As they grow even older, the self-talk becomes ‘in their heads’ and you don’t hear it any more (but it’s still going on). Even grown ups, when they are particularly challenged with some activity, will revert back to ‘talking to themselves’ out loud.

So, all that to say that Jman the other day was doing some ‘narration’ with the ProLoQuo2Go when we were going to brush his teeth. This evening he was self-narrating/self-talking himself through getting a drink. It’s a fascinating developmental step to see appearing (or maybe I should say to ‘hear’ appearing!).

Second story: Tonight Jman made his first spontaneous experience sharing/perspective sharing comment to me, unsolicited, using his ProLoQuo2Go, AND it was an expansion of language on a statement/request he had made previously, so there were TWO huge accomplishments all tied up in one little comment.

What happened was that Sly and I were going to go for a walk after cleaning up from dinner. I went to invite Jman to join us. He loves going for walks with us in the evening. I punched into his ProLoQuo2Go, “Let’s go to walk.” He took the ProLoQuo2Go and punched in, “Good night. Let’s go to bed.” He was in the middle of drawing a picture while in his bed, and apparently didn’t want to go. I pushed it and answered using the ProLoQuo2Go, “I want to go walk.” He took back the ProLoQuo2Go and punched in, “I don’t like it no” followed by, “Good night. Let’s go to bed!”

Note 1: He added an exclamation point to the second message just to make sure I understood! He likes to do that when he writes, but it's new for him to use it on ProLoQuo2Go, and he only used it on the second statement, not the original, so it was a dynamic use instead of a rote use.
Note 2: He didn’t reply using the same language structure that I did (I want ___) but instead used a different language structure (I don't like it no) to express his feelings. That is the first time that he has spontaneously initiated a ‘perspective’ comment without solicitation using the P2G, and the first time he has expanded his previous comment in such a way (sharing his perspective with new language altogether and then reiterating his request). That is SO cool!