Gilbert’s language development

 

Gilbert’s language development

We’re quite concerned about Gilbert’s language development. He understands all food related words and sounds. If he hears an apple or a peach being cut up, he is immediately in attendance. He’s equally alert to any talk of going out.

He just can’t get the idea of names being attached to people and toys. It’s our fault, of course. We talk to him endlessly, but obviously not about the right things, and he listens carefully, his beautiful eyes trained on us. He also indicates, very clearly, the things he wants, like his honking duck, which needs repair once again, and the roast chicken pan and the gravy saucepan, the yoghourt pot and the almost empty butter dish – he and Roxy share those, turn and turn about (and they go in the dishwasher for a thorough sterilising clean when finished) It’s just our names and the names of his toys he can’t quite grasp.

Maybe he has too many toys – typical spoilt youngest! ‘Find your toy’ promotes a happy galloping off to find a toy, but the names elude him. He’s just about learnt Quintopus. Our son’s dog, a toy poodle, is very smart – knows all her toys’ names, brings his and his wife’s slippers to them, as well as a myriad other accomplishments.

 I know we shouldn’t compare – it’s disastrous, as bad as it is for children.

Maybe you remember, ‘What reading level is your child on?‘ ‘Which maths book is he working on?’ ‘What part has she got in the school play?’ No matter what your school may tell you, all children know exactly where they are in the class, who’s the best reader, who’s top of the class in maths, who’s naughtiest, who’s teacher’s pet.

Returning to Gilbert, the subject of this post . . . people! Today I asked him to go and find Barry and he immediately went into the kitchen and picked up his grunting pig, which I thought was hilarious. After some while, Barry eventually saw the funny side. To be fair, Barry has had his mind on other things, principally the colonography and the medical photograph of the lesion at the side of his nose and the chest x-ray and the microcytic anaemia and yet another blood test, but even so – come on! Actually, he’s much more relaxed about the whole series of examinations than I am, and worse things happen at sea, and all that.

Anyway, we are revising our opinions of Gilbert’s intelligence, but don’t tell him. We wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings.

And we bought a nail-filing tray for Roxy and so far all they‘ve managed to do is file their teeth and tongues.

                        Roxy: What do I do with this? Give us a clue!

                                            Gilbert: Try this!

                                    Roxy: Let's try it this way . . .

There are pictures and reports of dogs cracking the problem in seconds. Not our dogs.

Maybe it’s working Labradors. My daughter’s younger Labrador was incredibly pleased to be given a Yakker, a chew made with Yak milk, and carried it around for an hour, not knowing quite what to do with it, but wagging her tail the whole time, to show she appreciated the gift.