Little Girl Has An Interesting Way Of Spelling Words

Little sister spells “nimble”. We'll, she doesn't quite have it right, but you know something? She gets an A for effort.

In fact, the praise mom gives daughter is probably the reason older brother can spell the word with no problem. You see, language isn't exactly ingrained. We have to learn it as we go along. Before we have even learned the alphabet, we have to sound out what we hear our elders say, in this case that would be the big brother.

There's more to mimicry than child’s play. By mimicking what we hear other people say, even other languages we are trying to learn, we teach our mouths how to articulate the sound, but we also exercise our brains how to command our mouth parts, as well as reinforce the meanings of letters, words, and phrases.

Then there's the whole biology of humans that is so evolutionary above our nearest primate relatives, such as the coordination of Broca's area (where speech production occurs) with Wernicke's area, where we learn to comprehend what is being said. Let's not dive deeper into the biology of speech just yet. Suffice to say even this little girl (probably three or four) is already way ahead of the sum total of the language skills Koko the gorilla had mastered in her 47 years. That, itself, is a major understatement, since Koko couldn't speak, but could only use sign language.

Yes, the little girl is adorable, mixing and matching letters in some stream of consciousness order with a count up to 9, 10, 11, 12, 16 (and at that age, letters and numbers are all the same thing, aren’t they?). As she's ”spelling” nimble, she also happens to be stuffing food in her mouth, quite possibly to distract from her obvious inability so spell. But there are some important fundamental skills being developed under our noses. It's like those cute videos of lion cubs pouncing on tortoises. Sure, it's all fun and games now. Just wait until that lion cub weighs a few hundred pounds, then who'll be laughing?

All the while, neither brother nor mom interrupt. She knows she's putting them on, and she knows they know. But family is a supportive framework in which you are given space to make mistakes and not be punished, and are encouraged to keep trying. Such a complex skill as spelling is delicate and nuanced. Progress is imperceptibly drawn out.

Curiously, we get the sense that different families prioritize what is important differently. This family, for instance, places a high value on literacy. We know from the setting that what the little girl is going through, the boy has already gone through. We can predict in general but probably accurate measure that these children will be competent in scholastic endeavors. It's refreshing to see that families still value literacy.

Where will the girl be in 20 or so years, we just can't say. But if she keeps at it, and stays surrounded by people who care, there can be little doubt that she will make it in an ever do complicated world of words.