
How do babies acquire languages?
Generally speaking, language acquisition theories have centered on “nature” vs. “nurture”, also known as nativism vs. empiricism.
So you have learned how to say mom, dad, baby (see How to say mom, dad and baby in Chinese?), younger sister, older sister, younger brother and older brother (see How to say sister and brother in Chinese?) in Chinese. In today’s lesson, the Chinese words I am teaching are grandma and grandpa.
After finishing the post of Bilingualism and cognitive development, via the Internet I happened to run across a detailed bibliography, which listed a number of studies and articles, published recently in academic journals, books, magazines, newspapers, and brochures, about the relationship between bilingualism and children’s development.
Does bilingualism help a child’s cognitive development? This issue has been a hotly contested debate over the decades among language researchers, educationalists, psychologists and sociologists. Here is what I found.
In the last post, I showed you How to say mom, dad and baby in Chinese?. In today’s lesson, the Chinese words I am teaching are older sister, younger sister, older brother, and younger brother.
Most 9-month-old babies are confident crawlers and continue making major gains in development. DD was no exception. She moved swiftly to the next step and began practicing pulling herself up and even cruising. Although interrupted by her one-week sickness, her baby training this month still helped exercise her muscle and brain to reach the next milestone.
This month DD finally figured out crawling. Once she did, she crawled swiftly and professionally. She even crawled to chase a puppy! She also quickly moved to the next milestone: pulling herself up to a standing position from sitting.


