Today's notes
Oct. 3rd, 2008 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottahill* According to the questionnaire we filled out for the pediatrician, Miriam lags a bit in her linguistic development. She only infrequently says "Mum-mum" (and only if she's upset), and while she says "Dada" all the time it doesn't seem to mean "Daddy", but instead "I want that!" or "Look at that!" (Maybe she's saying "Dada give it to me!") Her first word was in fact "daw" for dog; if she sees or hears a dog she repeatedly says "daw! daw!" There's a dog who lives next door to us now, and even though she (the dog) is normally in the house, Miriam still points at her gate and says "daw!" everytime she sees it, whether the daw is there or not. In the past week, I've noticed that she's been alternating "daw!" with an outburst of air which I realized was her way of saying "woof!" (her mouth is almost closed when she does it, with only a hint of F). Does that count as a separate word? :)
I'm not at all concerned about her linguistic development, as she has clearly focused on other areas (motor control, for instance) and will catch up here later. But I do wonder if the problem of language isn't as much ours as hers: she may be saying a lot of her own words which we just don't understand. I THINK she's started to say "Wa" for water, but I need to listen more to double-check. I also think she's saying "dah!" for down, but of course that sounds a lot like "dada!" and "daw" so it's hard to be sure. :)
* Regarding her motor skills, she's walking faster now, although still with a stiff sort of gait. She loves to kick her little soccer ball around the room which she does rather successfully. (She loves to watch it roll down hills. In fact, anything sliding or rolling downward amuses her-- she is a big fan of gravity, when it's not affecting her.) She has almost figured out how keys work: she will take my keyring, pick a key (eerily enough, it's often the correct one), and try to put it into the lock of the car door. She can't manage to align it right (the lock is above her head after all), but she's got the basic idea down pat. She also hates it if we do it for her. :)
* I've updated my composition site with some more pieces: http://sahill.nfshost.com/Music/ . I'm focusing on putting up pieces that I know my readers might be able to use: choral and vocal pieces, and an organ piece for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thomascantor. Again, I'd be thrilled to hear any of these performed and to have a recording of said performance, should anyone be inspired. I may try to run O Come Emmanuel by the UDallas music department to see if they're interested ("it's from a real live professor!")
* Working hard on my research for once. After a few tweaks to my program I'm getting very pretty, consistent, understandable data, which is wonderful. I need to make a set of publishable figures, and send them off to my contact in Boston who is more knowledgable about the field: he is impressed by the work and has been throwing journal names around like "Nature" and "Science", which are very hard to get into. I'll be content with a publication anywhere, though I won't turn down a chance for a big splash.
I'm not at all concerned about her linguistic development, as she has clearly focused on other areas (motor control, for instance) and will catch up here later. But I do wonder if the problem of language isn't as much ours as hers: she may be saying a lot of her own words which we just don't understand. I THINK she's started to say "Wa" for water, but I need to listen more to double-check. I also think she's saying "dah!" for down, but of course that sounds a lot like "dada!" and "daw" so it's hard to be sure. :)
* Regarding her motor skills, she's walking faster now, although still with a stiff sort of gait. She loves to kick her little soccer ball around the room which she does rather successfully. (She loves to watch it roll down hills. In fact, anything sliding or rolling downward amuses her-- she is a big fan of gravity, when it's not affecting her.) She has almost figured out how keys work: she will take my keyring, pick a key (eerily enough, it's often the correct one), and try to put it into the lock of the car door. She can't manage to align it right (the lock is above her head after all), but she's got the basic idea down pat. She also hates it if we do it for her. :)
* I've updated my composition site with some more pieces: http://sahill.nfshost.com/Music/ . I'm focusing on putting up pieces that I know my readers might be able to use: choral and vocal pieces, and an organ piece for
thomascantor. Again, I'd be thrilled to hear any of these performed and to have a recording of said performance, should anyone be inspired. I may try to run O Come Emmanuel by the UDallas music department to see if they're interested ("it's from a real live professor!")* Working hard on my research for once. After a few tweaks to my program I'm getting very pretty, consistent, understandable data, which is wonderful. I need to make a set of publishable figures, and send them off to my contact in Boston who is more knowledgable about the field: he is impressed by the work and has been throwing journal names around like "Nature" and "Science", which are very hard to get into. I'll be content with a publication anywhere, though I won't turn down a chance for a big splash.
