Language related
3V1233.01 Peggy’s first Word World: a summary description (6/8/81) Objects: SUN (base color) (via UPx N) (help with WALK/SLOWERx2) GIRL (base color) (Via DOWN x N=4 (started at road) CAR (help with GREEN) (help with MOVE) (via DOWN x 5) (help with WALK/ FAST) DOG (base color) (help with MOVE) (via DOWN x 1) HOUSE …
3V1230.02 Writing What ? (6/5/81) Peggy drew a heart on her chalkboard. With Kate’s birth due at any day, her sister’s are much on Peggy’s mind. She drew her favorite shape, a heart, and drew some wiggly lines inside. she asked, “Dad, does that say ‘babies and sisters’?”
3V1230.01 Xylopipes and letters (6/5/81) The Xylopipes were set up on the piano bench — an inconvenient place but a flat surface of approximately the right size. Ages ago, I had put letter labels on the pipes as I did also on the piano keys. Today Peggy banged on the pipes with no apparent recognition …
3V1223.02 Duets (5/29/81) Peggy has begun to ask me to help her sing, even ‘The Fox went out on a chilly night.” What typically happens is that I sing a little, she sings a lot and when she is stymied, I sing a little more. This scenario seems to derive from two sources; one may …
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3V1218.01 Spelling a second word: “loadshapes” after “load” (5/24/81) My cassette files are set up with procedures stored before shapes. The first are accessed by ‘LOAD’ and the second by ‘LOADSHAPES.’ Since Peggy had insisted on typing LOAD wherever possible, I have HAD to instruct her to discriminate between the two words so that her …
3V1217.02 Spelling “load” and being grown-up; contrast toilet training (5/23/81) Peggy sat alone at the computer. The rest of us were out in the dining room, eating lunch. She called with notable excitement, “Daddy, come see. I’ve spelled ‘LOAD.’ Come see it, Daddy.” Because of her excitement, I left the table, witnessed her achievement (it …
3V1217.01 The Alphabet Song: letters change but the melody lingers on (5/23/81) Coming home from Cambridge, Miriam was singing the litany ‘ABCD-EFG…” and getting Peggy to join her. At home, singing by herself, Peggy gave evidence of knowing the tune well but her text was somewhat corrupt: “ABCD-FIG…” was how she began then petered off. …
3V121201 Writing words: in order to load programs (very impt.) (5/18/81) Peggy has spontaneously begun to “write” (ie type) words in order to control the loading of programs. While waiting for Gretchen to make available the DRAW program, Peggy typed “LO” (Did she ask if that was right ? Did she ask what next ?) …
3V1199.02 Two Drawings (with Polaroid sample) and “wwords” (5/5/81) Peggy made these figures (see photo in notebook) on her chalkboard as I watched (After the first was completed). She explained they were two hearts, the one at right having the message “I love Daddy,” the second “I love Mimi.” Peggy wrote the marks in the …
3V119202 Unusual construction: “I won’t make sure I’ll slip.” (4/28/81) no further detail with this note.
3V119201 Issues in learning graphical language: Logo logon messages (/28/81) Peggy has more or less read “BY” — the common word in her story books. Her reading it shows little discrimination but for length. Today, Peggy began reading (in my presence, for the first time) the Logo Logon messages “Setting up” and “Welcome to Logo.” …
3V119102 Cutting up a Tree: an old joke (4/27/81) Robby and I were hauling hickory back from the site where I recently felled a tree. When Peggy came to watch us, I introduced her to a joke, a simple absurdity of the language. She knows one cuts down a tree (she has seen this twice …
3V1188.02 You can spell everything, not merely “French” (4/24/81) Peggy is apparently coming to realize that all words can be spelled (not merely “French”). The cause of this conjecture I can’t document, but she sat in my lap this afternoon and asked me to spell word after word…. words with no apparent connection, ending up …
3V1186.01 Learning by observation during Story hour (4/22/81) Today was the last in a series of story hours for Three Year Olds given weekly at the local library. The Childrens’ Librarian would take a group of children (maybe 10 to 12) into a meeting room where they might sing a little song or play a …
3V1185.01 Computer at home: TI-99 (4/21/81) I finally brought home a TI-99 from the Logo lab. The machine’s storage extension is very flakey and the tape recorder would not work well for the first week or so. Consequently it was hard to program little systems for Peggy. We began using the computer in experiments with …
3V1173.01 Typing “Bear” variously as “BAER” and “BERA” (4/9/81) Peggy sat playing quietly with her typewriter a few feet from where I was working. I don’t recall that her BearHug was with her, but it may have been (and probably was). She typed in sequence the following, with a significant pause between each: B, A, …
3V1171.03 Counting in French: “Quatorze” (+ dog) (4/7/81) Peggy counts in French, which to her is “spelling”, i.e. reciting a list of non-sense sounds as an amplification or explication of something about a meaningful (?) work[d?]. Beginning with “/cat//twank/”, Peggy has picked up “/cat//torze/” (single word, no caesura) from Miriam’s recitations — partly offered as …
3V1171.02 Letter roller: compared to Rubic’s cube (4/7/81) Peggy has played with Rubic’s cube for several weeks, first destroying the complete pattern by a single or double twist, then “fixing” the cube by reversing the operation — uniformly with great pride and delight. We, of course, applauded her efforts. This was not at all surprising …
3V1171.01 Letter names versus Meanings: now even “the mommy letter” is blind coded.(4/7/81) In the last experiment, P167, Peggy made a distinction I have observed otherwheres since. When asked the name of any letter, she would reply “D”, no matter what the letter was, no matter what meaning it had for her. For example, she …
3V1170.01 Reflexive pronoun means symmetrical directed action: “The guys are killing themselves” (we would say “each other”.) (4/5/81) Peggy noted as she banged the Fischer-Price dolls against each other. That is, she uses the reflexive pronoun to describe symmetrical directed action.
3V1169.01 Recognizing “By” in another context: Asterix book (4/5/81) Peggy asked me to read “Asterix in Britain.” On page 6 (bottom) there appears a balloon with “Attack by Juno” in large capitals. As I was reading near the top of the page, Peggy pointed to “BY” and said, “That says ‘BY’.” Now it appears that …
3V1162.02 Not quite right, even yet: “By” in Hop on Pop (3/29/81) Peggy offered to read ‘Hop on Pop’ to me and began with the title. Pointing to the word “HOP” (alone on the top line) she said, “Hop on Pop.” Pointing next to “ON” (alone on middle line) she continued her reading as “by” …
3V1160.02 Subject and aspect: repetition expresses continued activity (3/27/81) Peggy is very vocal and most frequently describes verbally her action. The subject of her verbal predicates is usually herself and most often is “understood.” Today she ran through the kitchen, with her BearHug, putting him through actions. She said (manipulating him the while) “Run after. …
3V1160.01 Imperfectly articulated Guessing Games (3/27/81) While we were at dinner, Peggy came running around the table, behind Robby’s chair, waving her BearHug. She said, “You’ll never guess what’s behind my back.” Non-committally, I responded, “I won’t.” Peggy said, “It will be a bear,” then hid the bear.
3V1156.01 Spelling a word: “B-E-R” for bear, from “BearHug” Peggy sat on the floor by her typewriter. She looked up at me and said, ‘I spelled ‘Bear’.’ when I asked her how, Peggy pressed in sequence the letters, ‘B’, ‘E’, & ‘R’. I asked how she knew to spell Bear that way, but she did …
3V1155.03 New question form during March and April: [Can we x — yes or no ?] ( 3/22/81) Peggy has a habit of posing a question and demanding an immediate answer. “Can we go for a walk ? Yes or no?” Almost every question is accompanied by this insistence. Gretchen.
3V1155.02 Auxiliary introduced in non-std. way: “Should” ( 3/22/81) Peggy has been using the verb form “should” as an inquiry “Should I have cereal?” “Should you help me get dressed?” She does this where you expect her to say “can” or “will”. Gretchen
3V1153.01 Peggy volunteers a spelling: letters instead of words (3/23/81) Miriam worked on her school work in the dining room, writing a composition. She called out to her mother , “How do you spell ‘couples’?” Peggy volunteered an answer, “L, N, G, P, L.” While Gretchen supplied a more nearly standard one. A few seconds …
3V1152.02 More names of French numbers: [Cat…twank] (3/19/81) Peggy talking to herself again. I heard a recognizable ‘Tra…cat..twank’ followed by what seemed to me to be reproductions of higher French numbers (around eleven to fourteen) which Miriam and I had discussed earlier. Gretchen
3V1152.01 Letters: [N…G…Y.. spell N…G…Y…spell?] (3/19/81) Peggy commenting to herself. A few letters, the ‘…N…G…Y spell… N…G…Y…spell. ? Gretchen.
3V1148.01 “Tendy” (3/15/81) While working on dinner in the kitchen amidst a circus of children, I suddenly heard out of the chaos Peggy counting, ‘eighty, ninety, tendy, eleven…’. She trailed off there, perhaps having said ‘eleventy.’ Gretchen
3V1147.01 Letter H: “Is this for jump ?” (3/14/81) ‘Is this for ‘jump’ ?’ Peggy asked, bringing me the letter ‘H’ from her set on the floor. I explained that ‘H’ was for ‘Happy.’ (maybe I should have said for ‘Hop’ — but would she recognize that as different from ‘jump’ ?) The letter names …
3V1146.02 Dancing and whooping: a new script for animal play (3/13/81) Last night after supper, Peggy brought her collection of toys. Our new Chieftains record was playing, so when Peggy (as BearHug) asked me (as Pink Panther) ‘What do you want to do now ?’ I answered, ‘I want to dance’ and began bouncing the …
3V1146.01 Dead flowers: [They been shot.] (3/13/81) A warm day, the family outside working in the garden. Peggy picked up some dried flowers, brought them inside and asked me to put them in a vase. I refused to do so, avoiding a confrontation by evading her request. Outside later, Peggy again mentioned her flowers. I …
3V1141.01 French: [I can speak French – “Cat twank” ] (3/8/81) I asked Miriam how her French is coming. She replied, ‘Comment allez-vous ?’ ‘Tres bien, merci, et vous ?’ I answered. Miriam could not continue. We mentioned ‘French’ several times during the conversation. Peggy, who had been sitting there piped up, ‘I can speak …
3V1140.01 Letter names as entities separated from signifiers of people (3/7/81) Peggy brought me the ‘F’ from her set of letters. She asked if it were the letter ‘A’. When I said ‘No,’ she next guessed the letter name ‘E’ (She knows this, of course, is the ‘father letter.’) I told her it was the …
3V112002 Squirting (skunks; rabbits squirt with their ears.) (2/15/81) Peggy has a skunk… it attacks other animals by SQUIRTING them with its tail. (Does this show the influences of Robby, Miriam ?) Squirting is NOT limited to the skunk. Most other animals also squirt from tails. An exception is the rabbit. It has a button …
3V1120.01 Peggy’s invented games: extensive notes on animal play (2/15/81) For the past week or more, Peggy and I have played together in a way that appears very important to her. that is, she is really hurt if I am unwilling to play. Last night she was unwilling to stop — without tears — only …
3V111501 Metalinguisticc questions: “How do you spell —– ?” (2/10/81) I was doing some work in the kitchen when Peggy came up and asked right out of the blue, ‘How do you spell cup ?’ then she went through a whole string of words one after another, and ‘How do you spell eyes ?’ ‘How …
3V1105.04 Generalized arguments to avoid rejection: [some little kids like candy.] (late January 1981) For some months now, Peggy has shown a semantically unusual usage. She typically uses “somebody”, “some kids”, “some people” as ways of indirectly expressing her feelings — especially in situations where she may be unsure that a request for something will …
3V1105.03 Meta-cognitive observations: [I think my jokes are funny.] (late January) We were driving east on route 1, near Moose Hill Manor. Seeing the ponies of the Diamond M Ranch, Peggy remarked, ‘I want to ride one of those every day.’ I turned to her with shocked surprise, ‘Every day?’ Peggy smiled, ‘I think my …
3V1105.02 What we observe is not what she intends [Woodstock is patting his tail with the monsters.] (1/31/81) ‘Patting’ is an activity that Peggy knows a lot about. Scurry is her close friend and she pats Scurry every day. She is, in fact, merciless in expressing her affection for the dog who gets no peace …
3V1104.02 Solla Sollew: just how long is the title ? (1/30(81) Peggy came to me and asked, ‘Will you read this book (in her hand) about Solla Sollew…(pause) on the banks of the beautiful river Wahoo… where they never have troubles…or at least very few. (Bob suggests she may think this entire spiel is the …
3V1100.01 What words mean: example: graphics mean the name of the thing (1/26/81) After concluding an experiment (P157 I believe), Peggy touched the camera now back in its case. Pointing to the words on the camera she said, ‘I know what this says.’ ‘What,’ I asked. ‘Camera,’ she replied. This is a second example (see …
3V1096.01 Time sensitivity: When vs. Before (1/22/81) Miriam and I got back from Boston around 9 pm. We emptied the car, got off our coats, and all that. I talked with Peggy a while and she told me of her activities earlier in the day. I can’t recall the specific activity, but at one point …
3V1091.01 Breaking up an idiomatic expression: [By Beatrix Potter] (1/17/81) Peggy brought “Peter Rabbit” and “The Flopsy bunnies” to my lap. As I have read them to her in the past, I have moved my finger along the title. Earlier (1/26/80) Peggy recognized “by” in two books as being “the same.” Here when I finished …
3V1089.03 A trick on Robby (1/15/81) Peggy was sitting in the big chair with Bob when Robby walked in and sat down on the other chair. Peggy suddenly said to him (for no known reason) “I throwed up on the furniture.” Robby looked startled and prepared to leap up, before he realized it was a …
3V1085.02 Context and two more sentences: [(Negotiating for a cookie. Hiccup). Can I have some ? Hiccups make me hungry.] (1/11/81) Peggy, wanting chocolate chips, asked Robby for some. He refused. She hiccuped then and asked again, “Can I have some ? Hiccups make me hungry.” What does one make of this ? Cause ? …
3V1077.01 Two Related Sentences (1/3/81) Peggy has proved her good control of her toilet use. She has been happy to empty her potty into the toilet. When she defecates, she is able and happy to wipe herself but she does NOT like to empty the shit into the toilet. Today she said, “I don’t want …