In life, there is only one type of knowledge that truly counts, and that is VERIFIED KNOWLEDGE.

You can borrow knowledge from a doctor, speech therapist, a book, a professor, or wherever you think has the greatest knowledge, but one thing is for certain, nothing and no one beats VERIFIED KNOWLEDGE. This refers to knowledge attained by methods that you have tried and tested 100% for yourself (not 99% or 50% – 100% absolutely for yourself). This is when one can authentically say: “this works, or it doesn’t work”.

Having grown up with a mother who speaks Afrikaans, it is my mother language. My lineage on my father’s side is French and English, although my biological father was not actively part of my life as a child. My mother’s Afrikaans wasn’t great either, she used ‘kombuis’/ ‘kitchen’- Afrikaans and my father spoke to me in Afrikaans to the best of his ability as an English French man.

I understand, from the knowledge which I so gratefully received from Alexandra Trent, my late ‘life and health’ mentor, that the most important time a child absorbs and learns language, is between the ages of 2 and 4. This is, according to Alexandra, the time when a child’s language foundation is laid down and anchored for life. Thereafter, if it is not solidly anchored, it will always need some work to keep it smooth or correct it.

Only when my daughter was 3 years old did I receive this piece of information – needless to say, I immediately made work on it, as I realized that I was already a year behind on giving her the best head start to her language and speech development. I spoke to my English-speaking husband, who was still speaking ‘babytalk’ to our daughter at the time, to get with the program, so that our daughter would be able to speak both languages fluently, without problems.

I remembered meeting a speech therapist when my daughter was only a few months old at a family gathering, who said that a child growing up in a bilingual home, needed to have each parent speak only their language to them, slowly and clearly. Then they would thrive and speak each language well in their lives with no problem. So, with this knowledge, I, as the Afrikaans ‘teacher’ in our home, decided to make work of it immediately. Thankfully I never spoke baby talk to our daughter, however, I did not always use the Afrikaans word with everything I spoke.

Now, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds to adjust to speaking clean, proper Afrikaans! I mean, I did not exactly have a solid foundation of Afrikaans when I grew up as a child, considering that I grew up with ‘kitchen’ and broken Afrikaans! Admittedly, my Afrikaans marks at school were far worse than my English. I still, until today, often need to Google some words in English, to learn the correct Afrikaans word myself. Herein lay the second challenge I was facing. In one of my previous articles, you will remember I shared that we outlawed techno devices in our home, for my daughter’s cognitive well being.

Well, ‘’n boer-vrou maak mos ‘n plan”!! Whenever I spoke to my daughter and got stuck with an English word that I was unable to translate into Afrikaans, I would excuse myself gracefully for a moment, (leaving her to learn to stay put and be patient), while I went briefly to another room to Google the correct Afrikaans word. And that was how I picked up and ‘purified’ my own Afrikaans language, as well as taught my daughter clear, proper Afrikaans. Today, I am proud to say that she speaks Afrikaans brilliantly.

I have had numerous compliments from people, (even teachers) telling me how perfectly she speaks our mother tongue. She is forever correcting her school going Afrikaans friends with the proper words to use as well.

 

Then, there is English. Which is ultimately, our home language, because my husband speaks it. Now, I cannot say the same for her English as I did her Afrikaans. Let’s just say, he did not let go of the baby talk with her until she was about 5 years old, so she didn’t learn the basics of proper English, during the language foundation stage. I must say – her English is not terrible, but it is not great either – it is average. Perhaps I can refer to it as ‘kitchen English’ for now. You know, when a person speaks English, but VERY DELICIOUSLY!

Of course, when I realized in her formative years, that her father wasn’t going to change his ways of speaking to her, I decided to start reading numerous English books to her every day. I can still remember that just after one week, her father came to me and said, “thank you for reading to her, I can already hear an improvement in her language skills”. So, I managed to save her from suffering the same fate as myself.

Now perhaps some people will disagree, thinking that a child can grow up with parents, care takers, teachers or peers who mix their languages and give the incorrect pronunciations etc. but I want to urge you to look around you. When you speak to children who speak their language clearly and well, have a look at the people who they communicated with mostly during their formative years and how they talk to the child. Do they babble sentences quickly, where you must really listen carefully to be able to understand them? Do they mix their languages, do they use short, simple words only which they pronounce with flatness, or do they speak clearly and precisely?

It is of utmost importance, that we get the foundation right for our children when it comes to communication. Then, they will thrive when they have to start their education journey of spelling and writing. Not to mention that it is essential for us to be able to communicate clearly with people or life will be a struggle. I can vouch for that firsthand, as there is nothing more frustrating than someone who doesn’t understand what you are saying because you yourself are miscommunicating your own message, feelings, or thoughts.

Naturally, I am not referring to children who are born with disabilities. Neurotypical children should evolve to a school-going age and breeze though the subjects of English and Afrikaans with no problems when parents/ primary caregivers have taken good care of the foundation of that language, from the get go. Always remember, Foundation is key to a well developing child.

I decided to share a few of my own golden tips today:

  1. Speak to your child from pregnancy, even if it feels weird. They can hear you from around 20 week’s gestation.
  2. Always speak slowly and clearly to your child in the formative years and beyond, so that they can not only hear the words and sounds clearly, but see how your lips move though the sounds.
  3. READ to them. Read lots….EVERYDAY. At least a half an hour every day.
  4. Ensure you do not mix your language. Speak properly, whichever language you speak to your child.

In this way, you will lay the foundation for that child and they will never struggle with speaking and reading and writing should evolve naturally and easily for them.

As an extra bonus on my article, I decided to interview a language and speech therapist for some enlightened information from a professional point of view.

So in my next, upcoming article, we will be talking to Mignon Botes, a practicing Pediatric Speech Therapist about the subject. Mignon has studied both Speech therapy and Audiology.

Until then, happy homeschooling!

Charlene Chauvet-Swart

Chairperson of the Gauteng Association for Homeschooling