Language and learning

I have a distinct recollection of language and learning it. I must have been breast feeding, although I was so tiny I didn't have any idea of what it was, but I must have been too aggressive or something, because my mom slapped me.

I think that's why I remember this, because there was something that startled me into thinking about it. I got slapped, and I understood about one out of every third or fourth word that my mother said. I must have been days old, but I remember specifically thinking, "Don't worry about those words you don't know, you already learned the ones you know, so the others will come."

People think babies don't think, but they do. I remember the word "love" was very well known to me. I remember that one and "sorry," because she slapped me. And then, after that, she set me down on a table top that must have been a bassinet or something.

I was put down on my back, and I couldn't see, and I couldn't turn over, and she left the room, and I cried. I was crying just to see what would happen. I had no question about it. I was crying just to see if I could get away with it, to see if it would make her come back.

She came back to the door and stood in the door, which seemed to me a long ways away. She stood there silently, and I knew. I knew she thought I didn't know she was there, and I knew she was there. I could hear her as loud as if she was right beside me. She stood there awhile being real quiet to see if I was okay. I squalled as hard as I could and then I went to asleep.

Posted By: Roger Steinbach
Happy family man, Downers Grove, Illinois