Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Spontaneous acquisition of new language?

This is definitely what I was thinking too.

Can your son also interpret what he is saying in Russian? I have a strong audio visual learner who could memorize just about anything she heard and repeat it back verbatim, including other languages, but could not translate what she was saying unless she was specifically told what it meant. The ability was strong around ages 4 and 5 and has subsequently faded.

It sounds like your son has a unique talent. Wow!

It isn't a joke.

I found this forum because I was trying to google this because I remember reading something about it before. When my son was younger, he made up his own language.

I thought that is what he had done again at first. And then I thought it actually sounded kind of familiar, so I thought it might be Arabic or something (we live near a university and there's a large Middle Eastern population) he had overheard somewhere.

I was talking about it with a co-worker and repeated a few things I'd heard him say many times. One of them is dos nadanya or something like that, which apparently means farewell. My co-worker said it was Russian.

I asked my son what language he was speaking and he said, "The (city we live in) Language." I asked him if he heard it on TV or out somewhere or if he dreamed it. He said he didn't see it on TV or hear someone else speaking it. He said he just learned it.

A co-worker also mentioned she'd read about kids waking up one day with a foreign accent and I thought that could be related too. But, I just can't find what I am looking for.

Thanks to those who took this seriously.

nuttybuddy,

I hope you don't take offense to what others might have posted about your original post being a possible joke. Even for a community of extraordinary, your inquiry was a curve ball to say the least. But if being in this community and reading about everyone's children has taught me anything, it's to accept that we haven't seen it all and there are in fact some amazing children out there.

I, personally, have not heard of children spontaneously speaking a foreign language but I do remember my daughter from an early age 'spitting out' what sounded like Arabic and sometimes even Mandarin. (And by early age I'm referring to before age 1.) I wasn't shocked by it considering how early she spoke her native tongue and even less shocked now with how quickly she picks up other languages. She is fluent in Spanish and strong in French and Mandarin. I saw the early years (DD is only 4 now) as a way in which she stretched her vocal range; flexed her tongue muscles, basically she was practicing all kinds of sounds.

I do want to ask for some clarifications from your original post. Fluency, to me anyway, is not necessarily having a complete vocabulary in any given language but it is the ability to communicate effectively with anyone in that language. Like I stated earlier, DD is fluent in Spanish. She is fluent in so much that she is able to have conversations with Spanish speaking individuals and not just simple Hi, how are you? and responding to it. Is this what you mean about your DS? Or do you mean what words or phrases he is using appear to be accurate Russian? If it is more in line with the second option than I'm inclined to believe he overheard those phrases somewhere: on one of his DVDs or at a store where someone was talking in Russian. It doesn't downplay, by any means, his abilities and clearly this is another example of his intelligence.

Anyway, I hope you aren't offended by the posts of others and I really hope you share more about your son. He sounds wonderful.

You're welcome to stay or come back any time but I will suggest you're more likely to find the type of answer you want to receive on this particular topic by copying your posting at the following forum as well:
http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/

If they fail to help you now or at any time in the future on this or any other issue don't forget us, let us know how we can help you more. My boy was picking up that Chinese from that ni-how-Kailan, plus making up his own words, plus we already live in a Spanglish speaking community. Kids. And I heard an anecdote about someone's kids who were fluently taught 5 languages before kindergarten. Kids are hard to understand when they're young anyway. Imagine. Not knowing which of the five languages you're not understanding them in.

If you'd rather look for a mystical explination your first clue is the word "xenoglossy". It took me a 15 minute google trail to fing that one. hth
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/glossolalia. I wish you luck on your quest. Peace

I took this part to mean you were looking for a more spiritual than cognitive explination. That forum i mentioned has a spirituality section about kids, with a resident intuitive it looks like.Oh yeah. I was curious if he could translate what he said. Either way doesn't downplay The giftedness at all. Katelyn's mom is right about that. I probably shoul just leave it at that, but I've had a long week and a nice cup of coffee. So I probably won't.
It makes a difference in which terms you want to define the things you see. �If you want to call the "increased empathy and creativity, as well as conceptual thinking as apposed to linear thinking" by the term "Indigo children" or if you want to call it "overexcitibilities" determines who you want to talk to. �Seems like several groups have noticed exceptionality and have tried to define and communicate what they saw. �Actually a recent goal i've seen posted here is to create a way of discussing gifted issues and also create some comprehensive easy to grasp terms to discuss them with. �Seems to me like you have an in- depth kid, and, well, we're an in-depth bunch that frequents this forum. �If you're looking for something multifaceted and you're flexible I think you'll find it here.

**(define overexcitibilities )
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Lind_OverexcitabilityAndTheGifted.shtml
*indigo kids was just some kind of hippy term that meant may e ADD kids were simply more evolved, more sensitive, creative, intelligent ...something "�
http://www.indigochild.com/wikipedia.html

I would need to have someone who speaks Russian hear and talk with the child to establish that they are speaking fluent Russian. Sorry.

Language fluency has to do with how many words one knows, as well as how they are applied. I have heard that for somebody to have a basic fluency in a language they need to know at least 1000 words and about 400 phrases. This is may require very little effort for somebody who is gifted. However, to be able to apply the words and phrases fluently in a language the person has to be exposed to the spoken language.

On a practical note if he has a memory for languages (however he is exposed to them or even if in some mystical way they are innate) and if it may have a window of opportunity that could close/fade (as TX G experienced) I think you would try to find him someone to talk with in that language as much as possible. (or multiple languages).

When my SIL wanted her children to "keep" their foreign language, after moving to the US from abroad, she had a tutor make crafts, play games, etc with them --in the foreign language.

My family are notorious for creating humor out of almost anything and playing tricks on each other. Nothing like having a mom that hides around corners and tries to scare you or starts a water fight in the house with gallon pales of water. I definitely learned how not to be easily scared, to question everything and not to take life too seriously. Your post sounds so much like something my cousin Danny would try and pull off.

I would be surprised to find someone being spontaneously fluent in a language. However, it is quite common for someone on the spectrum as you put it to learn certain abilities very quickly. It is very easy to interpret these abilities as being more than they are. Some will be able to instantly learn words and phrases from having only heard them once or a few times. Das Vedanya is a fairly commonly used Russian phrase on English movies. So I wouldn't be suprised if a child picked up a number of commonly used Russian phrases from non-Russian movies.

I have dealt with a few AS children and learned you have to be aware of this ability to pickup skills very quickly. One of the big mistakes a person can make is over-interpreting what the child is able to do. This can lead to situations where they are moved to the next level in school without having properly developed an understanding of the current subject matter. Later when they reach a more advanced area of the subject matter, they may end up having difficulty and this can lead to future insecurities. So it is very important to be careful when interpreting a child's skills or they can be falling behind without even realizing it.

Behavior is another area where this can be an issue. Just as with all children, AS children will try different things, including undesirable actions. If they feel rewarded the first time they attempt an undesired action, this ability to learn quickly can lead to them continuing the behavior. It is good to keep a list of undesired behaviors and plan how to deal with the behavior when it first occurs. If caught on the first occurence, an undesired behavior will takes minutes to resolve, but if not, it can a considerable effort to resolve. It would be impossible to catch them all, but the time saved by just catching a few undesired behaviors early can save a lot of time in the future.

I was however hoping this was an attempt at humor. It has all the elements of what I would consider to being done in good taste. The subject matter is reasonably positive, the username would provide a subtle hint it is humor and the idea of a child being instantly fluent in a language not commonly used even as an available language on DVDs in the area where most of the forum members are from could be seen as another subtle hint. Definitely all the elements of a person gifted in creating humor.

I think humor can be very positive, even on a forum where the topics are often fairly serious. There is a fair amount of humor on this forum. When people get too serious about a particular topic, they often get too fixed onto one train of thinking. A bit of humor can take them outside of the box long enough to become open to new ideas.