Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school 4 year old using made up words

OMG, so funny! Yes, my son did this a lot from 3.5-4.5, I sometimes kept a list. He was also learning French at the time, still is, and interested in other languages. I think that has something to do with it. He would read his English and French kid dictionaries before bed every night, maybe this had something to do with it.

My google has failed me. This is not the recent thread about made up words I was looking for. The boy just made a funny noise. I called it something between a burp and a gurgle. He said, "then it's a "Gurp". Ew., lol

Holy cow, this is driving us nutzo right now:

"Nar-nar" is, best I can define it, a state of being for a vehicle that is currently without roof. A convertible with the top down is nar-nar. An army jeep is nar-nar. A motorcycle is "kind of nar-nar."

It's not etymologically related to anything, as far as we can tell. He just noticed a gap in the English language where he REALLY needed (due to his, um, great love of anything vehicular) there to be a specific word. "It has its top down" or "it doesn't have a roof" just didn't cut it, oh no. We needed to be able to say, "It's nar-nar."

My mom's cousin didn't speak until he was 4. Then he spoke four languages at once: English like his father, Spanish like his mother, German like his nanny, and his own language. He'd apparently deduced that everyone who could talk had their own language, so he didn't talk until he'd come up with his.

It's a family legend, but I have met the guy. His parents would probably have appreciated this forum!

smacca,

At least he didn't decide to use "topless", a very reasonable choice, to describe this vehicular state. Imagine the looks the grandparents would give you if he nonchalantly dropped "Mom likes to drive the convertible topless..." into conversation.

my son did the same thing at about the same age. he had over 300 words by 18mos and taught himself to read by 2.5yrs. around 4-5yrs he had made up a language he called "fallalajah" and used to go around singing songs in the language. very cute we thought. it went away but he still remembers that he used to do that.

DD5.5 has done this for quite some time. She enjoys making up new words on the fly, then gives me the definition for them if I look confused. I enjoy the creativity. She's been very verbal for a long time and is a great communicator (as long as her thoughts or feelings don't get in the way!) so I have never seen a problem with this behavior.