Child's First Language

You know we always learn about making sure that the children or people we work with have a test administered in their first language and we are getting first hand experience on what a difference it really does make. As y’all probably know they speak chtongan to one another, but also know English (with a different accent). The Aunties at the Haven speak in Tonga and we knew this would be an obstacle in our therapy before we arrived. However, with the help of the Aunties we have managed to gain control of our groups and they are becoming very receptive to our American accents and we are beginning to elicit expressive responses from many of the children. A couple of us are trying to learn therapy specific commands that might help with behavior and transitioning from activity to activity. I have been able to receive basic chtongan lessons from our night watchman, Webster. He has taught me to say “thank you, drink, sit down, come, come here, stand up, no.” Their language is difficult for me to hear correctly, because they are not very loud and they say it so fast. Of course it’s funny because they think us Southerners talk TOO fast…ha, good thing we don’t have any people from the North with us that would be like Michael Johnson fast! We have 4 different language times during the day. The first is at Haven 2 with the toddlers and this is mostly like TLC, then we go to Haven 1 with the babies and 1-year-olds for a language introduction class, the 3rd type is individual time where we chose babies at Haven 1 who just need extra attention, human touch/voice, language enrichment, we also help them with physical milestones like sitting up, crawling, or walking (this is PT, but we go ahead and include it with our language), the 4th session is at Haven 3 with the at risk babies and toddlers and we basically do the same thing with them and they have been the most receptive and expressive group for us. They are so sweet and they are always smiling and welcoming to what we have to teach, I will try to video it so everyone can see! I think we will really be able to build on what the group did last year and what we have already accomplished. We are excited to see how they perform by the end of our trip! ~~~Catherine~~~