The twins, especially Antoinette, are more insistent in December. They turned 17 months old and already they have started to string words into phrases. We observed that they can understand Cebuano and English (looks like the One-Parent-One-Language rule that Jeff and I imposed on ourselves worked!) but they can also understand and speak some Chinese words (they must have pick up words and expressions from the house helpers). I have learned from my classes that simultaneous bilingual acquisition is possible when children are exposed to two (or more!) languages starting birth. They have been exposed to language, actually, since they were in the womb and studies have shown that they prefer the sound of the Mother’s voice because, obviously, it’s the first voice they heard while inside the “cocoon”. No wonder babies stop crying when the Mom picks them up and starts singing or speaking to them in a gentle voice.
Here are videos of the active twins taken on December 4, 5, and 6, 2014.
