The beginning of the school year holds a lot of hurdles for Lucas and Eli. Adjusting to a new grade, teachers, peers....it is really confusing for them at times.
Lucas told us something last night that really struck home. He said, "Mom, How come I have the right words in my head and know what I want to ask in class but when I raise my hand, they don't come out right? What's wrong with my mouth?"
We have had so many talks about their English acquisition over the last 3+ years but it is an ever changing progression that it's hard to know exactly where each of them are struggling and/or what it is that they are thinking about their struggles.
Eli has passed Lucas in his verbal English skills. This was expected and explained early on by a terrific educator right after the boys came home. Eli was largely non verbal and therefore began his verbalization in English. While he started school at a first grade level, in essence he was much like teaching a child to speak, no matter the language, as a toddler. He wasn't running two languages through his brain in the same way Lucas did.
Lucas would first hear the words in English, translate to Tagalog, then re-translate back to English for a response. Can you imagine the mental exhaustion level? Although he too has lost his Tagalog, English does not come easily or without a great deal of thought.
So out comes the pictures and diagrams of the brain and that the different areas of the brain control and at what ages do most of the pathways within the brain develop....it's some heavy study for an adult...heavier for the person trying to understand why his brain and mouth aren't connected the way he'd like.
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