Maggie's Language Barrier

This has been an interesting saga that started at the beginning of preschool and just keeps getting funnier.  Maggie met Prateek in her preschool class at Meadow Lane.  At the beginning of the year we heard a lot about this new friend she was playing with.  Prateek this and Prateek that.  Then one day Maggie came home and she was mad at Prateek.  He'd taken something from her or did something she didn't like.  I asked if she told him that she didn't like that or if she told him to stop or something along those lines.  As with all of Maggie's conversations, her hands were flying and her facial expressions were very expressive.  She stomped her little foot, flung her arms out to the sides, and declared, "I can't!  He doesn't understand me; he speaks Spanish!"  I withheld my laughter and explained that she could still tell him "no" and hold out her hand with palm toward him to say "stop."  She didn't sound like she fully believed me, but she let the conversation end there.

A few weeks later, Maggie told me that she always holds Prateek's hand whenever they go somewhere at school.  I commented or asked if she did that because they were such good friends.  She said that she did it to help him get to the place they were going.  I said that was nice of her to help someone who was learning English.  A few weeks after that Maggie told me that while she holds his hand, she rubs her thumb in circles on the back of his hand.  "He likes it, Mommy."  Um, ok.  I wondered if a little romance was blooming or what was going on with these two.

In December, the class had a pajama party and parents were invited to join their children the last hour of school.  I got to meet Prateek and quickly realized that he was a special needs student.  After that hour around him, I assumed he was non-verbal.  Maggie rubbing his hand as a calming technique made a lot more sense after meeting him!  Maggie continues to talk about helping Prateek and I am proud of how she looks out for others.

In January, Maggie asked me how to say something in Spanish to Prateek.  I told her I couldn't remember off the top of my head how to say more than hola and adios.  She told me to call my friends in China to ask them how to say it.  I told her that my friends from China didn't know how to say it either because they speak Chinese, not Spanish.  I tried to explain that there are more than two languages but she didn't understand.  She continued to believe that if she can't understand them that they all speak the same language and can understand each other.  She walked away from me after I'd tried twice to tell her that the people in China don't speak Spanish.

At the end of January, we met with her teacher for a home visit.  I asked if Prateek was non-verbal and she said that he babbles.  I told her the above story.  She told me that Prateek's family doesn't speak Spanish.  They're Indian!  From what I know, the people of India speak English and Hindi so what Maggie thought was a language barrier is just a developmental delay barrier :-)  Oh, life is always interesting with Maggie!