Speaking as gaeilge!

"Gabh mo leithscéal...

Gabh mo leithscéal....

Gabh mo leithscéal....."

I drove along perplexed.

99.9% of the time I understand The Lodger but there's always that 0.1% that will leave me completely at a loss. I'll ask him questions to see if I can figure it out and most of the time it works but not this time.

Due to PWS, The Lodger's speech is delayed. He can say all the words in the world now but he misses the last syllable of most words and some sounds are still difficult for him but he's working on it. This means that to the untrained and unfocused ear, some words sound alike.

Just the other day he announced at breakfast "Mum, I'll help you" and I said, "Fantastic, superstar!". His father and Auntie looked on aghast until they realised he said help, not hate!

And just like everything in the world of The Lodger, practise and patience will get him there.

However this particular time, on the drive in to town, I was at a loss!

"Sorry little bud, I don't understand"

The Lodger replied, "Mum, it's what the secretary says to my teacher on the intercom."

AH, realisation. The Lodger is speaking in Irish!

For those of you who follow internationally, in schools in Ireland, children learn Irish. It's something we always wondered (worried and stressed out) about how the Lodger would manage. Turns out, we didn't need to, he's picking it up naturally.

In school, he eats 'sos' and 'lón', not snack and lunch.

He stands in a 'liné', not a line and when Teacher says so, he will 'Téigh a chodladh' (folds his arms, put his head down and closes his eyes to have a little rest)

He recently used the 'Téigh a chodladh' phrase for his Granny who was pretending to have a rest at the time and she was matter of factly told it was not time to téigh a chodladh yet!

The Lodger is teaching us at the moment. It's been a long time since I've heard alot of the Irish words he knows and uses.

I think it is quite amazing for a little boy with PWS to do such a thing as to awaken a language within us. The Lodger has set us the challenge to keep up with him now. We better get the crash course in Irish done asap.

The Lodger, as always, is winning! Bualadh bos (Round of Applause!)

Jigsaw fun! "Mum, give me a bualadh bos!"

Comments

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