My daughter wanted to play the doctor game. I used a mediator, a toy patient (Coco bear) an English native speaker. The bear was in terrible pain. But he could not speak, obvious, Romanian.  I was the nurse and the bear voice. I introduced the bear saying that he can not speak any other language than English and that she must treat him (and put him some questions). We started with Hello. She asked only in Romanian. She repeted some words that the patient said. I did not translated.
The doctor asked for two times what's the problem, what hurts him.
Patient: My belly. My belly. (He showed his belly so that the doctor understands where is the problem)
Doctor: Have you eat to many sweets?
The patient could not understand. I did not translated. I hoped she would have said it in another way, by showing somehow the question.
The patient: It hurts so much! It really hurts. The bear swayed from side to side, he was complaining.
Doctor: He definitely ate a lot of sweets. Open your mouth. Say Aaaaa.... aaaaa....
After each question / request, the patient was saying something like:
"Oh, do you want me to open my mouth", "You want me to turn around", "You want me to hold my breath", "You want me to say my name/age" etc.
I insisted on this: "My name is Coco Bear. I am 3 years old." I showed with my fingers.
Also the patient asked for a few time if everything's ok (showing the sign for ok). The doctor also pointed with her fingers for a few time "Ok".  The patient also used expressions like "Good?", "Not good?" (at "not good", the bear shook his head).
After the game ended we talked about body parts. She already knows to say in English head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose (from the famous song for children). But she did not realise that she can already use the word "mouth" when she said "Open your mouth" in Romanian. I would have been better for the nurse to interfere more? To give her some clues about the words she already know?
But it was an experience. We will try in a different way someother time.

playing with objects  language
Popovici Simona

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02 sept 2013, 01:29
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Diana
Diana 11 sept 2013, 12:41
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I have tried the game (English Patient) with my children. I did it in my way:  in the sandbox, where we usually play the character games, I played the part of a young man (soldier) who fell from the car. My character started to cry for help and screamed from pain, telling \"it hurts!\". I asked my children what should one do in such a situation. They offered to call a doctor and Nick chose a Doctor character.  My soldier showed on the head and kept telling : \"It hurts\". The doctor guessed what did it mean. He cured the head. The soldier thanked him and the doctor seemed to loose interest in his patient. I switched to the mother tongue and offered Nick to lay the patient in bed. He did it - made a bed from sand and covered the soldier with the sand blanket. I suggested him to say him \"Good night!\" The doctor repeated and waved goooodbye.
Popovici Simona
Popovici Simona 08 sept 2013, 06:15
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Thank you Renata and Diana for your suggestions. :-)
Renata
Renata 07 sept 2013, 11:14
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Nice to read about the continuation of your experience, Simona!
I like the fact that you speak in phrases when playing and repeat the same patterns adding new words, e.g. you want me to... I think this is the right strategy and it would be useful to use some common phrases that are repeated in almost every activity you do. You can check Stage 1 PASS manual for ideas of which phrases to use.

Speaking about possible improvements, I think we need to understand the priorities, whether we want the child to speak (repeat phrases) or if at this stage it is more important that she accepts the toy speaking in a foreign language and understands what the toy says.  It seems that all parents are interested in the speaking part but guess the PASS materials say \'Let children be silent\', meaning that we should start small and stop insisting on repeating phrases but focus on accepting and understanding stage.  In your case, your daughter has no problems with accepting the foreign language, so guess it would be better not focus on understanding now. Since in your game, the Doctor should have understood what the patient says to be able to treat him, I\'d say it is necessary to \'provide translation\' (make sure the sense is understood). There can be different options to do it. You could have asked as a mother something like \'can you guess what the bear is saying\'? Or introduce a new toy-translator who would help the doctor to understand the bear and translate doctor\'s words back to the patient.
Coming back to your question re making the child pay attention to the words she already knows. I would say it\'s a good idea to do it. At the same time, I\'d shift from identifying simple words to become familiar with phrases.

Well, in any case, I think you are progressing very well so keep going:) and let\'s see maybe others have different opinion on my humble suggestions:)
Diana
Diana 02 sept 2013, 06:21
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I really like the idea with doctor. I will try it with a toy. May be the sooner, the better. I am inspired by your experience. At the moment I think you should have interfered more.
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