"Making Conversation like a big girl..." Children and Old Talk

Just notes--continued... Do young children "old talk"?

**Why "old?"-- I don't quite know, because one does not give "stale" news during an old talk session. It may refer to the informality, and the relaxed, laid-back attitude or posture of the participants who exchange talk and listen--sometimes called "a lime." With this kind of structure, participation within the group is fluid--the talk flows...mainly Creole -type English is used.

**Young children in this interaction:

"Old Talk" is basically an acitvity for adults but young children in the home dart in and out among the adults ,are held in the arms or are nearby
on the periphery of the group playing. Sometimes they are listening to and observing the adults and they imitate adult behavior.

**On many evenings Camille would invite me to talk: "Let's "lime" nah, Aunty B.."
and this meant lying on a mattress placed on the floor in the breeze of a fan to chat about anything that interested them...with no activity but remembering , recalling a story, listening , giggling...loads of giggles. Years before this a teenaged nephew used to ask :"Let's chat Aunty B.." whenever he visited.

*Even though the media for viewing and listening is good (t.v. etc) chatting to be heard is irreplaceable (??) for the communication of the ideas of children.
"Grandma" referred in a complimentary fashion (even though she was busy)
to this chatting need/behavior in the two girls: "making conversation like a big girl..." I believe that this "making conversation " in the language and the
appropriate participation structures they glean from their social environment is one of the best literacy teaching tools/gifts that we can use with our children
here in the Caribbean who come from a creole-speaking background and who will be labelled "at risk"--if only we knew how to use it.

*We will look at what Angela and Camille chatted about and how they chatted...but first briefly--the Old TALK SCHEME.