Did you have a chouchou growing up?

Here in Singapore, words such as chouchou are some of babies’ first words and are part of what makes baby-talk in this part of the world special. Not much is known about when little kids learn these Red Dot words, and how they contribute to general language skills, but that’s why we’re interested to find out more! What are some other Red Dot words do you know and use in your day-to-day conversations? Did words such as mammam, pompom, and sayang come to mind? And at what age do Singaporean children know these words? Let us know on Facebook and Instagram!

Chouchou (臭臭) or bantal busuk means ‘smelly [pillow]’ in Mandarin and Malay respectively. While most of us may already have discarded our chouchou, most children (and even adults!) still find it hard to let go. So why are we so attached to our chouchou? Is it because of the smell that reminds us of childhood? In this 4-minute video by Mothership.sg, Dr Jean Liu shares why we might be attached to our chouchou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBZbTfQ2qZI

Dr Jean Liu is currently working as a Researcher at the National Gallery, and was formerly a WHO consultant & Yale-NUS prof.

Find Dr Liu on Instagram and LinkedIn.

BLIP Lab is currently looking for families to participate in our Baby Talk-a-thon! We want to investigate how language exposure contributes to the way children develop language. We will send a special talk recorder to capture the speech that your child hears over the course of a day. This will help us understand how much of a baby’s daily talk comes from which of the household’s languages, and the language mixes that differ between different homes.

If you have a child aged between 0-4 years old, sign up here: https://ntusingapore.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_868i1NIkpvf00QK

More information about the Talk-a-thon: https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/blip/baby/talkathon/