Chapter 2- Victor Begins to Speak in Context
During the time Victor was between one and two years old there were significant things happening in our day to day life that he remembered quite well. Much of what he talked about related to the interactions we had amongst ourselves and him as well. Unfortunately, I could not record Victor 24 hours a day, but Victor had a wonderful memory and when I recorded him he often talked about the past. This was allowed me to have a good foundation for his story.
It was also during the beginning of his second year that I suspected Victor was using context. However, like anything else that is so unimaginable, I needed solid proof and started recording him more. Some of the earliest signs of using context was when he was interacting with his Fuzzy. Fuzzy was his best friend, and even though she was only a toy bird, Victor treated her like his mate. I can remember him that year, sitting on top of Fuzzy and regurgitating food and leaving it on her head. Everyday he spent at least an hour or two talking to her about all kinds of things. Of course I could only catch the odd word or phrase, but it seemed like he was telling her everything that was going on in the house. Similar to how I would talk to him while I was with him. Oddly enough, he wasn’t repeating what I was saying but actually telling her the events as they unfolded. He always had to have her in sight, or he would feel uncomfortable and start to call for her.
On this particular night I was putting Victor in his cage to sleep. I always covered his cage with a thin blanket as it gave him warmth and comfort at night. But this night, he didn’t want to turn in. When I put him in the cage, he yelled out. “Fuzzy come here.”
I told him it was time to go to sleep and he responded “Fuzzy go to sleep too, near Victor. Victor cares for Fuzzy.” At first I couldn’t believe my ears! Everything I heard about talking parrots led me to believe they could not talk in context, but the more I listened, the more I could hear he was using his own words and phrases.
Here are a couple of recordings of Victor which should give you an example of what I just mentioned.
I call this recording “Go to Sleep Fuzzy”
He says: "You go cage Victor. Go to sleep. Yeah, Fuzzy.Sleep Fuzzy.I want you sleep.
I want in cage. Yeah. Okay. (I) Go sleepy too. Your seed is here. I want Fuzzy close.
Yeah, go sleep. Fuzzy come here okay. Fuzzy yeah. What's Fuzzy doing?
Go sleepy too. Sleep. Sleeping. Come see. Come here. Okay."
The next interchange was the following morning.
"Care! See me Okay! Care...come see..me. Go see Fuzzy.
Want to go see Fuzzy..Come here! Yeah. To see. Now (did) Fuzzy have a good sleep?"
Essentially, these two recordings were amongst the first of his earliest stages of using context. You can definitely tell from what he says that it is not something he is repeating, but coming from his own mind and relating to what is happening around him. You can also hear the excitement and feeling he puts into it, which should be another indicator that he is not just repeating something someone has told him.
