Heretic !

[The Nr Fairy]

Some of you may remember I started a thread some time ago about my son being able to say helicopter names. Since then his vocabulary and recognition skills have increased to "Apache", "Lynx", "Bell" ( for Bell 47 ), and he knows what a rotor is and so on.

I am sad to report he is now saying the names of fixed wing aircraft as well - Hercules, Galaxy, and so on. I'm distraught, does anyone know if Aunty Marge would be able to help ?

[Aesir]

I hope you´ll be able to stop these bad habits in time haha.

Try to keep him busy with more helicopter names, although it´ll start to be difficult when you get to Aerospatiale Ecuiriel ohh.. Ecurrell oh damn... ASTAR!

[RotorHorn]

I'm having similar problems.... with the missus. I've got her to say "Bell", "Twin Squirrel" and "Hughey" as they appear on TV.

Unfortunately, your son seems to be doing a lot better (if we ignore that he's now turning 'to the dark side'), as the missus tends to say the above in the same order until she gets the nod of approval from me...

I'm contemplating putting subliminal snaps of helicopters into her Eastenders videos to see if I can program her, but if that fails, its going to be the negative re-inforcement via the mains socket and her slippers...

What is it the Americans say - Can't Live with 'em, can't shoot 'em.

[Arm out the window]

Just train him to say 'Fixed wing dick!' after mentioning those names, that ought to do it.

[CyclicRick]

My little one (2) say's helibody for helicopter but can't say aeroplane at all which is encouraging.
The older one (4) knows them all nearly, 206, 205, AS350 etc but the 'nearly' ex-wife STILL cannot tell the difference between the noise of a Lynx and a Gazelle after years of training...oh well back to the drawing board

PS. The 4 year old likes to fly in a Cessna aswell but still prefers the AS 350.

[Nick Lappos]

Try this positive reinforcement method, which permanently imprinted my nephew with "Sikorsky" for helicopter (the only real helicopter, I am told):

Arrange a fly over at a relatively precise time, have the lad near a portable radio with aviation band capability. Preset the radio at 120 KHz, and you speak to the lad as you fly around the house at the minumum legal altitude. Say his name, then the non-subliminal words you want him to remember until the day he passes on from this world.

My nephew went running down his street screaming, "My Uncle Nick talked to me from the sky!"

The 5 watts you put out will make up for any inaccuracies in the radio tuner, especially from 500 feet or so.

Works like a charm, and if done properly, you will ruin his life as surely as yours was ruined. After all, you could have been a Doctor!

[The Nr Fairy]

Better news today. Saw Concorde flying overhead while out at a windmill and he said "plane".

But, the kicker is he identified a Lynx without prompting while watching a helicopter video. I'll indoctrinate the little **** yet, even if I can't get him to bed in under an hour . . .