This is a passport photo of me when I was a couple of months old.  I was able to experience visiting many different places before I turned 5 years old.  My parents were missionaries and I was born in Brussels, Belgium while they were learning French.  Throughout my childhood I can remember playing with the children in Zaire, Africa, putting our babies in "panyas" on our backs and conversing with the children in Swahili, Kenunde and other languages.  Periodically I remember short songs from my childhood, friends I played with as well as the types of food we used to eat.  When I played in Africa I ran around bare-foot with the other children making things out of dirt, sticks and other things in the natural environment.  We did not have the toys that are in the US.  While playing with the children I picked up on the languages that they spoke.  Unfortunately, I do not remember any of the languages (my mother says I spoke 5 different languages).  That definitely goes to show you that children under the age of 5 can pick up on things very quickly, especially when playing and interacting with other children.  Now that I think about it this could be one of the main reasons why I love being a Speech-Pathologist so much and helping people learn how to speak, my love for languages has never left!