El’s Reading and Speaking Capabilities
I always see this topic pop up, so I figure I should just write a post on my thoughts on it. Many people were annoyed that by season 2, El wasn’t a regular speaker capable of complete unstilted conversations. That is unrealistic. I have 2 particular “explanations” for this.
#1: El simply didn’t interact with people enough.
El spent most of her childhood locked in a (sometimes dark) room with nothing but a lion plush. Other than being in that Rainbow Room with Kali at least once we know of, El did not get a lot of human interactions to pick up social cues. Brenner came to read to her now and then, but she never needed to hold a long conversation. People told her what to do, and she either answered “Yes” or “No” and that’s all that mattered.
This is a very important developmental skill that El never developed. She has 12 years to catch up on. That doesn’t happen with the snap of your fingers. No, watching a ton of TV won’t immediately develop all her social skills. No, Hopper giving her dictionary lessons once a day and regular conversation also won’t immediately improve her speech.
When children are extremely neglected as young children, the neglect will follow them probably their whole lives. El has the opportunity to improve and it has nothing to do with how smart she is. It would be realistic if El always have a stutter or gets stopped up while speaking every now and then.
#2: El is autistic or has another learning related disability
I’ve seen this brought up before. I’m kind of on the fence about it because I’m not an expert. Things I have seen brought up is not only her speech, but how she thinks in general and the things she decides to cling on (’Friends don’t lie’, 8:15, other similar things she says in each season)
It’s entirely possible that El is on the autism scale somewhere. Maybe the lab did provide El with all kinds of learning material and whatnot, but she never quite picked it up? Not because she’s dumb, but maybe their methods are so cold and lifeless, it’s not the best way El can learn.
They just need to find the right way for her to learn and scratch her itch when it comes to education or her speech. Even still, her speech might sometimes be halted or slow (she was still neglected during vital years of her development as a person)
Either way, I still think it’s unrealistic for people to expect El to be able to speak as well as her friends. It’ll probably take years for her to truly be on their level, if ever. Besides, she doesn’t NEED to be able to speak as well as they do, she has other ways to communicate or show her affection, as long as people are patient with her. Patience is key.
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