If you are close to us and have spent time with Lucy, you know that she is a constant talker (she is my child after all!). The Dr. calls her a little ahead in language (now if she could just change her own diaper!). She started with Da-da, then Ma-ma, then cat (loves the cat), now up, dog, ball, that (constantly asking “whats that?” and pointing) and the list is growing. She is also becoming more and more expressive, like screeching when she’s excited or to announce her presence when one of us don’t notice her behind us, inflecting her voice when she points like she is asking a question and can follow some simple commands. She also laughs at stuff we do and she does. Its so fun and her personality is starting to come out a lot more day by day. She seems to have a lot to say about everything and when she is not talking she is usually crawling, climbing, taking things apart, opening things and generally being super busy all the time (often while talking at the same time!). Even when I come in to get her in the morning in the crib, she is walking around and around her crib waving around her bear blanket. The kid never stops!
So, I was doing some research on the interweb about language development and its interesting how young people develop their language (especially as a teacher). By 12 months, most kids use about 1-5 words and by 18 months, this grows to about 7-20. They also start using inflection by about 18 months too and will show emotion with body language. Lucy now lays on the floor face down when she is tired- a little subtle huh? They will also start using consonant sounds and lead to a spurt in vocabulary around 18 months. By 19 months, they can understand up to 200 words and will pick up 10+ words a day! Some can add a new word every 90 minutes! Yikes! They also start to combine words in sentences by the end of the second year and will express needs, wants, likes/dislikes and emotion. Wow, that’s fast and simply amazing. Its incredible to imagine how things will change when she can tell us what she wants and not. Now its just trial and error!
Any stories about early language that you’d like to share?
