Maia’s language development
Shrijnana and I were wondering how Maia’s linguistic development compared with the average. I looked at a few websites and they all said things like, “A typical 22-month-old’s vocabulary consists of about 20 words, and most toddlers can also combine a couple of words to ask questions or make statements.”
We haven’t counted Maia’s active vocabulary, but it includes words like head, teeth, foot, toe, socks, shoes, piano, motorbike, airplane, car, cat, dog, door, outside, diaper, milk, bottle, tea, coffee, eat, toy, water, river, tree, sky, moon, blue, light, apple sauce, home, cup, wall, cheerios, peach, upstairs, stairs, down, up, picture, iPod, phone, keys, paper, come on, coming, slide, sand, bath, poop, pee, change, pretty, book, banana, dammit (a rather unfortunate one, that), spoon, fan, walk, jump, turn, yes, no, hi, hello, belly, knee, etc, etc , etc. I’d guess she knows well over a hundred words that she can reliably use in context.
She can also name at least two dozen people when she sees their photographs.
And her longest sentence has been five words — “Hi, Daddy, I love you!” — although mostly she uses very functional two-word sentences or single words. She uses a lot of possessives like “Daddy’s car,” and “Maia’s turn!”
So we’re very pleased with her language development, to put it mildly.
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Published: Sep 21 2008
here’s a few more: Juice, yogurt, book, dance, more, mine, my, boo boo, bang, sleep, tired, bike, hat, eye, ear, medicine, tylenol, mosquito bite, store, pizza, potty, swing, rock, people, ‘all right,’ ‘yeah baby’, boy, ‘did it’.
We also have: Baby, people, hand, arm, bite, nose, baboon, monkey, bounce, drive, hot, minute, Buddha, namaste, ring, duck, choo-choo, happy, heavy, plate, bra, backpack, beach, boat, bib, peekaboo, all gone, all done, out, stuck, yuck.
We haven’t mentioned names/titles like mama, daddy, nana, papa, big papa, and daida (grandad).
We’re going to have to start an alphabetized list so we can keep track better.
This morning she spontaneously (and appropriately) said ‘blue’, then ‘pink’.
Downtown. Awake.
Back. Towel. Wet.
Headband. Clap.
train
Dirty
Nail.
Pants, pillow.
boo boo? What is this of which she speaks? Colloquialism for ‘a mistake’ or some alarming creature?
namaste – ha,ha,ha!
“Boo-boo” is a US colloquialism for “injury”. “Owie” is a related term meaning the same thing. Both are terms for kids, but I guess that’s obvious!
How charming. Merci beaucoup. She’ll be saying that next.
I’ll be happy if I can get her to *stop* saying “dammit” whenever she drops something. It would help of course if I could stop myself from laughing when she does that.
Rub. Push. Wipe. High. Please. Tendentious. (Nah, just joking about that last one).
I don’t even say tendentious. But I didn’t teach her how to swear, either! But I can take credit for Namaste.
Chips. Button. Pasta.
crackers, cheerios
“high five.”
yoga, happy, tummy, waffle, horse, bike.
Poopy. Try. Sticky.
Armpit. Soap. Fork. Neck. Lip. Eyebrow.
Bubbles, drink, cheese.