Language Development

Language development is such and important, but fun skill to observe in the development of a toddler.  Watching what they pick up on receptively by following directions or descriptions is fun, especially when you realize 'they get it.'  Watching them learn to express what they want is fun, but can also be frustrating as they try to learn the sounds to make close apporximations of the word they are trying to say.  Our 18 month old is trying to say so many things- the problem is that many of his "words" sound a lot alike.  'Outside' and 'sock' are a variation of 'os' in his language capacity.  Luckily, I can usually pick up on what he is trying to say.  He also likes to make sounds to get us to understand what he sees, or is looking at- 'brroomm, brroommm' is a car, of course an 'arf, arf' is a dog, etc.  It's funny to observe how different kids decide to communicate!

Working in the field I do, I have learned a small amount of simple signs that are used often with many of our students.  This has made me very aware of the benefits of sign in communication.  I have always wanted to learn more sign, but classes don't seem to be available at the right times or the resources I have looked into turn out not to be quite what I had hoped.  Early on my husband and I began using simple signs like 'more' and 'all done' during meal times- these are signs that are used almost daily in the classroom, so a couple of the handful of signs I already knew.  Since food is such an important part of daily life, that was a great time to begin experimenting with signing.  I moved on to using signs for items or requests that he needed to use/say frequently and therefore had alot of meaning to him and would be easier to learn.  'Ball' and 'help' were two of them.  Now, he doesn't use the exact form, but it does make it much easier for him to share his request/comment. 

He seems to becoming more frustrated lately, because he has so much he is trying to say, and we can't quite understand everything he is saying.  I recently purchased a baby sign book.  It was difficult to choose which one would be most beneficial to our needs, as I again wanted to make sure I got a book that had signs of toys, objects, people, requests, etc. that are most used within our family.  I finally picked one.  Yesterday I went through the book and tore out the signs of words that are used frequently or that would be important words for our son to begin learning.  I divided them into piles based on the area of the house we might use that word and then taped them up on a door or shelf for quick reference for us all.  Here is hoping to less frustration on our son's part and increased ability to communicate what he wants/needs/sees/etc.!!!!