Pearl's still not talking in words that we can comprehend, but her pointing is becoming increasingly emphatic, a language in and of itself, as far as she's concerned.
For quite a while, pointing could be embellished with sound effects. Yesterday she added a phrase that may mean "What is it?" or may be just more gibbersih, filtered through the perceptual lens of my overactive imagination.
This spring Marcia and Pearl are participating in another Montessori class. The first one was for crawlers; this one is for walkers. Pearl loves it. Actually they both do. This "semester" they eat lunch with other children at little tables and use a fork if necessary and drink from real glasses. We are learning that instead of asking, "Can you say boat?" we will be saying, "You can say boat!" Subtle but cool. I like it.
Oh the fork! If only learning to eat with a fork didn't involve so much food ending up everywhere else.
Language acquisition is such a cool period. For the past three months, my son has been saying more and different nonsense syllables, but in the last week, they've turned into actual WORDS. Sure, only we in the family can understand them, but it's an important step on the road to full comprehensibility.
Posted by: landismom | 27 April 2005 at 02:37 PM
Good call on the Montessori school. :) I love the picture of Pearl. She's got that bossy cute look. ;)
Posted by: kat | 27 April 2005 at 03:19 PM
Ah yes, the phrase all parents come to "love" - Wha dat? Sydney still says it. LOL! Sydney is in a montessori school. *thumbs up* We love it and so does she. Take care.
Posted by: Mere | 27 April 2005 at 03:59 PM
what a great phrase!!!!! Our son is speak delayed and for almost two years now I have been asking him can you say ____ and he always responds "yes" instead of saying it lol! I'm going to have to try that out!
Posted by: Lou | 27 April 2005 at 07:30 PM
It looks to me like she's saying "please give me the name of that item". or "what dat."
Posted by: PPB | 27 April 2005 at 08:44 PM
I've just realised that I can't remember what my son's exact first words were. (I would never have believed it possible...) What I do remember is that they involved pointing and came as a word-combination eg he would point away from himself and say "diss" and point closer and say "here". He started saying that (or something like that) at 13.5mths. Yikes, I'd better go look up some old emails to find out what those words were!
(Totally irrlevant to you, but we had a bad Montessori experience, from age 3-4.)
Posted by: suzoz | 27 April 2005 at 08:55 PM
Sing out sista. She'll be talking in now time. Jonas said three words until he was 2.25 thanks, probably, to his tremendous use of sign language starting at 8 months. Then one day he said, "Momminy, please pass the butter." I almost passed out. Gabo on the other hand is 17 months and says over 40 words and has now reached the point that he repeats everything we say. He's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute.
I LOVE MONTESSORI!!! LOVE IT. LOVE IT!
Posted by: Mieke | 27 April 2005 at 09:34 PM
WOW! I wish we had a class like that up here!!! And I am definitely going to change how I ask Nick to say words. What a great idea!!!
Nick also does the pointing thing. If your carrying him, and he spots something he wants to see/touch/lick, it's nearly impossible not to bring him over to the object.-He does this rocking thing with his body while pointing.
Posted by: Leah | 28 April 2005 at 06:35 AM
doncha just love this phase when they are mobile (and fast) but you can't really converse with them.
so much chasing!
Posted by: lisa | 28 April 2005 at 06:51 AM