The development of speech

As Layla gets older (she is now 18 months), her tantrums are greatly reducing. We believe this is largely due to her speech development. She has quite a large range of words and is now putting together simple two-word sentences ("Hi daddy" or "Mine mommy" or "No thankyou").

Keith and I speak to the children properly. We don't use short forms or baby talk. Noah has been followed by a SLP since his infancy so we know how to speak to a child properly. That being said, it is strange how speech develops. Often, children come up with their own words for things. For example, Layla will often refer to her soother as a "soo". Clearly a shortform of the longer word we use for the pacifier. She will eventually master the full word, so this is the mid-point.

That said, where do they come up with some baby words?!?! For example, Layla refers to her baby blanket (and sometimes her soother) as her "nana". She isn't the first baby to refer to a lovey or soother with this word. My neice calls her soother a "nana" as well. I am not really sure where this came from - we still refer to her blanket and soother with the proper words (although I do find myself now asking her where her nana is). She clearly made up the word herself and labelled the objects consistently with this word. I find it very interesting. I would love to know the reasoning behind this.

She also has taken to using the word "No" a lot  but refuses to say "yes". She does, however nod - which helps.

Another confusing aspect of speech development is her ability to say different names. To her, everyone is "Layla" (except mommy and daddy). Yet, if you ask her to give an object to a specific person, she will do it right, 100% of the time. At first I thought she was goofing around by calling Noah by her own name, but she has been doing this for months now!

Infant development is amazing. I find daycare fast tracks their development, especially when surrounded by older peers. Noah, for example, is learning french and both children are continually expanding their sign language skills. As fun as it is to watch them grow-up, I am always a bit sad when they learn to say a word properly. Noah used to refer to himself as "wo-wa" and I really miss that! But to see how clearly he can articulate his thoughts and feelings is amazing. Yet, you continually run into ways his speech is still limited by his age. For example, if he is mad he will say "I'm not feeling happy...I'm mad". It is a more roundabout way to say what he really means.

Of course, along with developed speech comes more complex reasoning and thus, resistance to parenting....but that is another post...