Say What?

At about 15 months of age, babies start talking. By 20 months, they have a spoken vocabulary of about 50 words. By 24, about 200. Typical first words are object nouns such as ball, cup, mama, dada, and duck. My son's first word was truck. He was a commuter baby... Zoom, zoom, zoom. All along, babies understand more words than they say. All along, they're listening.

Studies say that a child’s preschool vocabulary predicts early elementary school reading ability. Likewise, the number and variety of words that a child hears as a baby and toddler (or the quantity and diversity of ‘mom talk’) predicts vocabulary development. Lay a literacy foundation: start talking.

Morning time. Wake up! Scoop up baby. Nursing? Start a one-sided conversation. Make eye contact and ask a question, any question. What are we going to do today? Pause and answer. You are teaching conversational rhythm. Changing a diaper? Recite a rhyme. "This Little Piggy." Dressing your tike? Snap, tug, and talk. Shirts are striped. Socks are wooly. Overalls have 1, 2 buckles. "One, Two Buckle Your Shoe." At the high chair, baby’s apple juice is sweet, sweet, sweet. The oatmeal is, well, porridgey. "Pease Porridge Hot." Throughout the day, talk about people, places, and things as your baby experiences them.

Read-aloud boosts children’s vocabulary. Great first word builders are I Can, I Hear, I See, and I Touch by Helen Oxenbury, Max’s First Word (out of print, but worth the hunt) by Rosemary Wells, Spot’s Favorite Words by Eric Hill, and I Went Walking by Sue Williams. Wordless picture books spark conversation. Share Tomie dePaola’s Pancakes for Breakfast, then serve up a short stack of blue blueberry pancakes drizzled with sweet, sticky, made-from-a-tree maple syrup. Yum!