Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Toddler Vocabulary

I think "has number concepts up to 4" means they can look at 4 things and say "4" without counting.

I could be wrong though...

seablue - this is a great list. I was wondering when my DS4 would get his "r" and "sh" sounds. It's still funny to hear this little one talk a mile a minute about anything, but he still has these normal little kid sounds.

Funny about the pronouns - DS started, at about 1, calling himself "you" and everyone else "I" because that's how we spoke to him. He'd come up to me and say "Pick you up!" this lasted for over a year - it's very hard to explain this concept!

My older DD would do that. My favorite funny was when you would point to her in a picture and ask "who is that?" She would say, "That's YOU!"

I'm glad we weren't alone!
Once, just before DS was 2, he announced loudly to a friend of mine in a restaurant, "You are wearing underpants!" because he was proud of not being in diapers. She said, "yes...." and then I explained what he was really saying. We had lots of funny moments.

Yes, "Pick you up?" is the one DD is stuck on, too. I don't try to explain. And I agree it's totally weird her enunciation isn't advanced. She will say something and DH and I will play 20 questions with her on what exactly she meant. She's very patient with us while we guess, saying, "No. No. No." and then she praises us when we get it right.

I woke up this morning thinking there's No Way she knows 900-1000 words, but, like everyone says, who cares. "Hundreds of words," works for me, too.

Kriston, thanks for clearing up the "concept of 4" thing. Makes complete sense now.

DD does the matching up similar looking letters thing, too. M-W-N, A-V-Y, etc. The other day we were looking at the letter O on a sign in public and she said, "Nipple."

Has anyone looked into the whole inductive vs. deductive reasoning when it comes to language development?

She just came over to me and I said, "Hey, you smell lke a number 2..." She looked up and said very sincerely, "No. Hippo has a number 2." She's holding a toy hippo. Lying or pretend? What a little rascal.

Language development is tied up with a lot of things, but the last research I saw modelled it using network development and network effects and they had a good fit for rates of development. We are hardwired for it and its just a matter of filling in the blanks - however than occurs.

I kept track with just one of my kids. She had 500 words by 15-16 months and then I gave up counting. The new words were coming too fast and furious those last weeks.

I like to listen to what words toddlers are using. Every time I hear a one or two year old say, "Actually..." it makes my ears perk up. My three year old favors "apparently" right now.

I think DS2.5 is parroting us (but that is a way of learning right) but he does use "I'm having difficulty with..." in completely the right context. I did a double take yesterday when he said that and DW said "oh he's been saying that for a while."

Cute.

JB

I got this one today from dd2.5: "This is irritating!" accompanied by some wailing. I said, "What???" She said, "This is irritating me!!" She was having some sock malfunction which I helped her with, all the while I was thinking, "What???"

I am a late comer to this string but love all the input and is the vocabulary that really started me down this path of gifted. My 26 month has so many words I gave up counting back when she was around 15 months because it was already in the 100s. When she was around 8 months we had the "what's that" and "what's this" game which drove me nuts, but she was adding to her vocabulary. She finally got over it so I thought and then around two we were back to that game. She speaks in complete complicated sentences (10+ words)... even paragraphs as she pretend plays and plays with her dogs.

jojo:

I would love to get my hands on the background/developmental history questionnaire that you offered sea-blue. I think it is a great way to keep track and be prepared for later testing.

Also... I purchased the Ruf book and want some opinions ... I should probably post this separately so just let me know if I need to divide it out or someone can give me a quick response the this question:

The 5 levels for the most part makes sense to me and I know my DD is definitely level 3 or 4. Because of her understanding of opposites and left and right and the complex sentence structure I am more in par with level 4, but time will tell. What I am confused about is what makes the level 5 so different from level 4? If I understand it right they just have an inapt ability from birth and have mastered all kinder skills by two... am I right here? My husband argues that it is possible that our DD just has not been introduced to some of the things mentioned in the book as characteristics such as the puzzles and because of that we can't conclude she isn't level 5, but if I understand level 5 right, than introducing the child to these things at any point doesn't really matter, they just know it with out actually having experienced it before.

I hope that made sense!