Language Development

There is something so fascinating about hearing language develop in a child. I've never experienced it so closely before. During the past month or so my oldest daughter's attitude was pretty stinky. She was "fragile" most of the time and couldn't seem to stop whining about everything. She would even add a few tiny stomps to the end of her whining sessions for emphasis. With her being just shy of two years I began thinking to myself this month that my sweet little girl had turned into a disagreeable little monster.

I think I've figured out what was wrong. Her mind is farther along than her language skills are. She knows what she is thinking and what she wants, but she has trouble communicating it to us. This fact, coupled with her innate sin nature, makes a lethal combination. I know this is not a unique problem, but it sure has been trying.

The past week has been much better, and I'm starting to notice her putting words to previously unnamed things. Before, it was usually a repetition of what we'd taught her. Lately she is coming up with her own combinations to figure out her world. A few small examples:

"Where did Mommy go?" she asked Daddy in the grocery store, when I disappeared around a corner.

"Bed... for diapers!" she exclaimed this morning as she sat on her change table. I don't think I had ever explained to her that it was a change table, so she was labelling it by what she knew. Pretty good, huh?