16 month old finally talking

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Forums > Your Stories > 16 month old finally talking

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Posted 07/13/08	Reply with quote #1

I’ve been worried about my child not really speaking since she was 12 months. She didn’t even say “mama” and “dada” until this week. My mom thought it was because we were raising her to be bilingual English-Spanish. Well, I am so proud to say that we proved my mom wrong! My husband is a native speaker (but doesn’t say much to her in Spanish beyond “Como estas preciosita?”) and I have been struggling to read to her in Spanish and speak with her in my faulty grammar/accent. I take her to Spanish playgroup once a week. In the past 3 weeks she has had what I guess some might call a “word explosion.” And about half of it is Spanish!! She went from grunting/babbling to saying jugo, mama, dada, agua. She says “meow” for any four-legged animal. She understands and points to her nariz and orejas when asked. She understands simple commands in Spanish such as “Traeme la muneca” or “Traeme la pelota.” She says “night-night” when she is sleepy. And she repeats all kinds of things that I say, such as poo-poo. She has one made-up word that she uses when she doesn’t know the correct word: she points and says “gota!”

Posted 07/17/08	Reply with quote #2

Guess what? That “made-up” word “gota?” It’s her version of cat: gato. She kept pointing to a picture of a cat yesterday and saying “gota.” I finally got it. I kept thinking “raindrop” but that was too confusing in the contexts. So I thought she’d made it up. Turns out my child is smarter than I am.

Tereza

Posted 07/19/08	Reply with quote #3

How exciting! My son is 16 months and not really talking yet. I speak to him in Portuguese about 80% of the time and his father English plus he hears Arabic from relatives and TV (my husband unfortunately isn’t confortable speaking Arabic to him yet). I have the same fears you have and relatives that aren’t supportive. I can’t wait to hear him saying some words. Tereza

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