Tuesday, April 6, 2010

are we doing something wrong?

so while commenting on another's blog, I found myself thinking about how much Goose talks (or doesn't, as the case may be) and find myself wondering if we're doing something wrong? G will be 15 months old tomorrow (okay, technically today, as it's now after midnight - why am I not sleeping?? good question. I do have to work in the morning... ack. off topic.) back to the topic at hand --> and really the only words she says consistently or very often are "mom, momma, hi, uh oh, ball" and sometimes she says "da dee"... she doesn't sign (which is completely our fault... I had intended to start with her a while back... but only knew a few signs, kept forgetting to pick up a Baby Sign book, and here we are, still haven't done it, FAIL.) everything else she says - pure gibberish... I'm sure she knows what she is saying, but me? not a clue. are we talking too much and not letting her practice words on us? are we not talking enough and teaching her words she can use? her 15 month checkup is April 20th - and I'm a little anxious that the Dr. is going to say "what is she saying" and when I tell her G's list, she'll say "uhh... that's it?" and I'm also having some guilt that we haven't even tried to start teaching her body parts... like "nose, eyes, ears" etc... the only one I say often is "feet" and usually it follows "who has stinky...?" after removing her socks while changing her diaper/clothes... (by the way, she thinks this is hilarious when I smell her feet and either loudly exclaim "ohhh!" or "peeeeyyooooooooo - stinky feet!" and gives me great big belly laughs - which I love) :) so yeah... anyway. my 15 month old has like 5 understandable words in her vocabulary... so, are we doing something wrong? what can we do better? how do we expand her vocab? read more? talk more? talk less? I'm open to suggestions, advice, etc (but please be nice... I'm very good at the guilt-trip on my own, thanks!)

5 comments:

Sami said...

I have no words to offer. Our little heathen is in speech therapy so that should tell you how well I did on that front. I'm not saying that to scare you either - I didn't have concerns about it until he was probably 18-24 months. That whole language thing is such a huge range. S just fell on the short end of the range. The other thought is if you are concerned you can always ask for an eval. It doesn't hurt. It's free by Early On and they do a great job. I hate being a first time mom - it'd be nice if you could say - eh that's normal or eh that's not normal. I don't know what normal is so I have a harder time with it. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. We do signs now which has helped tremendously - just start with something simple - more and please were what we started with and wow those really help out a lot. Now we've got more, please, milk and all done...

Sami said...

And you're not doing something wrong. Believe me momma guilt never really goes away and that's a sign you're doing something right. You want's what's best for Goose.

Megan R. said...

Hey lady! You should link your email to your blogger account! I always want to reply to your comments on my blog, but I can't!

I'm sure you already know, but each kiddo develops at their own rate. I know our ped said that them TRYING to say words (for example, C says "owsigh!", and he is saying outside) counts, too.

We have a book of baby's first words. It has big clear pictures of things (shoes, kitty, ball, truck, dog, etc) and that helped Carson a lot. Does she understand words? If you showed her a book like that and said where are the shoes, could she point them out?

Carson also babbles a TON. He will look at you and yammer for 5 minutes in what we call Carson-ese. That's also a good sign. Apparently they are trying to mimic our rates of speed.

You can always ask for or your ped may recommend an Early Intervention Eval. They will come to your house and evaluate her speaking, and if she needs help, they offer it at no charge!

amanda said...

ummm dustin is 17 months and has only about five words. i wouldn't worry! our daughter caitlyn wasn't much of a talker til she got closer to, two. now she talks ALL THE TIME! we signed a lot with our oldest, and it helped a bit i think for her to be able to communicate what she needed and not get so stressed out.

and ps. thanks for entering my giveaways!! :0)

RecoveringCoffeeholic said...

You aren't failing her.

Just start her on a nice consistent routine of words and sign. Pick 5 news words and 5 new signs you will teach her each week.

Try this website! It's an online video dictionary of signs! Just teach her these signs with their words and you have your 5 per week! It works and will expend her vocabulary.

http://www.mybabycantalk.com/content/dictionary/dictionaryofsigns.aspx?letter=A

Don't be hard on yourself. You're doing great!