A River of Babbles

My daughter is a year old, well 13.5 months to be technical about it. :) i honestly have no idea what is "normal" for speech development at her age, but her pediatrician seemed happy with her all-around at her 1 year visit, so I guess she's doing fine! 

Penny knows several words by now, not necessarily to SAY them, but she understands the meanings. I so enjoy watching her develop this skill. Most of her communication is "point and grunt" (or scream), but she can sign "please", thanks to her Grandma and Tete (Auntie) for teaching her! Tete was one of her first 3 spoken words and it is what she calls her Auntie. 

She understands much more than she can speak though. Most helpfully she understands "come with mommy" and "no" or "that's not for Penny". And MOST of the time she obeys! (For now, right?)

The biggest things I have found helpful in teaching my daughter languages are:

1. Pronounce every word clearly, annunciate 

2. Keep it simple. When "reading" a book, point to things and say their names.

3. Repeat, repeat, and repeat again.

Believe something WONDERFUL will happen to you today!

In the Communication Gap

My daughter and I have entered the wonderful "communication gap" phase, as I have titled it.  She is a year old, and definitely knows what she wants!  The problem comes when she tries to communicate that to me.  There is a gap.  And that gap exists when I try to communicate to her as well.  Don't get me wrong, MOST of the time, we understand eachother, a benefit of being an at-home mommy (thanks to my personal business). There are times, though, when we cannot seem to get our message across to the other, and one or both of us ends up frustrated and (once in a while) in tears.
It is in these times that I remind myself of a few things:
1) My SMART daughter DOES understand more than I realize
2) When my daughter does not understand my message, it is not her fault. She is still learning
3) This too shall pass

The rough patches do not last forever, this is a phase.  The more I work on teaching her sign language and hand signals for words, the sooner we will understand eachother that much better.  Don't get frustrated, take a deep breath, hug my daughter, and keep going.

Make today FABULOUS!