Claire, aged (almost) 2

[pyat]

Claire is the most energetic and fearless 23-month-old toddler I know. On Thursday evening we dropped Elizabeth off at her music class, and Claire and I explored Burlington's Central Park.





Claire flings herself down slides that Elizabeth is afraid of, and boldly tries to climb ladders and poles intended for much older children. One of her favorite games is leaping off the back of the couch. She's small for her age. Her one-year-old cousin is the same height as she is, so watching Claire is a bit like watching an animated doll.

When Elizabeth was this age, she was talking in complete sentences. Claire has trouble forming words, but her Ewok-babble is consistent and purposeful, and she understands just about everything we say to her.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

It's getting a lot more frequent that I listen to her babble and suddenly an entire sentence pops out at me, complete with more-or-less accurate pronouns. She's talking, and she's talking in whole sentences, beyond what is expected for a child her age - but her diction is behind other kids her age so we don't usually understand her.

Over the summer I'm going to take her to the local Early Years centre and see about talking to their speech pathologist, but I suspect a lot of it will just be time and growth. She's smart as a whip and stings about as much, that's for sure. :)

[oakthorne.livejournal.com]

That's how it was with my younger brother, Chad. I actually used to literally have to translate for our mother, who couldn't understand a word of his "Chadese."

Then, suddenly one day, he was clear and intelligible. :) Very nearly overnight.

[hannahmorgan.livejournal.com]

Same with me and my older sister - she used to have to translate my babble for my mom. Later on (when I was 19, and about to have my wisdom teeth out) it developed that I had a very short frenulum (the little membrane that anchors one's tongue to the "floor" of one's mouth") . The surgeon offered to snip it for me - which I declined - but he did say that it might very well have contributed to my talking problems as a toddler.

(This next part's more for pyat: But it's been my observation that second children with very bright, articulate, helpful older sibs do talk later - I think they don't *need* to be understood as much as their older sibs did. And I think we as parents depend more on our first kid talking to figure out what they want - by the second one, you're a bit more informed as to the needs of young children. But that's just my opinion based on my limited experience.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I suspect this is the case. And I suspect her daredevil nature comes from us being more laid back about letting her wander, and from watching her big sister.