In Other Words

Lucy has started talking more recently. She's putting more words together. She's trying new words. She's occasionally repeating words. She's in no hurry, but it's fun to hear how she expresses herself. And it often takes some effort to piece together what she's saying. Sometimes it requires some interpretation.

The All-Purpose Preposition & Conjunction
Although "up" can be a preposition, Lucy never uses it that way. It's only an adverb to show where she or something else should go or has gone. And it can also mean "down." Lucy's one preposition is "a." It's like she's speaking French or Spanish. Where do you want to go? A mama. (To mama.) But Lucy's "a" can also mean "with" or "in." She goes to the pool "a mama" (with mama). Her stuffed cat sleeps "a beepbeep" (in the car). "A" is also what she says for "and." When I ask her if her mama loves her, she nods and says, "a dada" (and dada). I'm not sure if this means that Daddy also loves her or that Mama loves Daddy as well as Lucy, but it's pretty sweet.

Sounds Like
Many of Lucy's "words" are still onomatopoeia. A car or microwave is a "beep" or "beepbeep" because those are the sounds they make. Same with using "choo choo" for train. All animals other than ducks and bees are called by the sounds she thinks they make. Cows are "moos." Chickens are "doodle-doos." Monkeys are "oo-oos" or "oo-oo-ee-ees." Frogs are "bee-yoats" (her version of ribbit). Dogs are dogs, but she thinks that's what they say instead of woof or ruff or bark. Sleep is "oo-ee-oo-ee-oo," her impression of my fake snoring when we play. The other day she said, "Meow-meow a oo-oo oo-ee-oo-ee-oo a beepbeep." That's a six word sentence that means "Cat and monkey sleep in the car." Indeed, they do.

Acting Up
Sometimes Lucy mimes what she's trying to say, kind of like her own sign language. "Whistle" is putting her fingers to her lips and blowing as if she were blowing in a whistle. "Candle" is blowing out a candle. "Binoculars" is hands around her eyes. She uses these mostly when she is telling stories from Shaun the Sheep or Curious George. The dog on Shaun the Sheep blows a whistle. George blows out birthday candles and looks through binoculars when he sits in the lifeguard chair at the beach. However, she has also used the signs outside of the context of story telling.

Poetically Speaking
Other than calling food "num-nums," almost everything else she says is actually English. That doesn't mean you'll understand her. Her pronunciation is pretty good. "K" sounds are more like "T" sounds, "S" blends tend to drop the "S" (snow and star become 'no and 'tar), and R's are a little "W"-ish, but none of that is unusual for toddlers. The problem is that Lucy uses metonymy, a poetic device for when an associated thing is substituted for the thing itself, for example saying "the crown" to mean "the queen." If Lucy wants bubbles in the evening, she wants a bath. She probably wants there to be bubbles in that bath, but she's OK with a bubble-less bath. If she asks for "ice," she wants a drink. She may want hot tea. All beverages are "ice," probably because she learned to ask for Icees. Matt thinks that "tea" means any hot beverage, but she doesn't really like hot chocolate, so if she asks for tea, she probably wants hot tea. She may ask for "ice" and then specify "tea," which still means hot tea.

A Strange Vocabulary
I am often puzzled by which words Lucy chooses to say. Personally, "cookie" would be high on my list of words to learn. She has only just started saying cookie and only when referring to Cookie Monster, not when asking for cookies. She says bowl, stir, more, apple, zip, unzip, bird, bubble, ball, bat, no, stop, chee(se), noodles, pull, pool, shoe, seat, blue, red, sun, moon, star, snow, burp, toot, hello, bye, poop, peepee, knock, diaper, help, pillow, and two as well as about half the letters and quite a few body parts. The child can talk about heavenly bodies but can't request a cookie! Where are her priorities?

Putting It Together
I think the six word sentence about the cat and monkey sleeping in the car is her longest one to date. However, she often puts together phrases and stories. Today she requested more feta by saying, "A me, more chee(se) a bowl" (For me, more cheese in a bowl). When she's through sitting on her Elmo potty seat, she announces, "All done Elmo peepee." After she actually peed in the toilet last week, I flushed the toilet, and she said, "Bye bye, poopoo." She also likes to pretend that her cat has hurt it's ear and needs a doctor (as she has seen in one of her tablet games). She says, "Meow-meow ouch ear. Doc." And she likes to act out and talk about monkeys jumping on the bed who "ouch head."

Other Peculiarities of Communicating with Lucy
We've also learned that you have to ask the right question to get a helpful answer from Lucy. If you ask if she's pooped in her diaper, the answer is always no. If you ask if there is poop in her diaper (who knows how it got there), she may say yes. If you ask if she needs a new diaper, she'll probably run to her room for a diaper change. Or if you ask if she wants to go swimming, she says no. If you ask if she wants to go to the pool, she says yes. We're starting to figure out that if we get an unusual answer the first time we ask a question, we should rephrase it and see if we get a different answer.

Use Your Words
I've tried pushing her to say more. Of course, she understands much more than she says. Everyone's listening/reading vocabulary is larger than their speaking vocabulary. I try to intentionally teach her words. For example, I've tried getting her to say TV. She knows and says both the letter T and the letter V. I even got out her letter magnets and had her "read" TV, but she still won't say TV to mean television. Occasionally, I've tried withholding things to get her to use words. For example, you can have a cookie when you say cookie. It almost never works. She would rather go without than say what I want her to say. So I don't push often or hard because it does no good. I know that she is surrounded by language. She has parents who speak to her and around her and read her books. When she uses one of her not-quite-words to request something, I repeat what she's trying to say in English. If she asks for "ice," I say, "you want a drink." Eventually, she'll start using even more words and hopefully even words we and other people can understand.