Bill and I know how much Matthew understands when we have to spell his favorite things or activities like b-u-b-b-l-e-s and o-u-t and s-h-o-e-s and c-a-r and b-a-t-h in our conversations if he is within earshot and we don't want him to know what we're talking about. We can't even use signs because he knows sign language.
Matthew is a very vocal 33 month old but not fully verbal yet. He tries though. He babbles and hums and sings along (on key) to his favorite songs but he can't clearly say all the words that he knows yet. He really understands so much more than he lets on.
Vocabulary and Verbal Explosion
Five months ago, I listed 26 words that Matthew had consistent sounds for - his speech approximations for words he understood. He had around 140 words in his vocabulary. By the end of March, he spoke his first clear word for the first time. It was "bye". Since then, Matthew's vocabulary has expanded by at least another 39+ words. Within this past week alone, he has been trying to speak more words, with some words clearer than his previous approximations and some completely new verbalizations. Since he's been trying to say more words, we've stopped teaching him new signs. We still sign with him when needed but we mostly encourage talking instead of signing.
Here's a list of the additional words that he understands:
| arms | dump | light | shorts |
| bottle | elbow | lion | shut |
| catch | elephant | Lola | sing |
| cheeks | feathers | Lolo | smile |
| chicken | flower | monkey | sneeze |
| cough | fork | okay | splash |
| cut | giraffe | outside | truck |
| dance | gray | peaches | wagon |
| draw | knock | picture | yawn |
| duck | laugh | purple |
Here's his list of new spoken words/ speech approximations:
apple (apuh) - used to be "a"
applesauce (os)
blue (boo)
bubble (baba)
bye (bye) - used to be "ba"
cat (tat) - used to be "aa"
choo choo (choo choo)
circle (cuhl)
Daddy (dee) - used to be "da"
draw (daw - said like 'saw')
duck (dah)
eat (tee) - used to be "t"
eyes (eyes)
green (geh)
hello (ohw - like 'owe')
help (heh)
hi (hi)
horse (hos)
hug (uh)
jump (dump)
kick (kih)
light (la-la-light)
Lola (owa)
Lolo (owo)
no (doh)
okay (o-keh)
please (is)
pop (pop)
purple (puh)
red (eh)
star (tah)
stop (top)
teeth (tee)
tickle (kuhl)
town (tow - like 'town' but without the 'n')
triangle (guhl)
up (up)
walk (kah)
wow (wow)
yay (yay)
yellow (owow)
Related posts:
Matthew Says Bye
Vocabulary List and Speech
5 comments:
Great talking Matthew! You are so clever and totally handsome too!
He's really coming along so well!
I will say one thing, though...Braska STILL loves sign and it still is a motivator with her, even though she's been talking for some time. I would encourage you to continue the signing if he is at all interested... all of the most verbal kids with DS I know continue their sign and the combination, even at ages 5 or 8 and beyond. It makes a huge difference in their interest in correct speech and their ability to communicate. We plan to continue signing with Braska for years, to the point of her being comfortably bilingual in conversation using both. It has been a lifesaver in school, when things are loud and chaotic and she is not as clear in her thought, she can sign even when she won't talk or can't talk at that moment.
Once again, just my 2 cents. :o)
someone gave us the setof signing time videos with the spanish version before we left. In the 7 weeks weve been in Ecuador Grace has learned 15-20 words. How do you keep track and keep your lists so efficiently? I was thinking about hanging a calendar with big spaces like I did for my other three. I would document milestones and pictures (back when you had rolls of film!) things like this would be good to document so see the progress on days a parent feels discouraged. Grace will be 5 in Nov so is very behind in speakng skills.
He's doing great! Beyond that, though, he is such a cutie. His personality just shines through and he's so handsome!
Sounds like his speech is coming right along - that's great! I had to laugh because I remember having to spell out words with Joe ... couldn't use sign either if Kayla was near us :)
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