Every time I hear the commercial for “Your Baby Can Read” I get somewhat upset. My two-year-old, as of today says, maybe, ten words. I know you aren’t supposed to compare children and my five have taught me just how different each child can be even within the same family, but I can’t help but think that my toddler is messing with us. You probably thought I was going to worry about him being behind, huh?
On the commercials they show babies reading their little hearts out and my toddler is grunting and giggling at them like he is a cave baby (afterall, he is the same baby that likes to do caveman-esque activities like pitching rocks at neighbors). There is a part in the commercial that shows a parent holding a flashcard that reads, “bellybutton” to his infant daughter and she lifts her shirt just a bit and points to her bellybutton. Isaac has now grown fond of doing the exact same thing during the commercial when the baby does it. Which means, hey, maybe my baby can read.
And when he gets pissed off enough or frustrated because we aren’t paying attention to him, he seems to know just how to get our attention with a wailing, “MaaaawwwwMaaa,” or “Daaaadeeee!” He has been known to even call his sister, “Sissy,” which is our nickname for her from him. He can do it. He just doesn’t want to. It is like a perpetual game of toddler charades with the boy and I’ve never really excelled at that game.
Simply put I can not understand why the child won’t say more than 10 words. His pediatrician tells me it is fine and that by 27-months-old all the children, both the early and the late talkers, end up at the same place developmentally. I’m glad he’s confident as I’m pretty sure that he’ll know the amount of words he’s supposed to, he just won’t be saying them then either.
Apparently, according to a pediatrician he saw, the more children you have the slower the younger ones are to learn how to talk. This is interesting news to me as I would have thought that with as many examples as the child has, he/she would end up talking even sooner. But the reverse is true because instead the child ends up having more people speaking for him/her. The doctor advised that I tell my children to let Isaac have a turn telling me what he wants. I gave this a try and it works, somewhat.
The more I think about, I should be happy he isn’t adding to the noise volume in this house by adding another chattering child voice. It is a nice rest for my ears when it is just me and him at home. Yes, I should just chill out and enjoy him using alternate means of communicating than talking….I still wish I hadn’t taught the others how to talk now that they won’t shut up.
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