Thursday, June 3, 2010

Baby word counts

Today at Early Intervention, AwesomeCloud uttered 10 separate, distinct words. The EI lady thinks he's capable of around 15.

I'm not sure what the cutoff line for "distinct" is in language. One of his words was "crash," which sounds like "gah" to me. By that standard, he has at least 50 words, maybe up to 80 or 90 now. There are 15-20 words that sound like "gah." 10 or so words sound like "doo," and at least 20 words are pronounced "da." The esteemed Dr. Miller seemed surprised when I estimated AwesomeCloud's vocabulary at 40-50 words a month ago. I guess I was following different standards - I was counting words I could understand, and she was counting words she could understand. (She was also unimpressed when I told her AwesomeCloud could imitate five birdcalls and meow very convincingly like Ban Lu.)

I've done it. I've become that mama who has conversations with her incoherent toddler. Wahooo!

However, the number of words in his official paperwork is 10. For all official purposes, he currently has a vocabulary of 10 words, because that's what his assessment says.

There's a difference between official reality and actual reality, it seems. I knew that already. Anyone who's ever gone to school and had their complex hard work reduced to a letter grade knows that. Anyone who's ever paid taxes knows that.

There may be such thing as hard truth, but most truths are soft.

AT LEAST 80 separate and distinct words, I'm telling you.

2 comments:

  1. I think it's entirely unfair not to count animal sounds! They are distinct and require vocal ability and imitation skills! That's been Genevieve's specialty, and I think has been really impressive, and the pediatrician didn't count them, either. I'm on your side - the bird calls and meows count!

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  2. Way to go Awesome one....love the makeover. I want to be next to him on the dock...jealous

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