Problems feeding toddlers

[Guest guest]

I don't want to start a debate, but I do have to disagree. Every child is

different, even in the same family. My first son had a wonderful vocabulary and

I could hold an intelligent conversation with him by 18 months. Today, he just

finished 3rd grade and scored advnaced in everything relating to vocabulary.

However, my middle child was the complete opposite. I spoke to him constantly,

not baby language, but he didn't respond much. I taught him to sign so that I

could understand him and to limit his frustration. I never changed the way he

was talked to than my first son, yet he didn't really start talking until he was

over 3 years old, when his little brother (my youngest) started talking more and

more. It was the competetition, I think, that caused him to start talking. His

brother would tell us things and i think he realized that he could get a

better/easier/faster response if he did the same. It is amazing how quickly he

developed his speech in just a metter of weeks.

Now, I didn't read to my children early on because none of them wanted to sit

stilllong enouh to hear a story. I just talked to them, pointed out

things,naming them, so on. I read to my oldest at about 3 or so, now my two

youngest will sit still for books and started doing so at a younger age than my

oldest. My 3 year old can name letters and the sounds they make (he did that at

2) and will use letter blocks to " spell " words (he puts letters togther and

tells me it is a certain word) I have been teaching him how to sound out words

to spell them, like c-a-t making the sounds as I go. He doesn't have that down

yet, but he is trying. My youngest (21 months) is learning his alphabet, mostly

from listening to his 3 year old brother.

So, each child is different and I can honestly say that while reading is

helpful, it does not mean that your child will speak earlier or better. I talked

to my children all of the time. I know I said my 3 year old hardly spoke while

he was younger, but at 2 could name colors, shapes, letters and numbers. I can

say that most of that was learned from watching Blues Clues. Not the best way to

learn, but it certainly was not from anything that I did on a regular basis.

BTW- my 9 year old that scored advanced in vocab hates to read. Hates!

, Noreen Davisson <davisson wrote:

>

> I talked to my children all the time (now Mommy is...., and I read to my

> daughter constantly from biographies and other books I was reading while she

> nursed). That changed when my son was born because she had opinions on what

> we should read. My son's exposure to grown-up prose was limited. My

> daughter was speaking in full sentences (What's appropriate for me to watch

> on television right now?- yes she had 1 hour of TV time daily) at 17 months.

> My son had severe fluid issues with his ears, so he did not speak, but could

> sign/mime full sentences at 19 months. Another thing to remember is to not

> speak down to your children. I met a neighbor at the library and she told

> me that she knew it was me, not because of voice, but because I was using 2

> or 3 syllable words to a child browsing in the picture book section. Both

> of my children have awesome vocabularies and read at least 3 grades above

> their current grade. My son read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in

> kindergarten and his only problem was some of the made-up names,

> Conversation with your children is key.

>

> Dinner is tough for us right now, since I work four nights a week

> teaching chess, so we don't get as many family dinners as I would like. We

> are trying breakfast, but it's harder with a semi-cranky teen and pre-teen

> at 6:30am. I'm looking forward to the summer!

>

> Noren

>