Unimportant vocab question :)

[jls~Kain~Drake]

Let me preface my question by saying that I am not worried about my son at all, I'm just curious as to when words are considered real words and intheir vocab

So, I read that an 18mo should have about 10 words. Would this be words that anyone could understand (that they say plainly) or words that people close to the child can understand, but the average person may not?

For instance, Drake (18m) will say "Woody" (from Toy Story) and it's "weee"...but he says it the same way every time, with purpose. Or.."milk" is "meemo". He's got some words that he says very plainly and some words that only I can understand - but they're specific and I know what he's talking about. Kwim?

So what are considered "real" words?

[TeneikM]

[JustAugust]

Hmm. I don't know. As long as he's associating one word with a certain thing, I would think it counts. But then I can see how it would need to be said a bit "better" to count.

Hopefully someone will know for sure.

[weddell]

I'm not positive, but I think it is any "word" that they always use in reference to the same object. So I think your two examples count as words. As long as they are consistent, they count.

[jls~Kain~Drake]

Originally Posted by weddell I'm not positive, but I think it is any "word" that they always use in reference to the same object. So I think your two examples count as words. As long as they are consistent, they count.

That's what I was thinking...because it shows that he knows what the word is, just trying to get his mouth to form the word right...but then I've asked a couple of other people (just friends) and they also didn't know, but thought it might have to be a word that's recognizable by an "outsider"...so I thought I'd ask my DS mama's

[myr44]

Originally Posted by weddell I'm not positive, but I think it is any "word" that they always use in reference to the same object. So I think your two examples count as words. As long as they are consistent, they count.

I saw a speech therapist with ds at 20 mths and this is what she said as well. So while we thought liam had hardly any vocabulary, turns out he had a good range. He's 28 mths old now and still uses some made up words, like wawa for sit and dadou for throwing... These words have no reference to an actual word, so it's weird and cute at the same time

[EmnJJsMom]

Originally Posted by weddell I'm not positive, but I think it is any "word" that they always use in reference to the same object. So I think your two examples count as words. As long as they are consistent, they count.

That's what I have read/heard. A chart in my ped office says that at 18 months a child should be able to say 5-25 words that THEY (and usually close family) know the meaning of, kwim?? They should also be able to point to things if you ask questions like "where is blankey?? where is the balloon?"

[kangamom]

My ds is 18 months and he doesnt really say much either. He mostly speaks in sound effects and sign language. He can say "hi" and thats about it. He says "tsss" which can mean anything, its like "smurf". He says it to mean "sister", "fish", or "cat". His twin sister says A LOT though, and he is the only boy with three very talkative sisters. So I think they just do all the talking for him.

[jls~Kain~Drake]

Thanks everybody for your input!

[mrsbehaven007]

I always though they had to know the WORD... but then again .. I have been known to be wrong!! LOL.. I know when my son was 9 mths old.. he would call crackers.. " ka - kas" LOL