Adam - stuff Part 2

How about for this one, I cover Adam's speech and language development? I could say a lot because, well, he can say a lot. My memory is fuzzy on a lot of things but here are a few things I do remember. I'm sorry dear readers, this is much like the 16-month edition when I counted up his vocabulary, just for the record, not for your entertainment. I will try to cover most social stuff (negotiating) in another post.

around 19 months (last November)
- "I hungry. Mommy, get yoghurt, please."
- can recite Jack and Jill correctly, including the lesser known "Up Jack got..." verse
- can recognise each letter of the upper-case alphabet

around 20 months (last Christmas)
- can "sing" Jingle Bells entirely, though sometimes loses his place

around 22 months
- knows his full name, age, address, and city

around 23 months
- working on if/then, when/then, cause/effect constructs, e.g., "When you press the black button, it makes the green light go on." I remember that sentence specifically because I was blown away with how long it was.

around 24 months
- At Adam's check up, the paediatrician asked if Adam is "putting two words together." Uh, yeah, you could say that. Paragraphs.
- can count to 29 (just say the words)
- usually recognises written numbers up to 29, guesses well at higher numbers

nowadays, 2 and a quarter years and other stuff I can't date
- perfecting the cause/effect constructs, especially how and why/because, often in reference to household rules. "Mommy took it away because you threw it." "Why is Naomi crying? Because she wants a hug."
- can reliably count about 4 objects, sometimes higher
- knows "which letter is for ... " dozens of people and objects
- knows the words for the days of the week but doesn't grasp their meaning
- says Cantonese words for stinky, come on, terrible, 1, 2, and 3 (others?)
- will guess at just about any question asked, rather than answer, "I don't know." I've never heard him say "I don't know."
- uses past, present, and future tenses. He's probably been doing this for a while but I never noted exactly when. Sounds a little ESL by misapplying various tenses. E.g., (on the way to the pool,) "We are going to go do some getting wet."

rehearsal
Except for a week or so while he was practising escaping his crib, Adam has for the past year (at least) babbled, chatted, and sung himself to sleep. Naptime typically ranges from 10 to 30 minutes of chatter but bedtime is rarely less than 20 minutes, usually an hour to two hours.

music
Adam rarely sings along with people or recordings. He sings by himself or lip-synchs. Don't take it personally if Adam tells you, "You (I) don't like singing/dancing." It's not a judgement of your voice or skill, clearly since he'll tell Dion to stop while I am singing. He's focussing and you're distracting him. His own singing is rarely pitched but often appropriately inflected.

idiosyncratic use of pronouns
Adam has for months and months been referring to himself in the second person, i.e., saying you/your/yours when he means I/me/my/mine. Which makes perfect sense because we call him "you" all the time. I don't remember when he started doing this because way back before Christmas, he was using "Adam" or "I" correctly. In the mean time, every now and then, he does use the first person correctly but it is always a clearly concerted effort. I try to praise it effusively but it's not sticking just yet.

testing rules and asserting himself verbally
One of the advantages of a very verbal 2 year old is that he can test rules with words rather than by breaking them - or our stuff or himself. We often have conversations like:
A: "That is soft."
me: "No, that is hard."
A: "It is not soft. You cannot throw it. You can only throw it outside. If you throw it inside, Mommy with take it away and you will not be able to have it."
One of the disadvantages is that Adam can test ten rules with words in the time that he'd be able to test two physically. Which means he hears "no" (or a euphemism for it) five times as often.

Another advantage is that we also avoid some unnecessary conflicts because he really is able to say what he likes and wants. Plus, talking is soothing for him, not frustrating for him, so talking it out is a good temper-control strategy.

Ehng. I'm all talked out.