A 2-year-old learning English

I am fascinated by my daughter’s language development. 26 months ago, she could barely cry, and now she uses 3-word phrases to correctly and accurately express meaning.

I just want to share some thoughts about her journey:

Long before she could say the words, she understood that the sound “shoes” referred to the items she wears on her feet when she leaves the house. She could be instructed to get the “blocks” or “dolly” from another room and would remember what they were and where she had left them. I was amazed the first time I discovered that!

Like all children, her speech started as she began reproducing speech-sounds she hears. Her first recognizable language productions, like all children, were syllables. “Ma” and “Da” sounds, shortly adding “Ba,” “Ga,” and “Duh.”

From there she learned nouns - Mommy, Dadee, Boots (one of her favorites), Bup (for Cup). Her pronunciation continues to improve as she expands her ability to produce English phonetic sounds. In no particular order, she learned to say words like “Doggy,” “Cat,” “Duck,” and “Book.” At about 24-months, she started referring to herself by her own name. Oh, she also learned to recognize and make rudimentary attempts at pronouncing basic adjectives, such as colors. She began speaking “Green” and “Bu” (for blue).

Without our consciously noticing, she learned to correctly interpret the spoken plural. When we ask her to get her shoes she brings both members of the pair.

But here’s what prompted this note. Within the last two months her English has rapidly improved.

1) She began using nouns as questions by producing the interrogative inflection - “Daddy?” “Go?” when approaching the door, and “Please?” (though it still sounds like “Peees”).

2) She started repeating commonly-heard phrases. For about a month or so, after dinner every weekday, she would “help” me do the dishes (alas, it was a passing phase <grin>). She would help me carry a stepladder (consisting of 2 very short steps and a platform about 18 inches off the ground) to the kitchen sink. Then, as I washed the dishes and dropped them in the rinse sink, she would pull them out and (usually with some gentle coaxing) drop them into the drain rack. Often, she wanted to drink from the cups/plastic glasses or lick the silverware, but I think we’re past that now. My point is that I would encourage her by saying “There you go” meaning, roughly “That’s how it’s done.” I just meant it as encouragement, my tone of voice conveying the meaning more than any conviction that she understood the idiom. Shortly afterwards, she started saying it herself, and in correct context. But, while she grasped both the meaning and proper context, she was still only repeating a commonly-heard idiom. It took a little longer for her to start putting her own 3-word phrases together.

3) Within a month, she moved to two-word phrases - “Green boots.”

4) She quickly learned to build possesive phrases such as “Mommy’s toast” while pointing at the toasted bread on my wife’s plate.

5) Then she started using two-word possessive interrogatives like, “Mommy’s toast?” More often she asks if it can be her toast She loves to name things, “Daddy’s noodles, mommy’s noodles” pointing as she calls out the items while waiting for dinner.

6) She learned to negate nouns with two-word phrases - “No Daddy” to indicate that Daddy isn’t here. Also, “No doggy” to indicate that she can’t see a dog whose barking she can hear. (She likes dogs).

7) Most recently (just short of 26 months) she started building three-word phrases - “Mommy’s toast gone.”

Simply fascinating!