Language acquisition

Since we have a toddler of speaking age, this topic of language acquisition has been on my mind.  It has been so interesting to watch DS learn English and Spanish.  We have been signing with him since 6 months of age, and he started signing back around 10 months.  This has been SUPER useful for the past 10 months when he didn’t speak all that much.    But in the past two weeks, he has been learning words like crazy, to the tune of 1-2 new words a day, sometimes more.  He’s totally in a phase where he is imiating the words he hears.

So his language acquisition has gone like this:

• he started signing at 10 months and had about 50 signs by 18 months
• he started speaking at 10 months and had maybe 10-15 words by 18 months
• he started to sign and speak certain words a about 19 months (“more”, “please”)
• he started his language explosion about 2-3 weeks ago (he’s 20 months today) and for the most part, is speaking totally different words from the ones he signs.

So joined together, his current vocab is about 150 words, so he is getting along well with communication.    This is all in English.  I speak Spanish to him when the spirit moves, which is not very often.  Since he has been really acquiring words, I’ve been pushing the Spanish, and I’m happy to report that he is officially bi-lingual.  He has always understood Spanish, but he is now speaking it, somewhat.  He only has 3-4 words, but I’m hoping he’ll start saying more and more.

For those who are interesed (probably just nana=)), here’s a list of his words, in order of acquisition.  I only write it down if he uses the word independently more than once, otherwise, he’s just copying.

ETA:  I started writing this post last week, and havn’t had a chance to finish it and now I’m feeling lazy.  Besides, DS is saying so many new words a day, I’ve lost track.    In any case, it’s highly entertaining to be experiencing his language acquisition!