Clear Intentions

Watching a child learn language is fascinating at the best of times, whether it's someone in my class at school learning the difference between 'desert' and 'dessert' or seeing how Jake learns to use sounds to manipulate the world around him. It makes you stop and think about how amazing the human brain is when it comes to communicating. Jake learns so much by copying our actions, but there's no way for me to teach him how to use his vocal chords or how to differentiate between the thousands of words he hears to learn names and instructions for the things that surround him.

Jake's coming up on two and a lot of babies that we know who are a similar age to him are going through the massive language spurt that happens around this sort of age. Jake isn't, but is very clear about his intentions, desires and interests even with a very limited vocabulary. Discernable words at this moment include "up", "mummy", "daddy" (though these two are used indiscriminately between us), "please", "more" and "Hobbee" (his favourite stuffed toy, more of which in another post). He can also manage "yes" and "no" and with these words to hand, he uses a variety of gestures, pointing and trouser pulling to let you know what he wants to happen. I find it incredible, and very charming, when he goes to get my shoes, points to his coat and the door, meaning that we're set for an outdoor adventure, and I find it hard to resist these requests.

There are two moments that inspired this post. The first happened last weekend at my parents' house. It was coming up to nap time and he was getting grouchy and started to cry. As I picked him up and took his shoes off ready for a snooze, he started to howl but managed to get the word "gogurt" out before I left the room. I stopped and looked at him. He looked back at me and as I sat him down with a yoghurt, the crying stopped and he pretty much inhaled the whole thing. I think I was as happy that he finally decided to eat as I was happy to positively reward the use of language to name his needs.

The second happened today as we walked outside with no particular agenda in mind on one of Jake's "let's go outside, Daddy" trips. We wandered past my car and he ran up to it and pointed to his door (where his car seat is). I told him it was locked, so he glared at me and made a gesture with his hand that could only be the action that I use to press the button to unlock the car. I almost wet myself laughing and unlocked the car for him, which in turn got him giggling. His intentions could not have been any clearer as to what he wanted me to do.

As Jake gets older, I think my wife and I worry less about him reaching his developmental milestones on time. So far, he's yet to miss one, and seems to wait until the last possible moment (i.e. the day before we call the doctors to see if there's anything wrong with him) to stress us out. I think it's more that he opts for the easy option and will only make the next step when it's too frustrating to stay with the status quo. That's how it was for him walking and learning to eat, and I'm sure that's how it will be with his speech, toilet training and future milestones. Whilst he's happy, friendly and curious about the world, I couldn't care less.