FW: an onomatopoeic toddler

[Margaret M. Fleck]

Nelson, Katherine wrote:
>   ....  However, individual differences and idiosyncratic approaches 
> to learning to talk are far more prevalent than the current literature 
> would lead you to believe, and most children settle on conventional 
> sounds as well as meanings during the third year. 
On the one hand, I'm not sure anyone really believes stories about the 
extent of the differences until they
actually have personal experience of a kid talking in full sentences at 
two years and a comparable kid who 
is nearly mute at the same age.  

To put this in perspective, however, there's about a 6-month spread in 
when fairly normal kids learn to walk.  
Probably a wider spread in when they learn how to come down a ladder.   
And a multi-year spread in potty training
and learning standard preschool manual coordination tasks, e.g. holding 
a pencil effectively, cutting food with a
knife and fork.   For the non-language tasks, there seem to be 
differences in inherent ability and also differences
in what the kid feels inclined to put effort into.

Perhaps we shouldn't be all that surprised by similar variation in 
language learning.

As a parent, I think there's a disconnect between printed discussions of 
skill timing and the information that's
passed around the mommy and teacher network, with the manuals tending to 
understate the extent of the variation.
In fact, it's a common topic of discussion among parents, because they 
all want to reassure themselves that
their kid isn't the only one who is mute at 2, not toilet trained at 3, 
can't hold a pencil properly at 5, or whatever.

Margaret