Right around a year old my son could say about 4 words and understand many more. He has since stopped saying some of the words that he previously was... Is this normal? He can now say momma, dada.. But before he was those plus saying car and dog also. He can understand go, milk, all done, bath and Mimi's (night night).
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Re: Not talking as much
I've heard or read this is very normal. It's because they are so busy exploring and observing at this age.
I was just talking about this with my mom today. DS used to say bye, uh-oh, read...he would wave, do "all done"...if we'd say "what does a monkey say?" he'd respond with "oooh, oooh, oooh!" Now- nothing.
I know he understands things like book, cat, and water.
He still doesn't say mama or dada or point to use if we ask where the other one is though
I read it explained once as their learning is like packing a suitcase. When they go through learning spurts, they have to unpack everything ... so it will seem like they know less. Then they have to re-pack everything along with the new stuff and figure out where everything goes. So, yes, I believe recessions are normal.
There is a series of books called "Your x year-old" by Ames and Ilg. I haven't read the one year old one, but I read the 3 y/o one for DS1. They talk about normal development in the books. Some of the things are that 3 y/o boys often have trouble with red and green... and DS1 gets them mixed up all.the.time, even though he knows every other color. Also they talk about 3.5 being a time of great disequalibrium (as are most 1/2 year stages), so a once physically confident child might fall/stumble a lot and stuttering is very common (and a passing phase). And w/2 year ages are usually when the kid seems most out of sorts emotionally.
Oh yeah, this is completely normal.
My DD used to be able to say mama, daddy, doggy, ducky, baby, hi, bye. Now she doesn't say daddy, doggy or ducky anymore. but she says hi about a million times a day. She also says "pretty" now.
So she's learning new words and "dropping" the old ones. Ya know, that's old news, time for new ones.
This is completely normal.
I also forgot to mention that even though she doesn't say the words she used to. She's very much into animal sounds and even though she won't say doggy or ducky anymore she'll say woofwoof or quack.
She knows the sounds of following animals: dog, duck, cow, owl, lion, snake, monkey.
and she has her own languagy. So bottle is BA, light is Dey, Uhoh is a very short O.
But there are days she "can't" do any of it.