They say it's really hard to understand your toddler when he or she is still in the
pre-talker stage because they are still trying to develop their communication skills. Well, in our case, even though our 14-month old daughter still cannot properly communicate to us verbally, she has developed some form of communication other than the use of words (I believe this is how pre-talkers communicate - mostly through sign language). As much as we can, we try to make sure that we still get all her messages across.
Sometimes, it's very easy to understand what she is trying to tell us. However, there are also situations where we have to keep guessing a few times before we would be able to understand her.
For example, when she wants to go outside, she would let out a cry and try to point her finger outside. This should be easy.
In this picture, she's just pointing at an object...
If she wants to show me something, she would grab my hand and would lead me towards the direction of the object or the place, wherever it is.
There are times when she would just cry and we thought that she wanted to drink milk only to find out that she's just sleepy. Good thing that we've already learned that we can always store her unfinished milk formula in the refrigerator and will still be good to drink when she's already awake.
Right now though, whenever she cries, we would watch her reaction when we ask her "
Milk? You want milk?". If she reacts with a smile or a laughter, the answer means "
Yes" especially if she would look in the direction where her milk and feeding bottles are located. However, if her reaction seems to show some indifference, as if she didn't hear us, then it means we need to guess some more. What a language milestone, indeed!
Anyhow, I find this stage of my toddler much much much more enjoyable. I feel like she's learning fast. Whenever we want a kiss from her, she would usually happily oblige because she knows we would praise her afterwards with some cheering and clapping.
And she's been the little noisemaker in the house. Whenever we have calls from my in-laws, she also wants to have something to do with the telephone.
Right now, I guess she's still trying to hone her narrative skills but somehow I know she'll turn out to be a glib talker someday. She talks as if she's speaking the right words, although for the record she knows how to say "
Mama", "
Papa", "
Baby", "
Ate", "
Hala!" ["
Hala!" by the way is an expression I frequently say when something or a situation frightens me without a warning. I guess I should be more watchful about the words I am saying :-)]
