20 Words By 18 Months

A friend of mine told me that at her son’s 18 month appointment her pediatrician said that most toddlers should be saying at least 20 words. I’ve never been one to assess or monitor my son based on the governments criteria but it got me thinking about where Jacob would fare when this question (if it does) comes up at our 18 month appointment on December 10th. I started cataloging all the words that Jacob says trying to decipher what actually counted as a word and what didn’t. How is this assessment done? For example when Jacob see’s my mother he will say Nana….but when he see’s a banana he will say nana…….A nana…we know that he is saying Nana in the grandmother sense for my mother…and nana in the banana sense for the fruit. So does this count as two words? Or one? Does the fact that Jacob likes to add “a” to everything mean that he’s not actually saying the word - for example he will say “a ball” or “a book” which is probably because we always say “Jacob this is A ball”….I don’t understand how its possible to assess language so early when every child has their own way of saying things. Regardless I’ve compiled a list of words that Jacob is saying so that when the pediatrician asks me I will have an answer….forgive me if I can’t remember them all but I needed to post them somewhere so that i wouldnt’ forget.

Mama
Dada
Nana
Papa
Up
Milk
More
Bye Bye
All Done
I love (we’ve almost got the YOU in there)
Pillow
Apple
Banana
No (every parents favourite)
Night Night
Book
Ball
Meow
Moo
Eye
Ear
Eat
Pillow
Baby
Hi and Hello

I guarantee I have forgotten some, so I’ll add accordingly. Next week we’re hoping he can say Encyclopedia…..so we can move on to Supercalafrajalisticsexpealladocious.