Friday, August 28, 2009

One word vocabulary

Quincy still only says one word, "bye-bye," but he is saying it much more often and has learned to use it quite well. I recently realized that this little 12 month old child has learned to use his one word to communicate in many different ways. Of course he uses it in traditional manner when saying good bye to someone, he says bye-bye and waves to the person. In addition, when we are inside our house he will go up to an entry door and either bang on the door or reach for the door handle and say bye-bye when he wants to go outside or perhap somewhere else. If we are at a store, when he is ready to leave he will just start saying bye-bye. At naptimes and bedtime, when he is ready to go to bed he will randomly start saying bye-bye and wave to us. I then ask him if he wants to go upstairs and go to bed or take a nap, at which point he walks directly to the upstairs door, bangs on the door or grabs the handle and says bye-bye. And occasionally once he is awake, if he we don't get up to him quick enough I have heard him in his crib saying bye-bye. I can only assume he is saying bye-bye to his crib. While eating, if he is done (or doesn't not want a particular food item) he will drop food, piece by piece, onto the floor and wave to each piece while saying bye-bye. When out for a wagon ride, if he wants to get out and walk, he will stand up in the wagon, try to get out and say bye-bye. And most recently, if a tv show is on, when the credits start to roll at the end he says bye-bye and waves to the tv. This I believe he isn't trying to tell us anything, just saying good-bye to the tv show.

So with his one word vocabulary he can tell us (or someone else) goodbye, he can tell us when he wants to leave the house, he can tell us when he is done in a store, he can tell us when he is ready to go to bed or nap, he can tell us when he wants to walk instead of ride in the wagon, and he can tell us when he is done eating or when he doesn't want to eat something. And probably a few other things that I haven't caught onto yet. Do you sometimes feel that your 1 year old is smarter than you?!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would he need any more words - sounds like he is very cognizant of what he wants to communicate, but has no need since his one word vocab is sufficient along with pointing -
have to run Love Gramma M

julie said...

At least he has a vocab, even if it's only one word...I think I told you about my friend's boy, didn't I? Point and shriek?