one year old: is she talking yet?
this is another grey area. i think the best answer is “sort of.”
i may just be very picky. to me, it’s not going to count as a “first word” until she says it without provocation consistently and accurately (if everything is a ‘dog’ then nothing is).
that having been said, she babbles constantly and is clearly trying to mimic sentence structure, and not always repeating the same sounds over and over. she points to things in books and babbles like she’s reading words. these are all things that they say come after first words, which is why i think i’m picky. she’s got lots of sounds, too. most of the basic vowel sounds and a bunch of consonants (dd, mm, nn, ng, bb, tt). zz, ss zth all come out like “th” but you can tell it’s intentional.
her first “word” will probably be “dog” (lots of visits to grandma and seeing them while we’re out), “dada”, “mama”, “sock”, “shoe”, or “zero” (she points to the “0″ on our front door while were trying to get in and we talk about it). she may already be saying “hi”, but it’s impossible to tell. almost everything starts off as “hi.” babysitters have claimed she’s said “hi dog” and “see ya” clear as day, but since i’ve also heard her say “jesus” (possibly “cheezits”) and “cigarettes” clear as day, i’m highly skeptical.
oh! and she does know a small amount of sign language. she does the sign for hungry, but i’m not sure how much of that is real. she does it when you’re asking her if she’s hungry so it might just be a mimic thing. or she’s always hungry. she definitely knows the sign for more, although it’s clear that it really just means “give me that thing so i can put it in my mouth.” she does it when her tray is empty and she can see more food. she does it if you’re eating/drinking something and she wants it. she also doesn’t always do it when you ask her if she wants more. sometimes she claps her hands or raises her arms or pushes the tray away.
we’re working on getting her to understand “all done”, “milk”, and “juice,” as well as “please” and “thank you.” she’s also got a few more gestures that we’re trying to discern. having her communicate with us in ways other than crying or fussing by talking is something i didn’t expect to be so moving.
she responds to several commands (give me that, put that in the box, where is your ear/nose, etc), so i think she’s moments away from getting it all. i expect there to be a helen keller “water” moment in the next few weeks and suddenly her vocabulary will skyrocket.