Musings on silly parental counting and on language

Since Otter's fifteen-month appointment, when the doctor asked how many words Otter could say, I've found myself obsessed with trying to keep rough track of his new words and signs. (I also keep track so that I can give periodic lists to his daycare provider, so that they'll have a clue what he's saying.) At latest count, he had over 100: more than 40 concepts where he knows both the signs and the words, at least 10 to 20 more where he knows the signs but can't say the words, and more than 40 words where he doesn't use or know the signs.

What does any of that prove? I want it to prove that we're doing something right, and I suppose in a way it does, except that lots of parents who are doing jobs as good as or better than G and I have kids (especially boys, apparently) have kids who speak (and/or sign) a lot less than this at this age.

I pointed this out to Otter this morning when he bounced up in bed at 6 am and started conversing, one word in each paragraph being discernible, and I said, somewhat ruefully(it was 6 am, remember?) "hey, you know a lot of small children--especially boys--can't say more than a few words at this age."

I do believe a lot of it is the signing. I believe Otter has a much easier time figuring out how to remember a concept when he has both word and sign for it. We also have a much easier time figuring out what he's saying when he has both: if one is unclear, he can use the other one.

Most often, though, he uses them interchangeably but not always together. He always uses the signs for hurt and help, and occasionally adds in the words. For hurt he more often says "owww", though he knows how to say "hurt".

While eating he focuses on using signs, perhaps because his mouth is busy.

At daycare, he uses some of both; they don't know all of the ones he uses but we've given them a list of the major ones.

It does seem as if the signs and words for new concepts are coming right on top of each other lately, which would tend to support the idea that having one makes the other easier somehow. And when motivated he learns signs much more quickly than words; he learned the sign for (veggie) burger in one try, whereas the word burger has made no appearance. (Instead he says "hot" while making the sign for burger.)

Conclusions? I'm not sure. I'd heard from other parents that their kids dropped the signs once they could say the words clearly; Otter doesn't do that. It makes me wonder if the parents stopped reinforcing the signs once they didn't need them, as Otter has shown no inclination to drop any of his. Or perhaps he'll start dropping them later.

I think he enjoys signing, and I know G and I love seeing him sign. I would love for us to gradually learn enough to hold a real conversation; right now we have 150 or so scattered signs and we're doing very rudimentary "signed English", not real ASL. We (G and I) are essentially lost about ASL syntax; I want to spend some time figuring out how to put together sentences and whole ideas, not just one and two sign concepts.

Maybe on our next long car trip we can practice. Or I can practice and explain to G while G drives.