23 month old - speech, language and understanding

[Shouldbeworking1982]

Hi all, I think my little one is on track but I am just interested to see where your nearly 2 year olds are with this.

My son has lots of single words, will join up some words, answers some questions such as do you want xxxxx with a yes/no reply, seems to understand 'what's that?, where's xxxxx, who's that? questions.

I'm just a bit stuck about what they should know with regards to answering more open questions and any kind of conversation such as telling you about their day or what they've been doing. My son might expand on something if I say did you go to the park?, he may say slide, wheee, granddad for example or he may not say anything at all. Also, I wonder about questions like 'how are you?' - people ask him this and he doesn't answer yet and 'what's your name?' he usually points to me and says muma and then i say no what's your name and point to him and then he will say his name.

I'm just not sure what age to expect more 'conversation' and I suppose more open answers to questions if that makes sense!

Thanks all.

[BrightandEarly]

Sounds like he's doing brilliantly!

I think the short/random/no answer to questions thing is completely normal. I find the best thing is just chat to the DC all day about everything we do and see. They soon start joining in and then won't stop talking

[Eminybob]

My DS is the same age and sounds pretty much exactly like yours.

He knows loads of words, although some of them are difficult to understand or more like sounds (moo for cow, choo choo for train for eg)

He can definitely understand what I say and can answer questions, yes no etc but like yours won't answer an open question except maybe if I ask what he did at nursery he might say Jake, as in he saw his friend Jake.

He joins up a couple of words, like daddy shoes (when walking around in DH's shoes like a loon) and he knows quite a few colours so he says red car or blue car or whatever.

He doesn't say his own name yet. In fact the only names I've heard him say are mummy daddy and Jake. Oh apart from Thomas the tank engine - he can name all of the engines pretty much.

I'm glad you started this thread op, I have been wondering if DS is on track and it'll be helpful to see other replies.

[Shouldbeworking1982]

Thanks for your comments so far! I do chat away to him all the time, people must think I'm bonkers!

Eminybob - our boys do sounds similar! Whenever I mention the word nursery to my son he always says the name of his best mate there too! He's just started to take notice of colours and he sometimes gets the main colours right, red, yellow, blue and green I think he's pretty much clear on. Mine will say his own name, although his pronunciation isn't clear. He talks about himself in the third person, I haven't heard him use I or me yet.

If anyone else can add any other experiences that would be great, just to get a general idea of what others are doing around this age, thanks!

[Booboostwo]

I think it can vary quite a bit. My friend's 2yo speaks in sentences, e.g. "Look mummy there is a cat", and will repeat all kinds of words, e.g. she will repeat her mum counting in another language. My DS 21mo has very few words 20?), no sentences but understands a lot more, e.g. "Go to the bathroom and bring me a diaper". He shouts NO quite emphatically so he's definitely grasped that one!

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

I think you're expecting quite a lot, not just in terms of language but it in terms of cognition.

To tell you about their day demands not just the relevant words, but the ability to think back to a particular period of time and retrieve those memories. To be able to answer 'how are you?' would require the ability to understand their emotions as well as having the words to describe them. These are tricky things to do, even more tricky than identifying that this animal with four paws, furry ears and whiskers is a cat but that one is a dog (which I still find amazing!)

Understanding of the passage of time is emerging at this age, so the concepts of 'before' and 'after' are starting to make sense. So as you're finding now as well as being able to point to a slide and say 'slide' they can start to talk about the fact they have been on the slide earlier or that they want to go on the slide in the future. But this is still early days - my 23mo can cope with 'we are going to the park' or 'we are going to the shops' but 'we are going to the shops, then to the park' is still a bit much for him to process.

My 23mo old has just had a big language leap so is starting to use more and more 2-3 word phrases. He can name many animals and vehicles but doesn't know numbers, colours or shapes though he is starting to understand all of these concepts (shape and colour sorting, enjoying counting games etc)

He is obsessed with the presence/absence of things - 'where train gone?' 'Cat hiding!' and so on.

He is just starting to demonstrate play-acting /make believe - in particular 'feeding' his soft toys.

He doesn't really use any pronouns yet (I, me, you etc) or use his own name though he recognises it when spoken by others.

I am often astounded by his memory. We were in a park recently and he was saying 'cat!' despite the fact there were no cats around. I then remembered the last time we were there (a couple of weeks earlier) we had stroked a cat.

There's a lot of variation within his peer group - he is way ahead of some on language, but others have been doing make believe play for months for instance. It is normal for things to vary from child to child.

[Shouldbeworking1982]

Excellent replies and very helpful, thank you. I'm glad these things are expected at a later age or I would need to worry about my little one! I'm just a bit clueless as to what is expected at what age. I often find when out and about and people talk to my son, they ask him all sorts of things, most people not actually knowing his age, and I wonder if they expect him to reply or not and then I wonder if he should be expected to reply by now if you know what I mean..

[Eminybob]

This is really interesting. Nice to know DS is "normal".

bubbins it's interesting what you say about them starting to recognise before and after.

The other day we were going into a cafe that had one of those ride on trains that you stick a quid in outside. DS pointed to it and said choo choo. I said you can have a go after lunch, expecting him to kick off. I was surprised when he didn't and we went had had a nice lunch in the cafe. As soon as we finished he said choo choo and pointed to the door. I was surprised he remembered!

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

Ah I love those little 'wow' moments when they surprise you with a little bit of understanding, this age is full of them!

DS is spectacularly uncooperative about nappy changes, ignores any mention of them and gives no obvious signs of understanding the process. But today he put his bear on the changing mat and gave him a little clean with a wipe then tried to put a nappy on him! Evidently DS understands completely and just selectively ignores me!

[Eminybob]

That's cute

[FellOutOfBed2wice]

I've got a 23 month old and this all sounds very like her. She has just started saying her name and will answer questions like "what did you do today?" With two or three word phrases like "Nanny park", "Grandad garden hose". She names important people like us, grandparents and her auntie. Good at colours and animals and their noises too. She bloody loves pretending to feed all of her toys as well.