first words

[MrsCodswallop]

ds3 (11months and 2 weeks!) has pronounced the official wallop first word..."Edgar" (our cat). he pointed and said "Edgar there" just now!

other unusual first words plese (excluding mama dada)

[Coddy]

i cant beleive 30 words Aloha!
well, I dont mean you are lying but wrere they sounds you recognised or words other prople could recognise?

wow!
(skulks off to lick wounds!!)

COd (aka mrsclooney)

[clary]

Hmm this is very interesting. DS1's first was Daddy and Hiya so not that interesting; DD was her big brother's 1st name very sweet, both at about 12mo. DS2 said Hello very clearly at not quite 8mo which I thought very early, and has also been saying Mum-mum-mum since about 9mo, certainly means me (eg calls it when I leave the room etc). He's always been in a hurry tho, right from birth! DS1 like Throckenholt's took ages to say mummy. 1st word can be anytime 8mo-15mo or even older; perhaps after three my ears are more attuned as they are not always that clear, but I think if the word is repeated and said with apparent intent then it's fair enough even if only you can understand it. (Interestingly hello from DS2 was to another mum he barely knew)

[aloha]

Coddy, I only know because dh and I sat down and wrote them as a list one night! You are almost certainly correct and they were only really clear to me and dh and probably my mum. And lots were very similar - eg Moo (for cow) and Moon, and More etc etc. I was suprised how many there were. He didn't use them that much though - the words were interspersed with long periods of dummy-sucking silence. He certainly wasn't constantly engaging us in conversation or anything and they weren't used in lovely sentances. But he named a lot of different things. He couldn't walk or crawl though!

[aloha]

I can remember him talking down the phone to people (hello, look, moo) well before he could walk! Mind you, he didn't walk until 16months.

[Evita]

He's a clever little chap, aloha.

Actually I made a list today of dd's words, just for me to remember them more than anything as some of them are so cute. I think she's got about 60 at 17 months. Some of them are clearly recogniseable, some need a little interpretation! But generally I've found in the last 2 weeks her vocabulary has really taken off, some days she says 5 new words.

[Evita]

Aloha - re. early / good talkers, I remember going to a play group with dd at 15 months and there was another little girl there who wasn't walking but sat there very still talking REALLY well, things like 'look, mummy, bricks!' and 'what's the story ballarmory'. It was kind of spooky.

[wobblyknicks]

Thanks celandine, think dd is just working herself up to saying laalaa but that's all for now - at least she sounds normal then!!!

[Evita]

So, does anyone know when a mis-pronounced word becomes the 'real' word? I'm wondering when dd's little 'dice' for dog will become 'dog.' And when her mama and dada will become mommy and daddy.

[expatkat]

Evita, it varies from child to child but I think sometime after 2 the words feel less distorted. I think even at age 2 a lot of children are understood only by their mothers. But it really does vary. Saying "dice" for "dog" seems perfectly normal at this age. Are there any words dd says perfectly? The switch from mama to mummy also happens sometime after the age of 2, I think, or just before. . .but as it happens, my ds, who's 4, still prefers to call me "mama." Once an older boy laughed at him, but I flashed him a glare.

This is all my opinion, by the way, on the basis of my experience with ds. But he (unlike dd) was incredibly attuned to proper pronunciation. He almost joyfully used to repeat words and phrases (after age 2, mostly) things like "water on the radiator" which he said again and again attempting perfect pronuncation. Dd is much slower with language, though girls & second children are "meant" to be faster.

[Evita]

Hi expatkat. Yes, dd does say some words really well and seems to be v. proud of herself when she does. Bag and bath and water are some good ones. The dice business is so strange because if I call a dog a dice she doesn't have a clue what I mean. So she says dice thinking it sounds like dog!

[Evita]

I prefer mama to mommy actually. I just wondered.