Thursday, September 25, 2008

First words?

Here's a question for the experienced parents out there ... how do you know when the first word is "officially" said?

I only ask because I know that Maddie couldn't possibly have started talking at 8 months - but that is when we started hearing discernible words coming out of her mouth. Although the "dadadadadada" really was directed at almost anything.  And the "it-thay" was clearly "kitty" - but was it really that clear?  Or was it because we are her parents, and know what she is trying to say?

She now says what sounds like "daddy" and quite strategically pulls out the "mama" whenever she's upset or whiny (and yes, it gets me everytime).  And I'm sure she's said "hi" and probably a few other "words" that may or may not be discernible to an outside party.

But now that she clearly is trying to say lots of words, understands a tonne of words, and does say some words with frequency and fairly acurately - how do you pinpoint the "first official word"?

Crap - just another thing for me to get wrong in her baby book...

xxoo.S

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Sare -

I think the first word can be whatever you think it is... whatever has meaning in your mind. "Dadadada" is babbling, like you said, but if she looks at Seth and says "Dada" - that's a word. It's hard to pinpoint the very day she first said it - that's because learning to speak is a process, it doesn't just happen. So estimate - who's gonna know? You can't get this one wrong!