What really matters- Putting words together- From single words to sentences is a big transition for our toddlers. They are trying to organize and make sense of their world. By forming sentences about the typical events (eating, bed, bath, shopping, etc.), toddlers are working out things in their own mind. By a simple sentence, such as "ma kiki" ("more cookie"), Whit makes her first attempts at declarative sentences.  Whitney may also have referred to herself in some fashion such as "ney" and combined it with her version of cookie as in "Ney kiki" to mean "Whitney wants a cookie".  Children at this age routinely leave out less necessary words or gestures. One of the important ways toddlers have to make sense of her world is to organize events in her mind and to talk about them.

How to put it into practice-

My Experience-

One of Whitney’s favorite breakfast routines was getting “more bacon”(see video). She seemed to be getting to know the routine very well. We would get the bacon out of the frig, lay it out on the tray, put it in the micro wave, etc before she would then eat it! She was really using her words to help her understand and make sense of this. Whit’s “more bacon” would mean that “I want more bacon, please.” She understood it comes out of the microwave and then on to her plate where she says “more bacon, please”. And she even anticipates that as usual her bacon will probably be hot and says “hot”. These explicit representations of two word sentences and words show her increased facility with her making sense of the breakfast script and influencing its enactment and outcomes via words.

Tuning In-

These first sentences are usually pretty easy to identify and hear. Eventhough the pronunciation is going to be a challenge and we may have no idea what she is saying; we usually could tell she was trying to communicate something and could speculate what it was after recognizing  some related syllable. Whitney was learning to combine gestures and words, and when the combinations are correctly interpreted, she received positive feedback for the effort.  This, in turn, leads to more attempts (not all successful!) and an additional increased use of communicative tools.

Extending/Bridging-

Once it is clear to you what our toddlers want, or even if we have no idea what it is that they are trying to get across, we can ask a question such as, "Whit, I see that you have your empty plate, do you want more bacon?".  Note what the reaction is to this question.  She may nod or smile, or bang more vigorously to indicate that you are correct.  Alternatively, She may

become dejected or throw down the empty plate if you are incorrect (if instead, for example,  she wanted something else).

Take advantage of the reactions, and use concise language to describe what we understand.  "Thank you Whitney for getting my attention.  When I know that you need something I can help you.  I see that you have your empty plate here,  does that mean that you want me to get you more to eat?

What would you like to eat?" (perhaps hold her up to select a type of food from those available.)

The more we acknowledge and support our toddlers attempts at communication the more they will try and the more they will master it.