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A question about playing

At 14 months Peter has no comprehensible words (although I have taken a few educated guesses) but can jargon for England. Today we were out in the back yard playing and he began chatting away to himself. It was very complex, clearly a long monologue that he could understand but completely incomprehensible to me. While he was doing this he was pointing to the lavender plant, pointing to the wall, putting something a pot, then back to the lavender and so on. I got the strong impression that he was engaging in some sort of imaginative play, but I don't really know what it was.

I love how well he entertains himself these days but I also want to encourage him in imaginative play. I just don't really know how to do it if I don't understand what he is saying. I don't want to interrupt what was clearly an engaging fantasy by getting things wrong. Can anyone suggest anything, or should I just leave him to it?

Replies

  • Oscar is king of imaginative play - both pretending to do things and the same chattering imaginative play that Peter's doing :lol:

    I tend to let him be if he's chatting to himself, but at a little older than Peter is (around 15 months) he started 'telling me' about these things pointing to things and gesticulating a lot. When he does this I ask general questions - What happened next? Then what did you do? How did you do that? We can chat for 15-20 mins like that and my family think this is hilarious as he obviously knows what he's saying, and it seems very important and serious but we've no idea what he's saying at all. He soon lets me know if I'm saying the wrong thing or if he'd rather talk to himself.

    So after all that garble, I'm basically saying follow his lead, he'll tell you if he's doing something wrong
  • I was given this leaflet about speech development, and they said that when babies are 'talking' you should tell them about what they re talking in a sense. Say they doing their speech, but you dont ask questions but narrate kinda, say what they are pointing at ( a toy, wall, can be colours, amount etc etc etc) with huge amount of intonation and so on. Short to the point sentences.

    Hope this helps!

    Hugo is almost 20 months and has his own language inbetween the few latvian/swedish/english words he uses, lol. Trilingual!
  • Thanks, ladies.

    Fooxoo, that was exactly what I thought, but he was so consistently chatty that it felt as if I was interrupting him.

    Jemma, that is very encouraging. I'll keep an eye out for attempts to engage me. He is going through a developmental spurt at the moment, so who knows what will happen! image
  • I will say that I do what foxoo's leaflet suggests most of the time, but I think by asking him questions and letting him explain his answers (even if I don't know what he's saying) has made him much more open to the idea of sentences and conversation. He said his first sentence at about 14/15 months (oo luk gaw-jus or you look gorgeous in normal English lol) and whilst he has regressed a little in his speech preferring single words or two word sentences at the moment that's more because we're learning a lot of nouns at the moment and he's seeing more of other children who just use one or two words at a time
  • I think my lo (2) is weird as he has NEVER nonsense talked (whereas majority lo's I know do) he is very to-the-point!! He has a huge vocabulary and is such a copycat but because he's never really done the whole nonsense sentences thing, he talks in 2-3 words sentences. If they are talking in sentences, however nonsensical I would humour them!! Although when other peoples lo's do it I think its so funny as lo never did it!
  • Oh, Jemma, what a fantastic first sentence! image I have a feeling that when Peter does start to become comprehensible it will be in full sentences, mainly because he is such a chatter box. We'll see.

    Y_m_g_m, it's fascinating how different children are. Most of the toddlers Peter's age that I know have a couple of comprehensible words but Peter has always done things his own way. I think as long as he is communicating, I am happy to go along with him to the best of my ability!
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