Your 20-month-old's language and cognitive development: Making sense with senten

Your 20-month-old's language and cognitive development: Making sense with sentences by Dana Sullivan
New this month: Making sense with sentences

It may be just a pair of words to you, but it's a full sentence to your toddler and a giant step forward in terms of language acquisition. "Daddy hat" is her way of saying, "There's daddy's hat." Or, "Sissy doll" indicates that she knows a particular toy belongs to her sister. Her vocabulary may also include a few verbs such as "gone" or "fall," which she also uses to create simple sentences — "Juice gone," or "Me fall," for example. Between 18 and 21 months, children seem eager to imitate the words they hear around them. A typical 20-month-old has a spoken vocabulary of about 12-15 words, though many children have far more. But even if your child isn't talking in simple sentences yet, she likely understands many more words than she can say. If you want to test this, ask her to go to her room and bring you a pair of pajamas (or some other item that you've never heard her name). Odds are she'll trot off and return with exactly what you've asked for.

What you can do

Continue to encourage a love of language by talking to your child and labeling things that you see together. Don't forget the sounds. Your toddler will enjoy listening to things like sirens, barking dogs, or singing birds. Try labeling what you hear ("weeee, goes the siren"). Sounds are often easier for toddlers to repeat than the words for the objects making them. If your child wants to talk on the phone, enlist a friend or relative who's willing to chat with her for a few minutes. Even though her response will likely be to nod or shake her head in response to her phone friend's questions, she'll enjoy the interaction.

Other developments: A helping hand, learning how things workWhatever you're doing, your child probably wants to do it right alongside you. Brushing teeth, vacuuming, making beds, cooking, digging in the garden, and so on are wonderful learning experiences for a 20-month-old. Even if she's not quite coordinated enough to help, she's storing the information away for later use.

If your child wants to help you around the house, come up with some simple tasks she can do. When you're setting the dinner table, ask her to put one spoon on each placemat or to set her own place with a plastic plate and napkin. Listening to and learning to follow directions helps build a toddler's speaking vocabulary.