Vocabulary Explosion

About a month ago, I had a speech therapist give Sadie an evaluation, because since she turned 2 1/2, I was getting a little concerned about her speech. Honestly, she talks all day long, but her vocabulary was very limited. As part of my homework assignment for the evaluation, she asked me to keep a list of the words she was saying so we could see if we noticed any patterns. We didn't. I wrote down the whole alphabet & over a couple of days, anytime I heard her say a word, I wrote it down. I quickly realized that she could say every letter in the alphabet. The therapist could tell right away that she was very social & communicated well just by watching her play & by the way she interacted with Sophie & me. She also started & ended the words she said very clearly. And she didn't drop consonants in the middle of a word like some kids do. Basically, we were told that there was nothing wrong with her speech, she is just a little farther behind in language development. For the most part, she would only say a few colors (white, pink & blue) & a few numbers (1, 2 & 9). And she really didn't say names at all - only mommy, daddy, baby, daisy & mimi. I know that she fully understood everything that we said & she would communicate in other ways (pointing, etc.) but we could not get her to say certain words. She never repeated - ever. I have always asked her to repeat me & she never did. The therapist said it could just be slower development, she could be stubborn or she just needs to wait & do it when she is ready.

 

 

Apparently she decided she was ready when we were on vacation. I don't know what happened but for some reason while we were travelling her speech went to a whole new level. She started speaking in full sentences with words I have never heard her say before. She started saying words with 3+ syllables & she was repeating everything we said. It was crazy! I don't know if something just clicked or she decided it was the right time, but either way, Bryan & love it! She is saying all colors now & can fully count from 1 to 10 & her vocabulary is more than I can keep track of on a piece of paper. I knew that she could do it along, but she definitely waited until she was ready. And apparently the beach inspired her :)