My 20-month-old’s vocabulary has EXPLODED over the last month. Shoe, baby, water, flower, cheese, light, moon, walk, on, off.
She’s even putting two words together. Mommy bye-bye, Daddy(‘s) car, yucky dodo (diaper).
We taught her a few key sign language words before her first birthday, knowing how helpful it is to be able to communicate before she could speak, but even those are being replaced with verbal words. Eat, drink, up, all done, please, help.
Unfortunately, even though she knows all these words, she’s started simply yelling and screaming if she wants help with something. She drops her pacifier. She can’t get a door open. Her blanket is out of reach in the crib.
USE YOUR WORDS!!! I yell back (sometimes audibly, sometimes in my head).
I have to try and stop and think about things from her perspective. She’s not even two, and emotions are new experiences for her. The feeling of frustration is a powerful one. Once I’m able to calm her a bit and encourage her to say help please, she’ll say it tearfully, sometimes even still making the sign language gesture.
And I respond right away.
As adults, we find pride and embarrassment get in the way of our asking for help. Whether it’s asking for physical help from friends or asking for emotional or spiritual help from God, we think we can fix our problem on our own. And we often end up frustrated.
Use your words. Don’t be ashamed to ask for help if there’s something you can’t do on your own.
31Days of Five Minute Free Writes is a participation in Write31Days, which takes place every October. See the rest of my craft-practicing posts linked up here.
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*Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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