Beauty of Toddler Language

Language from a toddler is a beautiful thing. It means your child will be evolving beyond the level of being an ‘accessory’ or ‘pet’. Evolving into a relationship where your collective brains and souls can connect on thoughts. Connecting, discussing and disagreeing, really create the beginning of an evolution of growth toward independence. At least this is how it felt for me. Yeah, you guessed correctly, I’m not really into the “baby” stuff. And yes, I have two children, one that is amazingly verbal and one with a speech delay.

While embracing every utterance and sculpting it into words is exciting and necessary in our household. It is also tedious. And, there are certain words that just make me pause. Should a toddler have this vocabulary? And if not now, when?

For example, body parts start out pretty benign; eyes, nose, toes, knee, head, etc. But the difference between a baby and a toddler is that a toddler is curious how everything works, takes a closer look, and wants to know specifically what each part is called. Accordingly the anatomy lessons become increasing more specific. I always shied away from baby talk, or calling a ‘horse’ a ‘horsey’. However, it was tricky when it came to labeling “private parts”. I started off with the idea that we all have a ‘pee pee’, but I didn’t get to penis and vagina until my son turned four and was old enough to ask, “why do you sit and daddy stands to pee?”. While the teachers at preschool were cool about the new vocabulary, almost expecting it, the cashiers at the local grocery were surprised to learn “Mommy has a vagina and I have a penis,” from my son.

Beyond anatomy, there is a group of words that I have deemed ‘difficult’. These words are not vulgar words or even inappropriate words; just words that must be used appropriately to not be rude or offensive. This ‘difficult’ to use list of words includes ‘dumb’ and ‘ugly’, along with ‘stupid’. I found these words brought anxiety to me as they joined my toddlers’ arsenal. I tried to explain, “people do stupid (or dumb, or ugly) things, but people are not stupid (or dumb, or ugly)”. Which really didn’t sink in for sometime. But once the concept did catch, I’m not sure it was always presented in the best light. “Mommy, is that man stupid for crossing the street while the orange hand lit?” To which I would say, “Yes.” Even if others were looking at me waiting for the response.

But my personal favorite is “fart”. First off toddlers believe a fart is a gift from their body. They can’t create a gas release on command, nor do they control when it happens. They are excited by the fact that they farted, which in my boys is accompanied by proclamations of “I farted!” Second, gas is going to happen; everyone farts. Finally, ‘passing gas’ and ‘flatulence’ are difficult to explain to a toddler and ‘fart’ is a great short, fun, easy to say word. I’ve noticed some of my boys’ friends use different words at the beginning of the preschool year (i.e., “toot”). But by the end of the year, the whole class knew the beauty of the word “fart”.

Language, or the acquisition of language, is really a beautiful thing. I’m giving the boys all the words I have knowing they’ll surpass my own limited vocabulary at some point. Sometimes it means using words I haven’t said out loud in quite some time (i.e., vagina) or words that I seldom used (i.e., stupid), but I’m willing to contribute what I can to their vocabulary. But it really is the simplest of words that stump me. Tonight they asked, “Mommy what does ‘romantic’ mean?”