When???

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!
I am about a my wit’s end! Sarah has a really good vocabulary (40+ words) but she does NOT understand that I am “mama” and DH is “dada”. I don’t get it! She SAYS both words, but she doesn’t understand that they refer to us. If she wasn’t saying and understanding much of anything I wouldn’t be so worried, but she says SO many things and understands SO many things…why can’t she get it?? We call each other mama and dada and have obsessively been trying to make a point of it…it’s just not clicking. Did your kids call you mama, mommy, mom or ANYTHING by 16 months?? What else can we do?

[Anonymous]

Justice is 15 months and doesn’t say much at all. He uses signs and here and there he will say things that blow us away, but for the most part he doesn’t talk much. He does say Justice, that, this, momma, pappa, dadda, dog, wow, and ball. For him though momma and dadda is what he says most of the time. I think though if she is saying 40 words that is great.

[Anonymous]

I think if she didn’t have the additional words I’d be worried, but 40 words is impressive for her age!

Can she follow simple commands like “go get your blankie” ? Does she use some of those 40 words appropriately like saying “cup” when she wants something to drink? If she does those two things I think she’s fine. She probably just doesn’t want to give you the satisfaction.

[Anonymous]

Yes, her vocabulary is impressive, she follows several simple commands, and she uses 4 signs frequently (more, drink, all done, and change my diaper). It just doesn’t make sense to me that she won’t call us by name…unless she’s just teasing us or hasn’t had the NEED to say our names yet?? *SIGH*…I guess I’ll give it a little more time. It’s just so hard not to be discouraged by it!! I don’t get it!

[Anonymous]

Well if it makes you feel any better, shane doesnt say mama very much. He will say dada when i ask where’s dada.. then he will spot him and say dada.. but he normally doesnt call him.. and wont ever really say mama..maybe a couple times to himself.. but not real intentionally. He does say ball dog duck and truck..very intentionally. So, maybe she just thinks she doesnt need to say it? I dont know.. I am sure they both can..but maybe dont find the need to yet.. just my theory.

Also if you say ..where’s dada.. will she look at him?

shanesmom2007-08-12 20:14:38

[Anonymous]

Alex is 14 months and the only word that she consistently uses is “uh-oh”. She says ma-ma and da-da, but not regularly. She has a huge receptive vocabulary though – just not much in the way of expressive language.

Kaelyn didn’t call me ma-ma until she was 16 or 17 months, but she had tons of other words.

[Anonymous]

Claire had a large vocabulary for her age too, but mama and dada took a while. She could say them, but wouldn’t, for the longest time. Not sure why… probably, she just didn’t need to. I think she really started to finally do it when she would wake up in the morning or from a nap and then would call out for us… actually, one morning, she was calling for dada, and when he didn’t come right away, she yelled out “Shawn.” (his first name!)

[Anonymous]

Alana has no words…well no meaningful ones. Everything is BaBy at the moment. She does follow some simple commands though. It sounds like Sarah is doing GREAT. I’m betting she knows who mama is too

[Anonymous]

do not worry. just when you think you’ve waited forever to hear her say certain words, she’ll say them overnight. hannah did the same thing (no mommy, daddy or yes until 18 months or so) and also had an exceptional vocabulary (and diction, she could say “czechoslovakia” and “spaghetti” by 16 months) and even had knicknames for us…by 18 months, mommy was the sweetest thing i ever head.

btw — if she is signing “change my diaper” please repeat after me: “i am a lucky mommy…”

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t worry about it. Brianna could say the word mama forever ago, and it was only recently that she actually started calling me mama! And Brianna doesn’t have nearly 40 words…more like 10 or so. My Ped said the important thing was that they could understand you when you said a simple command. Sarah has that so I wouldn’t worry about Mama and Dada.

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