My little daughter, with a year and a half already says her first words for a long time, and lately she loves to play a game that realizes how, although those first words are few, she already understands and is able to remember many of them. And that he likes us to sing together.
In any children's song that they are accustomed to listening, if we shut up at the right time, the baby will complete the song with the last syllables of each sentence. "Mr. Don Gato", "The doll dressed in blue", "Susanita has a mouse" ... are some of the songs she knows perfectly, either in the first or the last stanzas.
In some words, the acute ones end up pronouncing only the last syllable (for example "zul" of "blue"), but in the plain words they are the last two syllables ("ato" of "cat", "ata" of " letter "...). The three syllables together we leave them for later.
It does not mean that you understand all the words you complete (in fact, some songs in English also complete them, such as the "iuuuuu" of "I love you"), but it does remember them. The association with its meaning, in some cases it does and in others it does not (for example, "cat" does know what it is).
Completing the words is a normal step in the complex development of the baby's language, which at this stage will take a fundamental momentum.
Between 12 months and 18 the first consonant and vowel phonemes have already been developed; the first words appear, which are usually reduplicated monosyllables (breast, potato, tata) and onomatopoeic words (guauguau, meow) ...
With these first words the whole meaning of a phrase is expressed (they are the so-called phrase-words, which give name to this stage: holophrenic or holophrastic period). Their understanding is better than their expression, that is, they understand much more than they are able to express.
From eighteen months there is a considerable increase in vocabulary, constructs phrases of two elements, hinders the emerging grammar and the language acquires new uses. The type of language is defined as telegraphic style, which exclusively includes essential words, noun and verb.
At these ages, before the two years of the child, we must promote communication with the games that occur to us. I encourage you to sing with your children letting them participate completing the children's song with the last syllables of each sentenceIt's great to see how they enjoy "singing."
