jargon

We’re in the jargon phase, people! My baby is one year and a few days old, and she’s got her own adorable set of jargon words. 

According to www.multilingualchildren.org, the jargon phase “is an amazing phase in language development from a parent's perspective. The baby all of a sudden starts to talk in a language which could be from outer space -- commenting, expressing surprise, asking questions, etc., yet you can't understand a single word of it. Never mind multilingualism, baby clearly invented her very own language!”

I can clearly see this happening with Pippa - and this girl is a talker! During our long walks with the dog, she narrates the entire time, babbling to herself, and even occasionally cracking herself up. Unfortunately, I am not yet privy to her jokes.

She loves to point to objects and have me name them, which I try to do in Spanish for her. It’s everything from garage door to flowers. Sometimes she even tries to repeat the word after I say, although most of her words come out sounding like some variation of “dada.” 

She does sneak a few real words in the mix, however. Her stand-by words are agua, dada, all done, baby (although she replaces the b with d), and doggy. Although usually when she sees a dog, she immediately chastises it with an “Uh uh uh!” because she hears us disciplining Pablo when he jumps up on counters. So Pippa decided that all dogs need to be disciplined. She’ll even see a dog from across a parking lot, shake her finger at him, and say “uh uh uh!”

Though to be fair, she also chastises herself when she does something she knows she’s not supposed to do. Nothing cuter and sassier than watching her grab a cord I just told her to put down while saying “uh uh uh!” 

Research says that bilingual babies will take longer to learn vocabulary (makes sense -they have twice the amount of words to learn!), so I’m not expecting to have a conversation about existentialism with her anytime soon. But no matter what the research says, there is no greater feeling than your child connecting with you for the first time using actual words to tell you what she wants! I’m enjoying the process, but not in a rush for her to be “ahead of the curve” in her development. 

What a cute stage this is! I can’t wait to record her new words and phrases as they come about in the next few years.