Deborah Gist

No matter how many times I see it illustrated, I’ll never stop marveling at the miracle of early development. Think about it… In little more than a year, infants go from largely helpless to highly independent, from pre-verbal to skilled language users, and from processing the world mostly through sensory experiences to sophisticated thought. Speaking of sophisticated thought, this little guy offers us a fantastic window on his own as he explores a toy medical kit. Examining a set of tweezers, he pinches them together, contemplating their function and potential - and how painful it might be if his own finger were to be caught in their grip. He decides to act the scene out. Note that as he does, he winces in pain, cries out in mock agony - AND THEN places his finger inside. 😂 After a gentle pinch he drops both the tweezers and the sound effects as if to say, “yeah, that’s what it might have been like.” It’s such an interesting window on his thinking, progressing from 1) this is what tweezers do, to 2) I bet it wouldn’t be fun to be pinched, to 3) here’s how I’d probably react if that ever happened to me. A great reminder that play is how children process the world. This little one was shared to IG by kadinlarkulubu.

Language has its own special genres. And your toddler is working to master them all. Yesterday I shared a fantastic video example of a toddler engaged in a pretend phone call. He took conversational turns, laughed at his imaginary partner’s joke, and knew to end the call with a goodbye and pressing the “end call” button on his toy telephone. At less than 2 years old, he had the phone call genre down pat. Today here’s another amazing example: the bedtime story. Watch as this little one takes over “reading” duties - turning the tables on her adoring dad. I’ve shared lots of reading videos before, but this one is notable in its complexity. Listen as she uses variegated babbling (remember this from two weeks ago… it’s babbling that combines a wide variety of syllables and sounds) to recount a lengthy story for dad. Listen as well to the tone and rhythm of her voice. It’s the same soft, flowy, and expressive style he uses to help calm her as she begins preparing to drift off to sleep post story. I’d say this little one has the “bedtime story” genre on lock. Isn’t it amazing to see how children concurrently learn not just language, but the different contexts and styles of its use? Just fantastic. This amazing little storyteller was shared to IG by walking_faith_4u.