Let me start by prefacing this with the following: I am not a developmental psychologist, or a clinician of any kind. The following post solely reflects my personal experiences with children of both genders.
On May 6, 2008 at 4:19 am, I gave birth to a baby boy. He is now 17 months old. When we go to the playground we run into children who are not boys; they are sweet little baby girls.
One fine day, we were at our favorite playground and my son enjoying some time in the baby swing.
In the swing next to us was a baby girl. She was talking up a storm. “Apple..” “Hi…” “Bye Bye..” “Mama..” “Shoe!”She couldn’t contain her verbosity. I asked her babysitter how old she was, out of sheer curiosity.
“14 months.” She replied.
I wanted to bury my head in the playground asphalt. My son, at 17 months, still babbles nonsense words, “ba ba,” “da da” na na” etc. He has a few nonsense words that represent real things, i.e.”yo yo” means yogurt. But mainly he just babbles.
I am so anxious for my son to talk. My anxiety is heightened by meeting so many loquacious baby girls who talk at an extraordinary young age like 13 – 14 months old.
When I was at my friend Tara’s son’s one year old birthday party, I was talking to her brother who has three kids. I asked him when his kids started talking.
“The girls…you can’t shut them up…the boys talk when they feel like it!” He replied.
Now I know this is a vast generalization, but from my experience I have found it to be right on the money. Baby girls are the talkers! Meanwhile I am waiting with bated breath for my son to blurt out some “real words.”
All I know is when a 14 month old girl tells me what the windmill represents in the novel “Animal Farm.” I will officially lose my mind.