Babbling Boys

I just read an article about how twins have delayed speech, potentially months behind singletons, especially for boys. We are officially witnessing this firsthand. I don't think Parker and Jack don't have the vocabulary they should for their age.

Because there are two guys to focus on, they obviously don’t get enough one on one time. Jen and I do our best to spend individual time with both Parker and Jack, but they just don’t get the same amount of time that Owen had at their age (since there was only one). We read every night to them and try to do as much teaching and learning throughout the day, but the simple fact is, the one on one time is crucial to speech development. Parker and Jack are competing for time, not only between each other, but with Owen, AND Ben. Poor guys, they have a clown to the left and a joker to the right, and they are stuck in the middle with each other.

As far as their development, the boys know certain words, but are not always ready to express them. Owen repeated EVERYTHING, but Jack and Parker only try to repeat specific things. For some reason, they prefer more complex words…Parker loves to say “volcano” and Jack always says “exercise” but they don’t always want to say the easy ones like “mama” or “tubby.” Jack tends to babble way more than Parker, but says less things clear. Parker babbles less, but annunciates better. That all happens right now, I’m sure in two weeks, they will flip-flop and do things exactly opposite. I just think this proves that all children are different and they are going at their own pace.

The boys know their alphabet already and are really picking up their numbers too. They aren’t even 21 months, I can’t remember when Owen learned this, but I know it wasn’t this early! Regardless, I know those little brains are working hard trying to learn all they can. I know that they are developing at their own pace, but it is so cute when they talk that I want it to be all the time. I will probably regret that when our house becomes exponentially louder than it already is…but oh well.

Update: Just today, Jen was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Jack and he was saying the last word of each phrase (star, are, sky, high). Out of the blue, he knows this? I guess they really are picking up every bit of information that we are putting out there and they will express it whenever they darn well feel like it. Way to go Jack, you made an awesome face when you said each word...you were so proud of yourself.