Our two and a half year old grand-daughter is really beginning to talk. She has a large vocabulary and is starting to string words together into a sentence.

Word Association

I am really enjoying the  initial word association.  Recently our granddaughter was taken back to the local community centre for some first time skating.  She had been there before to visit the water park.

As we approached the building she pointed and exclaimed “water” several times. I was quite puzzled.  Had she suddenly gotten a tremendous thirst.

Her father clarfied for me water was a reference to swimming here before, in the water.  When we left the building, this place had become more about ice, the concept for that moment.

Observing this self awareness of her surroundings develop is facinating to me.  Clearly the brain is developing and storing simple associations.

Over time these will continue to become more and more complex.  Ultimately this will continue throughout her life.   The capacity to gather and store new learnings continues to old age and in some cases even beyond.

Understanding

I find watching the developing comprehension is a lot of fun .  Simple concepts like hot, cold, fast and slow for example are initially developed from very a  basic understanding and slowly grow into more complex analysis.

In the beginning it looks like a lot of circumstantial recognition is going on.  It’s a cup of coffee – hot.  That is, this or that.  Gradually this develops into a deeper comprehension of the context.