[Parenting Diary] How to Raise a Talkative 2-Year-Old
My 2-year-old talks a lot.
They talk constantly from 7:00 AM until they go to sleep at 7:00 PM.
The good thing is that we were able to communicate from an early age.
The difficult part is that there are moments when I wish they would be quiet for just one minute.
I truly feel that parenting is just as challenging as it is rewarding.
Looking back on the parenting methods I practiced, I think there were several points that helped advance their speech.
If you are a mom who wants to talk a lot with your child, please give these a try.
5 Points to Advance Speech
At the time, I was doing these things without thinking, but looking back now, I feel that the following five points contributed to their speech development.
Provide a play-by-play of your child's actions
Sing nursery rhymes with your child
Read one book before bedtime
Correct what your child wants to say and repeat it back to them
Hold a quiz show about topics your child likes
It might just be my personality, as no one told me to do these things; I just wasn't good at the silent time alone with my baby.
Provide a play-by-play of your child's actions
It is exactly as it sounds, but I started putting my child's actions into words right after giving birth.
As mentioned above, it was because I wasn't good at being in silence while alone with my baby during the day.
For example, let's say I'm dressing my child who can't talk yet.
I would keep talking like this while changing their clothes.
Today, we'll go with a khaki T-shirt and white leggings.
I'll put the T-shirt on first. Head, right arm, left arm, there, it's on.
Next are the leggings. Right leg, left leg, there, they're on.
Nice, that's a stylish outfit.
It's basically a live broadcast.
To an outsider, I would look like a suspicious person.
But since it's just the two of us in the house, it's perfectly fine.
Sing nursery rhymes with your child
I started this for the same reason as the live broadcast.
I didn't like the quiet time, so I would play nursery rhyme medleys on YouTube.
I would sing my heart out to my newborn baby who couldn't talk yet.
By the time they were over a year old, they started singing along with just the ends of the phrases.
And by the time they were a year and a half, they were often singing on their own.
Once they could sing with me, it was more fun than when I was singing alone, so we would belt them out together.
I didn't care if I was tone-deaf.
It's just the two of us in the house. No one is listening, so it's not a problem.
Read one book before bed
This is a routine I started simply because I wanted them to go to sleep earlier.
I read in a book that establishing a bedtime routine helps children learn that it is time to sleep, making it easier for them to drift off.
In our case, it didn't necessarily lead to falling asleep faster every night, which is a shame, but the habit of reading a book has stuck.
During the 0-year-old stage, I chose books I liked and read them aloud.
During the 1-year-old stage, I had them choose the books and I read them aloud.
Now that they are in their late 2s, they choose the books themselves, and for some, they have memorized the text and read it themselves.
I don't mind what kind of storybook it is, so we regularly buy books they choose at the bookstore to read.
If they choose something like an encyclopedia as a bedtime book, I refuse because I don't know how long it will take to finish, and I don't want that.
It's for my own convenience.
I want to keep this up without stress, so I've decided on one book per session.
Even if they ask for more, I just say, 'Let's read it tomorrow!' and turn off the lights.
Correcting and parroting what the child wants to say
In our house, the talking started rapidly from 1 year and 7 months old.
At the 1-year-and-6-month checkup, they only had a few words, but it seems it was a growth spurt, as they suddenly started using two-word sentences a month later.
From the time my child started speaking, even in broken language, I would rephrase it into correct sentences.
There is no particular reason.
I simply corrected them because their word choice and grammar didn't convey what they wanted to say.
Thinking about it now, I'm a bit of a cold mother.
Here are a few specific examples.
X: Now, red, pee-po, police car was there.
O: A red police car just passed by, didn't it? Isn't the police car siren 'woo-woo'?
X: Tomorrow was rain, but I think yesterday was sunny.
O: Yesterday was rainy, but it looks like it's sunny today.
I am not a Japanese teacher, so I can only rephrase things to a level that is understandable to others.
However, since I sort of fix what the child wants to say, I correct them with the hope that they will be able to communicate better next time.
My child, now in their late 2s, recently replies with 'Oh, I see' after I correct them.
I'm not sure if they actually understand, but I don't really care. Haha
Holding a quiz tournament on themes the child likes
I started these quiz tournaments after age 2, when communication became possible.
I started them entirely with the goal of keeping them relatively quiet while on public transportation.
My child loves Thomas the Tank Engine.
So, the one we do most often is the Thomas quiz.
The rules are simple: my child and I just take turns asking each other questions.
Here is a specific example.
Me: Who is Thomas's best friend, has a green body, and is number 6?
Child: Percy!
Child: Who is at the Sodor Rescue Center, has no number, and puts out fires?
Me: Is it Flynn?
Child: Correct!
Me: If that's the case, then who is the red engine working at the Sodor Rescue Center with no number that puts out fires? Because Belle is also there if it's just about putting out fires.
Child: Oh, I see. Next question, please!
Me: ...
It's like that.
I think anything the child likes can be material for a quiz.
Surprisingly, when we have a quiz tournament, we arrive at our destination in no time.
It's a game I like because it saves me from having to deal with them making a fuss.
Background
Writing down each point while remembering them, I feel like my personality comes through strongly.
I am not good at silence or doing nothing.
I have the kind of personality where if I have time, I want to do something, or if my body can't move but my brain and mouth are free, I want to do something.
I am also impatient.
I quit my job when I had my child, wanting to be by their side during their early years and share many things with them.
After giving birth, I found it incredibly stressful that things didn't go as planned and that I couldn't communicate with my child, so I was really bad at parenting.
Even now, I think every day that I'm not cut out for parenting.
I find myself wishing I could go back to work.
But I'm sure no one is truly 'cut out' for it, and since I decided to stay by their side at least until they enter kindergarten or elementary school, I just keep pushing through every day.
This is just a rambling parenting record, but I hope it serves as a reference for someone.