Talk, Talk, Talk

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“We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong here.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

My daughter, Miss O, learned the power of words early on. She started talking at 10 months and it’s been off to the races ever since. Now she’s eight-years-old, and I’ve learned to get worried when she isn’t talking.

One Sunday when it was just the two of us and Miss O was about three-years-old, I was feeling overwhelmed by the constant talking, singing, and narrating. We were sitting and drawing at the dining room table as the last rays of fall afternoon sunshine filtered into the room. I said to Miss O, “Do you think we could just be quiet for 10 minutes?”

Miss O paused for a moment and then said, “Why?”

About a year later, a friend was at our house trying to troubleshoot a problem with his van. Four-year-old Miss O asked him what was happening and he started, “When hot air meets a cold surface and water forms…” She interrupted him and asked, “You mean condensation?”

I confess, I don’t always listen to her every word. But I recently had the honor of editing a podcast that Miss O did with Vicki and me. As I tuned in with ears to make sure the conversation flowed, I was stunned with the perspective of this delightful young person talking with the incredibly interesting and supportive Vicki Atkinson.

Am I biased? No doubt! But most of all what I noticed is that Miss O has learned to use her words well. And she’s found her voice – to express herself, to give voice to her feelings, to convey her delightful enthusiasm, and at the end, to share her delightful glow with everyone around.

Ha – I just realized this post could have been reduced to one sentence. Miss O is on the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast with the always amazing Dr. Vicki Atkinson and me – please listen. Perhaps wordiness runs in the family….

36 thoughts on “Talk, Talk, Talk”

  2. My youngest granddaughter did not talk until she was almost one. Before that she would point at things and ask “This?” We would tell her what it was. Just when we were getting really worried she found her voice – and has never stopped talking since. She began talking with a large vocabulary for her age. Guess all that time asking “this?” she was saving up the words in her mind.

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  6. I love this, Wynne! What I love most, perhaps, as that you’ve given a bright little mind the opportunity to meet adults on the same level. I remember being around Miss O’s age and being invited to sit at the adults table for holidays. I was often quiet and observant, but it’s such a privileged at that age to be heard and respected by adults. I’m excited to listen!

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    1. Thank you, Todd. I am frequently confused as to what her actual age is. She can go from maturely analyzing the world around her to crying over a paper cut in a second. Well, actually, that might happen to me too. 🙂

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  9. Wow, talking at 10 months. That is a good sign of many great things – and some of which you’ve already seen.

    I agree that we should always encourage and not inhibit our kids and their creative expressions. But I can also empathize when we are also silently searching the room for a muzzle or pacifier too. 😂

    I love that she’s on your podcast and I bet she had a blast. Would not be surprised if she starts her own podcast through this experience.

    Enjoy your weekend!

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    1. I’m laughing about silently search the room for a muzzle or pacifier. Yep, it still can be overwhelming. Right? And maybe she will start her own – wouldn’t that be funny?

      Hope you have a great weekend!

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  12. The second smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life was to record (write down with dates) all of the funny, profound or egocentric things that popped out of the mouths of our children. The peak developmental period seems to be between two and eight years. Someday I expect they’ll be fighting over “The Family Book” — a journal style notebook that contains almost 400 quotes, and peppered with holiday memories. I’m sure you’ve grabbed some of Miss O’s gems.

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