First Child vs. Second Child

As I was browsing my archives, searching for Miranda's stats, I stumbled upon this post that was written almost exactly four years ago. It humbled me in a way that I never thought it would. At twenty months old Miranda knew at *least* one hundred and twenty one signs! Elliott doesn't really use any. Alright, I take that back, he uses a handful: more, milk, please and bird. He requested to watch an episode of Signing Time the other day and he was extremely intrigued and attempted almost all the signs. It was really fun to watch, almost like I could see the wheels turning! I might have to put those DVDs on a little more often.

Now, I see a couple reasons for this. 

#1: Miranda was my only child at the time and I was pretty darn obsessed with teaching her signs. There was a LOT of time spent doing signs and I incorporated it into our daily speech. She watched Signing Time every day and she was a sponge soaking it all in. She also didn't talk really. She signed just about any and every need she had. She could communicate among the best of them, just with her hands and not her voice. It amazed people and it amazed me and the more I encouraged it, the more she signed.

#2: Elliott is a typical second child. He has an older sibling to copy and she talks almost constantly. He hears a lot more talking at this age than Miranda did. I know that you're supposed to talk to your child as much as possible but when Miranda was little, I just felt kind of weird having full on 'conversations' with her when she didn't really talk back. I also do not and have not had the time to sign with him like I did with Miranda. He is not exposed to it as much as she was, not even a fraction. On the flip side, he can talk pretty darn well, in my opinion. He parrots everything and even if he doesn't get it right, I love that he's trying. He's realized now that he has to speak up to be heard.

It's really interesting to compare how things are different. I'm not comparing my children to each other, per say, but I am comparing my parenting and how it might be affecting their development. I know that if I had worked with Elliott as much and as hard as I did Miranda than he would be just as amazing at signing. He does seem to understand the theory of it (This hand motion means this word) he just doesn't know as many of them as she did. It's certainly some food for thought and something to reflect on for sure.