Back from the Hospital
Hope to share more soon. Thanks all for your concern.
-Michael
First Words
Photo by CharlotteSpeaks.
I need your help. How do you define which is your child’s first word? I’ve been thinking about this for years, ever since my son first began talking. And I need your help to finally resolve the question.
He was a late bloomer in the speech category. But when he began talking you couldn’t stop him. One great experience was when Clatus was 2 1/2 years old and we were visiting Whistler, British Colombia. We were pushing the stroller around when out of nowhere, Clatus said, “Let me push.” Wow! His first sentence. Up until then, we were lucky to get a word out of him. 
Back to my “first word” question. I need your help to figure out which one it was. The first sound coming out of his mouth resembling a word was “aye-hane” meaning “airplane.” Whenever he would look up into the sky, he would let us know there was an airplane by calling out “aye-hain, … aye-hain.” He could even see them clearer than we could. Many times, LeeNette and I would strain and barely see the plane. He clearly saw it well before we could. It’s also amazing to have a first word be two syllables. Has there ever been a child before whose first word is two syllables?
Perhaps you say airplane (aye-hane) isn’t his first word because he didn’t articulate it clear enough. He didn’t say “airplane,” he said “aye-hain.” He clearly meant airplane. If you don’t think that counts, then the next one would be “gun.” He wasn’t actually thinking of an actual gun when he said this word. He just like this sound. So is “gun” his first word?
OK, maybe you say “gun” isn’t his first word because he didn’t intend it to be a word. He was just making a sound that happened to be a real word. You are quite a picky reader here. But I will satisfy you. The next candidate word after is “woof.” One time, when I was holding Clatus, Anakin barked to go outside, which is his custom. On this occasion, Clatus replied, “woof!” apparently imitating Anakin. Is “woof” his first word? According to the second definition of the dictionary, it is a word. However, you may feel uneasy calling that a word because it still feels like he didn’t know it’s a word. He was just making a sound to imitate Anakin’s bark.
So then the last possible first word, which most people will believe is an actual word is “ball”. I held a ball and Clatus pointed at it and said, “ball”. This should satisify even the most finicky critic. If you don’t believe any of the previous words were actual first words, then Clatus’ first word is “ball.”
So there is my dilemma. When people ask me what his first word is, I want to give the best answer I can. Will you help me?
