I watched a three minute, forty-one seconds, video of a two-year-old playing within a room under the supervision of an adult. The room is a home setting which included some play objects, children’s table set, and a rocking chair. The toddler independently moves around, talk, interact with objects and adult within the home environment. According to the caption of the video, it is meant to observe and examine the child’s “physical, social/emotional, and communication development.” The child freely talks with the adult who seemingly sounds like an older male supposedly recording her talking and moving through the room. She talks while grabbing objects such as a cup of milk and verbally interacts with the adult who answers her promptly and gives her directions in some cases, for example, ‘go get it Holy!’
The toddler’s spontaneous language production can be described as advanced for a child her age. Despite the fact that her vocabulary was limited to objects within the room, her understanding of the vocabulary still sounded commendable and satisfactory for her age. She was able to express herself clearly in a manner that the observer was able to understand names of objects she pronounced, for instance, milk. Turnbull and Justice (2012), while describing gestures in spoken language during toddlerhood note that children begin to exhibit combinations of gesture word in the process of moving from one-word stage to the two-word stage. For instance, a 24-month-old child might point to a chair saying “Mommy” as a way to request that her mother sit in a chair” (p.161). Furthermore, the authors reported in their description of language content that, “Even before children enter formal schooling, they acquire skills that ease their transition into the academic realm and language that accompanies this transition” (p. 206). In the video, the toddler exhibits such advanced skills as mastery of vocabulary and spontaneous language production which are helpful in her language level, assuming she has not started school yet.