“I am You and you are Me”

Boy, do I love how brains develop and the beautiful way little ones begin to make sense of their world.

Meet Cadence. Twenty-two months old.  She’s got lots and lots of language; she talks all the time! Those around her can decipher about 15% of the meaning of her ongoing dialogue. One consistently distinguishable word is “Josh” – her father’s name.  Why doesn’t she call him daddy? Seems as if she’s observed other people call him Josh more often than Daddy. Then there’s the word “Me” that pops up frequently. After some time of listening carefully, it was determined that “Me” refers to mom. After all, mom often says things like, “Would you like to come to sit with me?” or “Let me help you with that.”

Then they noticed that she used the word “You” to refer to herself.

Makes pretty good sense when you think about it, right? “Let Me (mom) help You (child) with that.”

Looking at a family picture she points to each person and names them… “Josh” (dad), “Me” (mom), “Caca” (baby brother, Luka), and “You” (Cadence).

Pronouns. They are pretty confusing.

Toddlers. They are pretty smart.

Children. They are pretty wonderful!