TWO and 1/2 to 3 YEARS—COMMUNICATIVE INTENT--and a 1000 new bucks for your bang!
A new window of opportunity opens during this period. During the year from 1 to 2, the baby amassed 50 new words. From 2 to 3 they will increase their vocabulary by more than 1000 words!
The recurrent theme of this period is the phrase, "What's this?" or some variation. The child has an innate "inquiring mind that wants to know", and a brain that is ready to accept and catalog this new information in volumes. I was once introduced into a small group of people, which included a 3 year old little girl. I immediately forgot everyone's name (as usual) but was further embarrassed by the fact that the three year old remembered everyone's name with ease.
Then I remembered how in my beginning college Russian class, I wilted at the prospect of having to learn 10 new words per class.
This child eagerly sought out twice that many in a day and needed no study cards to remember them. I was left to ponder the differences in our brains.