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Expert Q&A

	By Mindy Hudon Speech and Language Pathologist

My daughter is 28 months and very verbal. She's been speaking in complete sentences for over a year and they've been steadily gaining more complexity. My concern is her quickness to answer "I don't know" to a question that she really does know the answer to. Conversations will generally go something like:

Jillian: "Mommy! Look at the airplane up there! Look out my window!"

Me: "Wow, you're right. It's a big one. What else is up there?"

Jillian: "I don't know...the clouds! The birds! The sun!"

So she does know what else is in the sky. Is the "I don't know" a filler while she thinks, similar to an adult saying "Ummm..." or is it her way of telling me that maybe she doesn't want me to ask her questions all the time? Or am I reading way too much into this and this is just a new conversational pattern she's picked up some place?

Your daughter seems to be doing great with her language development. Based on your sample, she seems to be using 4-6 word sentences. That is great for a 28 month old.

When she is looking out the window, she is asking for your attention and commenting on what she is seeing. She wants to show you that she knows what that thing up in the sky is called.

The "I don't know" does sound like a filler she is using while she is processing her thoughts. Children often throw that phrase out there before they even try to answer the question.

I would suggest that the next time she is commenting on something try to have her expand it by first providing her a model. For example, after she comments on the plane you could say, "Wow, I see that big plane in the sky. Hey look, I see some clouds. Do you see anything else up in the sky? " If she still says, "I don't know" and then answers the question say, "Jillian, that is great! You told me about all the things in the sky. Wow, you're a great talker. I like the way you told me about things in the sky."

At 28 months she is still developing her language skills and has a lot of questions. I wouldn't be concerned. It sounds like you are giving her a lot of great language models.

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