Do animal sounds count as words?

I don't feel like my girls have particularly a lot of words right now, but they do have some, so I'm not worried.

Just curious though, does knowing what sounds animals make count as words??? If so, they have quite a few 'words' I just haven't been counting that.

They're particularly enamored of ducks and 'kuak, kuak!' It's really very cute :wub:

 

That is a good question. I am not sure what a ped considers a word. I hope other people respond and have the answer for you.

Side note: My DD learned how to say WOW the other day. She says it all the time, it is pretty cute!

 

I'm taking a language class for speech language pathology, and I think the technical term for this is a "protoword" - an early form of a word. If your child/ren is consistent - "moo" for every time she sees a cow in a book, I think you can count it as a word because she is using it as a label. Mine says "quack quack quack" all the time, but it is just for fun, it is not a word like the other words she uses consistently (ball, duck, boat, daddy, etc.).

 

According to my pedi, yes. When we went to our two year appt and the only words Ben had were animal sounds, she laughed! But said that indeed they do. I was relieved, because after that moment, I figured he knew at least 10 words!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yes, like other posts said if they are connecting that a cow goes "moo" and a duck goes "quack" then I think that is a great accomplishment at that age. I counted those types of sounds as words also mine were about that age when they started to do lots of sounds, after that they had a limited vocab never counted words but I would guess between 25-50 words. After they turned 2 their vocab exploded and they started to talk in 3+ word sentences. Now they talk very well but I sometimes still have to interperet for others who are not used to the way they talk.

 

The speech therapist at Grace's EI group considers animal sounds as words. Mine learned their sounds first, then moved onto the animal name.

 

Cool! Thanks guys!