A bell-shaped word distribution and a steady child learning rate turn out to be enough to bring about the extraordinary explosion seen in children's vocabularies around this age.

McMurray notes that languages have only a small number of very easy-to-learn words and many more intermediate words. So when a baby has been exposed to enough language to learn the easy words, she will acquire just a few words. As she is exposed to more language, she begins to learn the medium words. And because there are a lot of medium words, she is likely to pick up a lot of words at this stage. This, McMurray says, is the vocabulary explosion.

I love hearing new words from my 4-year-old. Yesterday she used distracted but she meant distraught. haha. I'm not sure where she learned either word. I think it was from reading Lemony Snicket books to her.

What a smart girl, Distracted & distraught!. I find either hard to type not to mention pronouncing.

Nice clip kore7.

17 month old here with PLENTY to say but as yet mostly not decipherable. It will come soon enough.

I'm afraid I only caught the movie version of Lemony Snicket. Visually, it was astoundingly inventive and deliciously detailed. Jim Carrey was fun to watch, too. It was the kid actors that I found insufferable.

Anyway, I'm sure the books were better.

The books are delicious, indeed.