“All children pass through a period in which they can only pronounce syllables; then they pronounce whole words, and finally, they use to perfection all the rules of syntax and grammar.” — Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 111.
Last summer, my teenage son and I were visiting my sister and her family. One morning, my son found himself tending my 5-month-old nephew while the adults were getting ready. The baby, not used to his cousin, began to cry. I hurried downstairs only to hear my son say in exasperation, “I don’t know what you want. If only you could use your words!”
