A parent wrote to us about a report that showed 60 taps one week and 210 the week before. The question underneath the question was the one everybody actually asks: is he going backwards?
He was not. He had a cold, and it was March break.
Week to week is noise
Almost nothing meaningful about a child's communication happens on a seven day cycle. Illness, a new teacher, a growth spurt, a holiday, a bad sleep run, a sibling home sick. Any of those will halve a week's numbers, and none of them mean anything about language.
The useful comparison is not this week against last week. It is this month against three months ago, and even then, gently.
What is worth watching
- New words appearing at all. One genuinely new word in a month is real progress, even in a month where total taps fell.
- The same word turning up in a new place. More at snack is a request. More during a book is a comment. That is a bigger jump than doubling the count.
- Words used without being asked for. Spontaneous use is the number that actually predicts where this goes.
What is not worth watching
Total taps, on their own. A quiet, deliberate week where a child says six things they meant beats a loud week of exploring the board with a thumb.
This is why a good progress report leads with new words and session totals rather than a single score. There is no score. There is a child, having a week.
Try this
Open the last four reports side by side instead of the most recent one alone. Look only at the new words list, and ignore every other number on the page.