Zebras and Dinosaurs

When Emmett was almost two, we had a funny experience that we recently repeated with Eden. Grandma Myrna was visiting and helping with brand-new Mariah. She had just returned from the store and was putting away groceries. Emmett started throwing a fit and asking for "zebra". We kept trying to guess what zebra meant and with every failed suggestion, Emmett became more and more upset. It must be extremely frustrating to know what you want and not be able to communicate it. Finally, after we had given up hope and were waiting for Emmett for cry out his fit, someone was dishing up some recently purchased yogurt which had white and black splotches on the container, kind of like a cow or maybe a zebra! Emmett was ecstatic. We were very relieved and I'm sure Emmett never enjoyed yogurt so much.

So, imagine Jani's horror in the grocery store when Eden started demanding to see dinosaurs. Jani instantly recognized the problem and she realized she only had short amount of time to either find "dinosaurs" or finish her shopping so Eden could throw her fit in the peace of the parking lot. Jani rushed for item to item, eyes peeled for dinosaurs but bent on getting everything on her list and getting out. Only milk left, Jani dashed past the meat department and Eden found her dinosaurs--a tank full of live lobsters. Jani was so relieved she let Eden watch the dinosaurs for quite awhile before she grabbed the milk and checked out.

Now, every trip to the grocery store includes a stop by the lobster tank to see the dinosaurs. I'm sure there's got to be linguistic term for substituting a known word or concept for an unknown but related word or concept. Any linguists out there? Anyway, kids are amazingly adept at communicating even if we adults have hardened our categories to the point we can't understand.