Dudley's development

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 92697

Geoff:
Also, I can't see Petunia 
> > carrying little Dudley (little did I say?) and a bag of sweets at 
> > the same time; it wouldn't be quite the right thing in Privet 
> > Drive, now would it? <snip>
> > If he was in a pushchair, then he wouldn't be in a position to 
> > kick Mum. <snip> 
> > Also, on the question of speaking, by about 16 months, our 
> > children were possessed of a very small vocabulary, and many words 
> > would be quite indistinct. <snip>

> Susan:
> I don't agree, Geoff.  I truly believe that either JKR was just 
> having a little fun and not worrying *too much* about gross motor 
> skill development in a 16-month-old, or perhaps Petunia was just 
> taking Dudders down the street a couple of houses to see a 
> neighbor.  
<snip>
> And if we're going to get into that, both my kids had fairly large 
> [100 words or more] vocabularies at 16 months.  As someone else 
> noted, and as I said rather jokingly, kids learn the words which 
> mean the most to them first.  For my daughter, it was "kitty" 
> first.  For someone like Dudley, I can imagine its having 
> been "treat!" or "candy!" or "GIMME!" or some such thing.  I mean, 
> look at the kid when we first meet him at age 11, pitching a fit 
> over the number of his b'day gifts, demanding more, and also being 
> grossly overweight.  I think Dudders likely learned to express his 
> demands early on...and that that was all JKR was doing in sharing 
> these episodes with us.  He was a BRAT who screamed at his parents 
> to get what he wanted. <snip>


I agree with Susan's excellent post. I just want to add that we're
informed in the same chapter that Dudley has just learned a new word,
"Won't!" (SS Am. ed., p. 6). I'd say the little brat was not at all
precocious in his vocabulary (or his ability to kick his mother in the
ankle), just perfectly capable of expressing his selfish desires and
abusing his mother from an early age.

Carol