Language Development

Learning to speak is the first step in learning to read. Language development begins in the womb and continues into adulthood. Parents play a crucial role in their child’s development of speech and language because they are the main speakers, listeners, questioners, responders, and developers of language. To learn to speak, the child must be spoken to.

Children learn language by moving through predictable stages, but the pace of development may differ from child to child.

Early Stage: In the first few months, infants play with sounds. They babble, gurgle or coo when they are happy. At about 6 months, babies’ babbling becomes more sophisticated with a combination of consonant and vowel sounds. They will repeat these same sounds over and over—da, da, da, or ma, ma, ma. From 8 to 12 months, children increase their knowledge of language, but their understanding exceeds their ability to speak. They do begin to speak their first words-- Mommy, Daddy, bye bye, cookie, no-- around their first birthday, Children at this age also communicate by gestures.

Toddler Years: Children’s oral language increases rapidly between the ages of 1 and 2. They utter many sounds as if speaking in sentences. From 12 months on, their speech uses content words such as nouns and verbs but omits functional words such as conjunctions and articles (“Eat please”, instead of “I want something to eat, please.”). By 18 months most children use 20 to 50 words.

From 2 to 3 years of age, a child’s vocabulary grows from 300 words to 1,000. They can comprehend, but not use, more than 3,000 additional words. They continue to use two and three word sentences and sometimes functional words such as pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions. They will play with language by repeating words and making up nonsense words. They enjoy rhyme and repetition.

Preschoolers: Your child’s language will continue to grow as they develop new vocabulary and find new ways of putting words into sentences. Preschoolers begin to talk about what they are doing as they are doing it. They will also talk to themselves as they play and try to articulate their actions. Between the ages of 5 and 6, young children have a vocabulary of 2,500 words and are very articulate. Many will have trouble pronouncing some sounds (such as l, r, and sh at the end of words.)

Children this age are also learning that words may have more than one meaning. When they do not have a word for a situation, they will supply their own (when telling her mom that she had an upset stomach, one little girl said, “Mommy, my stomach needs a binky.”

Parents can support language development and vocabulary:

Talk and sing lullabies to your child from birth. Sing songs with rhymes and repeated words.
Listen and respond to sounds your baby makes, and repeat the sounds.
Supply language for your child. (For example, when your child says, “ga, ga, ga,” Dad can respond, “Ok, want to dance with daddy.”)
Play simple touching and talking games such as “Peek a boo” or name body parts.
Add to the child’s vocabulary. When they say, “juice”, you say, “You want some apple juice to drink.”
Read to your child. Talk with your child about the pictures and what is happening in a story. Let your child tell you about the pictures. Ask questions such as, “Where do you think the doggy is?”
Ask your child questions that require a response other than a “yes” or “no” answer. (“Tell me what you did at the park with Grandpa.”)
Listen to your child and answer his questions. Use detail and descriptive words.
Talk about anything. The goal is for parents not to do all of the talking. Keep ideas and words flowing.
Expose your child to a variety of experiences—such as trips to the library or a museum, walks in the park, or visits with family and friends. These events should include lots of comments, questions, and answers.

Language milestones: If you have concerns about your child’s language development consult a professional.

Birth – 6 months

♥ Cooing and babbling
♥ Continual awareness of sound (turns to sound,

stops crying when spoken to)
♥ Uses eye gaze to indicate interest.

7 – 12 months

♥ First true words appear (they are often people, or

      nouns);
   ♥ Same syllable is repeated (mama, dada)
   ♥ Child demonstrates increased understanding of

daily routines.

12 months

   ♥ Child says 3-5 words
   ♥ Child recognizes his/her name
   ♥ Understands simple instructions
   ♥ Initiates familiar words, gestures, and sounds
   ♥ Child understands common objects and actions

(e.g., cookie, eat, juice).

18 months

♥ Child uses about 10-20 words at age 18 months

including names;
♥ Recognition of pictures of familiar persons,

       objects
   ♥ Early 2-word combinations of words emerge
   ♥ Needs are requested verbally such as "more, up"
   ♥ Child will point, gesture, follow simple commands,

imitate simple actions, hum or sing

24 months

♥ Child understands simple questions and

commands;
♥ Identifies familiar actions/activities in pictures (i.e.

      "sleeping, eating");
   ♥ Follows directions to put objects "on, off, in"
   ♥ Puts two words together on average
   ♥ Sentence length of up to three words
   ♥ Child will refer to self by name
   ♥ Labels pictures
   ♥ Start to use the negative "not go"
   ♥ Final "s" is used for plurals
   ♥ Vocabulary jumps to 300 words during the year!

30 months

   ♥ Child has about 450 word vocabulary
   ♥ Child is able to give his/her first name
   ♥ Child uses past tense, plurals, and combines

nouns and verbs
♥ Begin to identify objects from a group by their

function and parts (ie. "which one has wheels?",

      "which one can we eat?")
   ♥ Begin to use verbs with "ing" endings (i.e. "eating")
   ♥ Early concepts such as "big, little" are identified
   ♥ Child will use "no, not" and answer "where"

questions.

3 year olds

   ♥ Child will name at least one color
   ♥ Child will often talk during play, or when alone
   ♥ Child can tell a basic story or idea
   ♥ Child can use 3-4 word sentences
   ♥ Begins to understand "not"
   ♥ Can identify items in a familiar category or group

      (i.e. "show me the animal")
   ♥ Child can have a vocabulary of up to 1000 words
   ♥ Children are often able to tell their name and street.

4 year olds

   ♥ Child will follow 2-3 step commands
   ♥ Child will ask many questions, including "who/why"
   ♥ Child talks in 4-5 word sentences
   ♥ Understands and verbalizes spatial concepts

more readily such as "on, under, next to.."
♥ Child will talk in the past tense correctly.

5 year olds

   ♥ Child defines objects by their function
   ♥ Identifies spatial concepts such as "on, behind"
   ♥ Child uses 5-6 word sentences
   ♥ Child understands many opposites
   ♥ Child can use different tenses (past, present,

future), and many sentence types.

Adapted from Parents as Teachers Knowledge Path and http://www.speechdelay.com/testrosemilestones3.htm#5%20years