It is helpful to know the usual developmental stages a child goes through when learning speech and language. Keep in mind that these stages are ranges, and the ranges are approximate. Individual babies, toddlers, and children achieve different skills at different times within the range. Some features of language development are listed below for each developmental stage.
Language is generally divided in to two categories: receptive and expressive. Receptive language is essentially understanding the expressions and words of others. Children begin to develop this skill first. Expressive language is the child’s ability to express himself.
As children improve their language skills, they tend to understand more than they can say. In other words, their receptive language is almost always better than their expressive language.
Eight to 13 months
- Points at objects he wants
- Shakes head to indicate “no”
- Waves good-bye
- Uses sounds as if they were words
- Uses jargon
- Iimitates adult’s sounds
12 to 18 months
- Begins to develop a receptive vocabulary of words he understands, for example, he is able to Points to objects when named by an adult
- Understands a number of single words and short phrases
- Uses approximately 10 to 20 words for objects
18 to 24 months
- Understands simple questions and commands
- Begins to combine two words to form a sentence
- Increases expressive vocabulary, or the words he uses when speaking, to about 200 words
- Begins to use negatives: “no juice”
24 to 36 months
During this period, your child will begin to use three-word sentences. His sentences will increase in length over this period. His grammar will become more precise. Here are a few other milestones.
- Uses prepositions such as “in” and “on”
- Adds “ing” to verbs: “go” becomes “going”
- Adds auxiliary verbs: “He can play”
- Adds “s” to words to indicate more than one: “dogs”
- Begins to add “a” and “the” to sentences
- Learns to use pronouns, negatives, and conjunctions in the middle of sentences: “he,” “can’t,” “and”
Your child will also begin to use language for more complex purposes.
- Understands many concepts: in/out; big/little; go/stop; animals; toys; top/bottom
- Follows two-part directions: “get your coat and mitts”
- Follows simple stories in books
- Begins to ask “why?”
- Becomes a story teller
- Can say the following sounds: h, p, m, d, and k
- The child’s speech is 75% to 100% intelligible
Three to five years
Now your child will understand most of what is being said to him. His sentences and stories will become more complex. His conversational skills will improve. He will understand how to get someone’s attention to begin a conversation and how to take turns in a conversation. His vocabulary will grow from about 1000 words at three years of age to 5,000 or more words by five years of age.
At age three, 75% of what a child says should be understandable to a complete stranger.
His grammar will be come more complex, for example:
- links ideas in sentences using “and,” “because,” “what,” “when,” “but,” “that,” “if,” “so”
- uses pronouns correctly: I, she, he, her, him, me, mine, they
- reverses order of words to ask questions: “What is he doing?” as opposed to “What he is doing?”
- uses auxiliary verbs in questions: “Is he sick?”
- uses more advanced forms of negatives: “didn’t”
- overgeneralizes some rules: “I runned”; “two gooses”
Between three and five years, your child’s ability to pronounce letters and blended letters will grow. Children are able to produce the following specific sounds:
- at three years: w, b, t, f, g, ng, n
- at four years: l, sh, ch, s, j
- at five years: z, r.