Language Development in Children
Acquiring language is a very complex process for everyone. Every child needs the aid of other adults to be able to understand language correctly and learn how to use it.
There are several ways in which adults can help children develop language correctly, if you are one of them check this links, they have basic tips for you to follow.
Below you will find a basic breakdown of how a child typically develops language from birth to 5 years, before they enter school age. Keep in mind that every child is different and not all of them will follow it in the same order. This information is only to help you know what to expect at a certain age but then again it is not granted.
Birth to 6 Months
Hearing and Understanding: Children will recognize their mother’s voice, turn to familiar voices and sounds and will respond to changes in a tone of voice.
Talking: Will use crying as their language, start chuckling or gurgling and cooing, making loud noises, vocalizing excitement and crying in a different and notable pitch when feeling pain of hunger. Get ready for continuous laughing, babbling for attention and yes, blowing bubbles!
One interesting point of this stage is that the sounds and babblings of this stage are “identical in babies throughout the world, even among those who are profoundly deaf. Thus all babies are born with the capacity to learn any language. Social interaction determines which language they eventually learn.” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)
6 Months to 1 Year
At this age children have a big change and progress in their receptive language. Receptive language is the comprehension of what one hears or reads.
Hearing and Understanding: Children will search for sources of sound, attentively listen to any sound, recognize simple and commonly used words like dad, mama, bye-bye, hello. They will consistently respond to their names and respond to simple requests.
Talking: Children will play with sounds and discover new ones, imitate speech sounds and create words combining consonants with vowels. They will also start using sounds other than crying to get attention. Children will start talking simple words such as dada, no, more, bye-bye. (Gonzales-Mena & Eyer, 2007.)
1 Year to 2 Years
This is when you will start noticing a big change in the child’s language. Don’t worry if your child is not at this level even if they have the age, every child is different, they each need their time but the important thing is that they continuously progress.
Hearing and Understanding: Children will recognize their name, laugh in appropriate situations, follow one or two-step directions, understand “up”, “down”, “hot”, etc. They will also point to parts of the body.
Talking: The will use spatial words, acquire a 150-word vocabulary, start completing short sentences and use language that others will be able to understand. Hum and sing, express pain verbally and start asking questions.
2 Years to 3 Years
This can be the time in which your child has a “word spurt” in which they can learn around 9 words per day! Needless to say, this is an important part of their language development too so be patient and give them as much tools as possible.
Hearing and Understanding: Children will be able to use pronouns such as, you, me, I, correctly as well as using some past tense. Able to reason out such questions as “What must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, thirsty?” (Child Development Institute - Parenting Today)
Talking: They are able to create 3-4 word sentences, have a word for almost everything, can be easily understood, like to gain attention by asking “what is this?” They have a 400-word vocabulary including names, name body parts and repeat small songs.
3 Years to 5 Years
Hearing and Understanding: Knows common opposites and has number concepts of more than 4. Their speech should be completely intelligible and be able to follow 3 commands given at the same time. Their speech should be grammatically correct most of the times and they should be able to solve simple problems.
Talking: Make-up stories, recount events, memorize small rhymes or songs, talk constantly, ask a lot of questions. They know the letters and articulate most English sounds correctly. Children at this age usually know around 1,500 to 2,500 words and can use for syllable words.
I hope you find this information helpful since it is presented simple enough but at the same time showing important changes as children age. Here are some websites that can give a little more information about this topic. Enjoy!
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