Language skills do not include only speech, but also comprehension and pre-speech behaviors. As a parent you often wonder about the normalcy of your child's development and worry that your child may fall behind his peers. Understanding typical development of language will help you determine if your child requires extra attention or professional help to acquire necessary language skills.
Early Development
Though children may not begin speaking using conversational methods during infancy, language development begins at this early stage. By 3-months of age your child can recognize the voice of caregivers and will calm or smile when spoken to. She also begins to make cooing noises. These features of infancy mark the beginning of language development.
By 7-months of age, your child recognizes changes in your tone of voice and responds to the change. She also gurgles and babbles while playing and uses her voice to show displeasure or happiness.
Toddler Development
Between 12- and 15-months your child will begin to use 2 or 3 words other than "mama" and "dada." By his second birthday, your child can combine two words to make simple phrases and identify objects by name. He can point to objects or pictures, as well as body parts, when prompted to do so. By 2-years old he also begins to state his name and recognizes the names of caregivers and others familiar people.
By the age of 3, your child has a vocabulary of 900--1000 words. He uses the pronouns "I," "me" and "you" correctly, and also knows the meaning of "in," "on" and "under." Your child uses three word sentences and can understand and respond reasonably to simple questions, though he should not be expected to respond to every question. At this age your child can also give basic information about himself, including his name, gender and age.
Preschool Development
At the age of 4, your child can show understanding of the words "over" and "under," and also understands the concept of longer or larger. She can name familiar animals, repeat four-syllable words and repeat a string of up to four digits. She knows at least one color at this age and uses her imagination in verbal play and storytelling.
By her fifth birthday, your child can count to ten and has concept of numbers up to 4. She knows opposites and has concepts of morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, tomorrow, yesterday and today. She can repeat sentences of up to nine words and uses fairly long sentences in her speech with correct usage of descriptive words. In addition to using sentences frequently, she generally uses correct grammar.
School-Age Development
By the age of 8 your child has mastered all consonant sounds. His speech is useful, easily understood and social. He can carry on conversations in an adult manner with necessary pauses, proper rate of speech and inflection of tone. Sentence structure becomes more complex at this age and your child makes fewer grammatical mistakes. Reading comes easily now and your child has the ability to write short pieces. Additionally, comprehension has continued to improve and your child can now follow complex instructions without requiring you to repeat the directions.
Significance
Strong language skills help in the development of listening and speaking skills, as well as literacy according to the Office of the Surgeon General. Children who do not possess strong language skills struggle academically and socially as they fall behind their peers. In order to effectively communicate and increase reading and writing fluency, which in turn improves academic and work scores, language skills must be strongly developed.
