Young children's language and literacy skills develop rapidly in the first months and years of their lives. Though individual children develop language skills at different rates, most children follow relatively predictable language development patterns. If your child's language development seems to be behind average for his age, discuss your concerns with your child's doctor.
Early Development
By 6 months, your child should communicate some unintelligible vocalizations. The child should respond to her name and should also respond differently to kind and angry tones of voice. By 12 months, most children use some words or word fragments with meaning, and they can follow simple verbal instructions when paired with physical cues.
Pronunciation
By 48 months, most children can pronounce almost all vowel sounds as well as the consonant sounds "p," "b," "m," "n" and "w." By 60 months old, most children can also pronounce the consonant sounds "d," "g," "h," "k," "ng," "t" and "y."
At six years, most children will have mastered the sounds "f," "v," "sh," "zh" and "th," and by seven years, the sounds "s," "z," "r," "th," "ch," "wh" and the soft "g." Most 8- year-olds will be able to pronounce all vowel and consonant sounds. About two- thirds of a child's speech should be intelligible by 24 months, and 90 percent by 36 months. By six years, children should produce entirely intelligible speech.
Vocabulary
By 18 months, most children will have a vocabulary of about 5 to 20 words, including mostly nouns. By 24 months, most children's vocabularies will have expanded to include 150 to 300 words, including the names of objects in their immediate surroundings as well as limited prepositions and pronouns.
By 36 months, most children will have learned to use pronouns correctly. Children at this age will also use some prepositions. Their vocabularies will have grown to include about 900 to 1000 words. By 48 months, children's vocabularies continue to grow each day. Most children at this age know a variety of animal and object names, color words, prepositions and the numbers one through four.
By 60 months, children have learned to use descriptive adjectives and adverbs and can understand simple pairs of opposites. At this age, most children can count to ten. By age 6, most children use words to describe simple time concepts, such as the time of day or yesterday, today or tomorrow. Most seven- year-olds can understand complex opposites and can tell time to a quarter of an hour.
Conversation
By 48 months, many children talk aloud to themselves as they complete activities. Children at this age also often repeat certain words and phrases as they learn them. At three- to four-years of age, children begin to enjoy initiating conversations. When prompted by adults, children at this age will talk about their own experiences.
Children ages four to five initiate conversations frequently and begin to share information without being asked. Children at this age can follow complex directions and can listen without interrupting. Five-year-olds can wait their turn to speak in groups. By age six, most children speak fluently and confidently and can communicate with others in a variety of social contexts.
Literacy
Most children begin to develop a basic understanding of writing between the age of one and two. At this age, children enjoy looking at picture books and can sometimes name the objects that appear on the page. By the age of two, many children will pretend to read while flipping through the pages of a book.
At this age, children can sing the ABCs but they usually do not yet recognize individual letters. They often scribble in an attempt to write. By ages three and four, children often begin asking adults what certain words and letters mean. At this age, children understand that a book's texts prompts the reader to say a particular thing. By this age, children's scribbles resemble letters more closely.
At ages four and five, children begin to recognize letters and understand that these letters represent sounds. They also understand that writing progresses from left to right. By age five, most children understand the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters and understand that a connection exists between specific letters and specific sounds. At this age, children begin to be able to sound out words.
By ages six and seven, children begin to read aloud on their own. They also begin to write stories and develop ideas. Children ages seven and eight can recognize words by sight and can read more independently, often reading for fun. By ages eight and nine, children read with increased comprehension, using reading for pleasure and as a way to learn about new things. Children at this age begin to write more engaging and complex stories.
