Children generally develop language skills according to a predictable pattern, but the age at which they reach specific milestones varies. Language development begins almost immediately after birth. Newborns recognize the difference between speech and non-speech utterances and they can even distinguish specific speech sounds, though they will not reproduce these sounds until many months later. As a parent, you play an important role in providing a good model of speech for your child to follow.
Acquisition Device
Children are born with what George Mason University language professor Jeffrey T. Chamberlain calls a "self-erasing language acquisition program" that disappears at puberty. They listen to adult speech and subconsciously formulate their own language rules, which are sometimes surprisingly complex. For example, most children recognize that some plurals use an "s" sound while others use a "z" sound and they seem to know when to apply which one. When a word has an irregular form, however, they are unaware and they apply the subconscious rule that fits best. So you may hear your child say "mans" instead of "men" or "runned" instead of "ran."
Newborns
A newborn's vocal track looks very different from an adult's and the child's production of sound changes as the vocal tract matures and morphs. In the first 2 months of life, babies' vocalizations are mostly limited to expressions of distress and sounds related to reflexive actions, such as burping or sucking. Somewhere between the ages of 2 and 4 months, children begin to make sounds associated with pleasure, such as sighs, grunts or coos. Laughter usually begins at about 4 months.
Vocal Play
Between 4 and 7 months of age, your child will begin experimenting with sounds to explore the parameters of her vocal abilities. She may seem to yell, but this is likely just an experiment to determine her maximum volume. She also may experiment with pitch and produce squeals or growls, or you may hear "raspberries" and snorts as she plays with her lip and nasal functions. At 6 or 7 months, she will begin to babble, making repeated syllable-type sequences, such as "mamama" or variegated sequences, such as "badada."
Words
At approximately 10 months of age, your child will begin to produce one-word utterances that have clear meaning. He may, however, apply the word in a way that is too narrow or too broad. For example, a child who lives with a cat may use the word "cat" to refer to all animals or he may use the word "bear" only in reference to his own stuffed toy. In the 18- to 24-month range, your child will begin to produce two-word "sentences" to convey concepts or actions. These simple sentences will lack the full embellishments of adult speech, such as articles and prepositions, but they will be understandable.
Advanced Stages
Somewhere around age 2, your child will begin to use more complex grammatical elements, such as pronouns, verb tense and articles. Her rate of vocabulary acquisition also will increase in her second year and will accelerate dramatically after age 3. University of Pennsylvania experts estimate that preschool and elementary school children learn an average of 10 words per day. By age 3, your child should have a vocabulary of 900 to 1,000 words, and verbs should predominate. At age 4, most children can repeat words of up to four syllables.
Parental Help
You can support and reinforce your child's language development by doing language exercises with him. If he is an infant, talk constantly in his presence. It doesn't matter what you say; he benefits from hearing the language and the patterns he will later reproduce. Speak clearly and in simple language that he will be able to repeat. Once he begins to say words, repeat what he says to indicate you understand and expand on it with questions. Most importantly, acknowledge and praise all his attempts at speech.
