Infants begin communicating with the world around them almost as soon as they are born. They cry to let their caregivers know that they are hungry or in pain. Babies quickly make the association between sound and response. As their motor skills improve, babies add nonverbal communication methods like body language and facial expression to their repertoire. Eventually, baby babbling gives way to recognizable words--the beginning of verbal language.
Acquisition
The single most important factor in infant language acquisition is verbal interaction. When parents respond to a baby's babbling with sounds of their own, the foundation for language development is laid. Babies who are never spoken to will not learn to speak, and children cannot acquire language simply by listening to a television or radio.
Time Frame
By age 5 months, most infants should react to sounds and make noises to express emotions and needs, such as giggles or cries. By around 11 months, babies should understand basic words such as "no," attempt to imitate speech and make babbling sounds. Between 12 and 17 months, most babies have a vocabulary of three to five label words for their favorite things and people, such as "mama" and "ball." Babies should have a vocabulary of roughly 50 words by age 24 months.
Misconceptions
Some parents fear that if their child does not have a specific number of words in her vocabulary by a certain age, something is wrong. While in some cases this may be true, babies develop at different rates. Time frames for language milestones are approximate; they help doctors measure a baby's progress against averages. A pediatrician can evaluate a baby's language and hearing to determine whether there are any developmental delays.
Considerations
Language acquisition is not an innate process. It is highly influenced by environment. Child psychologists have long known that parental vocabulary, particularly the mother's, was one of the most important indicators of a child's vocabulary.
In a 2002 study, University of Chicago researchers found that the way parents and caregivers speak to young children directly influences their language complexity and sentence. Children whose preschool teachers used complex, rather than simple sentences understood and used more complicated language than did their peers who were not exposed to complex sentences.
Theory
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, there are critical periods of language development throughout the early stages of life. The most important of these is the first three years of a baby's life, when the brain is developing. Children who do not acquire age-appropriate language skills during this time will likely struggle with speech, language and, consequently, literacy, as they enter school.
References
- Linguistic Society of America: Language Acquisition
- NIDCD: Speech and Language
- Florida Atlantic University: The Specificity of Environmental Influence
- "The University of Chicago Chronicle"; Researchers Discover Environment Influences Children's Ability to Form, Comprehend Complex Sentences; William Harms; November 2002
