Hearing your little one's voice for the first time is one of the most rewarding parts of parenting a young child. Just like there are average growth milestones for children, there are markers of normal language development. While every child is different and you shouldn't expect yours to keep up with developmental norms precisely, you should discuss concerns about your child's language with your family physician.
General Development
The first three years of your child's life are the most significant in terms of his language development. As your baby's brain matures and he lives longer in a world that consistently exposes him to language, he starts to develop oral language skills of his own. Interacting with your baby and exposing him to an environment with lots of speech is important, since there are critical childhood periods for normal language development. Although children can still learn to speak outside of these critical periods, language learning becomes more difficult.
Milestones: First Year
Your baby should be showing more sensitivity to his external environment as early as 3 months of age. She should respond to soothing voices and new noises, and should start making a variety of cooing and gurgling sounds. By 6 months, you'll notice that your baby starts to grasp that different noises result in different types of attention from you. She'll make noises other than crying to get your attention, and develop different cries for different needs. Your child will also watch you carefully while you talk, and respond with sounds of her own. By 1 year, your baby should be making sounds like "ba," "na" and "ma," without attaching specific meaning to them. She'll imitate you, try to sing when you sing and understand her own name. She should have one or two meaningful, spoken words in her vocabulary, although pronunciation probably won't be perfect.
Milestones: Early Preschool
An 18 month-old child can understand and respond to basic questions with actions, such as "Where are your eyes?" Your baby may communicate with gestures, or ask for "more" or "again" when he enjoys what you're doing. He will babble strings of syllables that sound like sentences, and continue learning new words regularly. By age 2, your child will be able to use two-word sentences, like "What's that?" and "Doggie go." By age 3, your child will start asking more complex questions, form longer sentences and have a 200-word vocabulary.
Problems to Watch For
If your child seems significantly behind normal milestones, talk to your doctor. A child that has trouble understanding commands at an age-appropriate level may have a receptive language disorder. If vocabulary seems to be lacking, your child could have an expressive language problem. Children that hesitate when producing speech sounds or have trouble putting sounds in the right order might have apraxia, a type of speech disorder that makes producing and combining sounds difficult. Your doctor will refer you to a speech-language pathologist if she suspects a disorder or delay.
