There is a wide variation among children as to what specific language skills are acquired by the age of 2. Since children at the age of 2 can typically only say about 50 words, what your child is saying may not always sound as if he is speaking clearly. Check that your child is meeting the major speech milestones typical of 2-year-olds to make sure he's on track.
Milestones Mastered
Up to this point, your 2-year-old has probably mastered many language milestones. She is likely able to name some body parts and simple objects such as “kitty.” If she is on track developmentally, she learns new words regularly and repeats these new words multiple times to learn and remember them. She should be using one- or two-word questions such as “Where’s Papa?” and expressing herself with simple sentences such as, “More juice,” or “Go bye now?” Given these limitations, some of what she is saying may not seem clear to you.
What 2-Year-Olds Learn
There are two distinct language learning stages in 2-year-olds: receptive language followed by productive language. During the first stage, your child may not speak clearly because he says only a few nouns but understands a lot more. Typically, he will not use verbs much, but understands a lot of verbs. Gradually, he will evolve into the productive stage of language where he will speak out loud almost all the nouns he knows and will start to use verbs more consistently. His sentences will therefore become more complex and meaningful.
Helping Your Child
By the age of 3, about 75 to 80 percent of what your child says is typically spoken clearly, according to Iowa State University. Help your child develop language skills by exposing her to many different words. Read to her daily, repeating the same books multiple times to facilitate learning. Reading nursery rhymes makes the sound of language interesting and may pique your child’s interest in new words. Ask simple questions such as “Where’s the puppy?” to encourage her to think and respond. Speak simple sentences and encourage your child to repeat these sentences back to you. When understanding is critical, give simple instructions such as “Give me the shoe.”
Red Flags of a Language Problem
If your child does not appear to be meeting most of these language milestones, discuss the issue with your pediatrician. Your child may be immature in development, in which case he will catch up to his peers in time, or his delays may be a sign of a larger issue. Watch for issues such as your child only repeating the words you use without producing any sentences on his own, repeating only single words repeatedly without communicating his needs, difficulty following directions, a raspy or nasal sounding voice tone, not appearing to hear what you are saying at all and not appearing to understand what you are saying at all. By the age of 2, about half of what your child says is understandable. Compare his development against that developmental marker and to his peers.
References
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders: Speech and Language Developmental Milestones
- Iowa State University: University Extension: Understanding Children: Language Development
- "Reading Research Quarterly"; Language Proficiency and Reading Ability in First and Second Language Learners; Mienke Droop, et al.; March 2003
- KidsHealth: Delayed Speech or Language Development
