Toddler Language Development
Childhood Milestones for Speech and Early Communication Skills
A Specialist Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist outlines the early communication, speech and language development of babies and toddlers.
The language development of babies and toddlers is something that is of great interest to parents and health professionals alike. Knowing what to expect at each age allows people to track developmental milestones and more importantly, to be alerted to language delays or language disorders.
Here's what to expect at each age:
During the first 4 months, most vocalisations are associated with having basic needs met (hungry or tired). As parents get to know their baby, they are able to distinguish between the different types of cries.
By the age of 8 months, infants should be babbling. Initially this would be a string of sounds such as “dadadadada”, and then would be reduced to “dada” and eventually simply, “da”. Often at this stage babies are just experimenting with the different sounds that their mouths can make and don’t necessarily have meaning attached to what they are saying. They may also start to learn how call out to others and attempt to wave.
Around 12 months babies should have a couple of words in their vocabulary and will be able to understand a lot more than what they can say. They gain an interest in cause-and-effect games (e.g. if someone responds to what the child says or does, they’ll repeat it to see if they get the same response). When children are learning to walk, their talking development often slows down temporarily, so don’t let this be of concern.
By 18 months toddlers are attempting to vocalise to music, have learnt how to say “no” and hopefully have about twenty words in their vocabulary. They usually know and use their own name, talk to themselves using made-up words and start to imitate two-word phrases.
At 2 years of age a child is expected to have at least 50 words in their vocabulary and be using 2-3 word phrases. Answering simple questions is generally expected.
If language development is progressing well, an explosion of new words will occur from the age of 2 years. By the age of three a child should have a vocabulary of at least 300 words. Children of that age will also be trying to ask questions, repeat lengthy sentences, be frustrated if others are unable to understand them (i.e. they are aware that their verbalisations allow them to communicate with others), be interested in books (which is important for their developing literacy skills), imitating new words, and singing simple songs to music.
A child's development of language is an exciting time for families to enjoy. This is only a guide and it must be acknowledged that all children develop at their own pace. However, if a child were falling behind significantly in their language development, it would be advisable to seek the professional advice of a speech-language therapist or speech pathologist.
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