A child's language development from birth to 18 years.

  • From Birth to infancy

    From birth to 3 and 4 months, infants are actively learning their caregivers reciprocal relationship with limited communication such as babbling, crying, and smiles.
  • 5-8 months Infant

    From 5-8 months, infants begin to interact with others by gesturing.
  • 1st word

    At approximately 11-12 months of age, a child speak their first word with partial understanding of the word.
  • 18-24 months Toddler

    At 18 months a child is able to speak about 50 words and they slowly begin to form short sentences.
  • 3-7 years Early Childhood

    Communication is developed into reading and writing and language is more complex.
  • 8-10 years Middle Childhood

    Language development during adolescence becomes very sophisticated. By now, children are completely aware of the rules of langugage context.
  • 11-15 years Preteen and Teenager

    A child begins to use sarcasm and also uses more slang.
  • 15-17 years Adolescence

    Has the ability to maintain a more intellectual conversation and their vocabulary is constantly increasing. (Approx. 5-10 words weekly)
  • 18 years to Adulthood

    First language has been completely mastered and an individual could have learned or is learning a second language at this point.