LNG222: Survey of Communicative Disorders

By shannonh1028

  • Birth to 3 months: Infants begin to respond to caregivers by babbling or crying.

    Infants at this age are learning that they can achieve their desires by crying or babbling to obtain the caregivers attention.

  • 8 months: During this time infants begin to gesture.

    Until now infants would cry for their bottle or to be held, now he or she will reach for their bottle or hold their hands up when wanting to be held.

  • 12 months: Children will begin to speak their first words.

    Now that they are learning that their voice is more than a noise maker, they are putting that voice to use. Instead of grunting or reaching for their bottle they will ask for it verbally, “baba”.

  • 18 months: Children start putting words together. Decrease in babbling

    The child will begin using their words with gestures, i.e. waving while saying bye bye.

  • 2 years: Vocabulary has significant growth. Child’s phrases become longer.

    The toddler’s vocabulary grows from approximately 50 words to anywhere between 150 and 300. They will begin to use phrases of three or more words.

  • 3 years: Children continue with longer phrases but struggle with appropriate structure.

    For example, a child might say “Wal-Mart Mommy go”. During this time caregivers will correct the child with “Mommy went to Wal-Mart?”.

  • 4 years: Children are now forming compound and complex sentences.

    At this time children are establishing a more adult like sentence structure. Back and forth conversation is still difficult because the lack of focus.

  • 5 years: 90% of language form is learned. Conversational skills continue to develop. Narratives expand.

    Children this age are now understanding language form and are able to come home after a day of school and tell their parents what they did that day.

  • 6 years: Metalinguistic and morphological skills develop.

    Children are now beginning to understand that adding or taking away letters to the end or beginnings of words can in turn change the meaning of the word

  • 18 years: Language development continues through adulthood. Vocabulary continues to grow. Conversations come with ease.

    Our conversations are different according to whom it is we are speaking. We understand there are appropriate dialogues to follow.