Milestones that Define Children’s Language Development

By Quincy Cornett

  • 1-3 Months: Prelinguistic Stage

    According to Robert E. Owens, Kimberly A. Farinella, and Dale Evan Mets, "During the first 3 months, caregivers’ responses teach children the“signal” value of specific behaviors, and infants learn a stimulus– response sequence"(2015). This is the stage certain actions of the caregiver can result in predictable responses.

  • 3 to 4 Months: Rituals and Game Playing

    Constant repetitive interactions with the caregiver such as games and rituals help the child to establish patterns of speech and behavior.

  • 6 - 8 Months: Babbling and Gesturing

    Babble that starts from 6 - 8 months and becomes
    more complex. Begins using sounds that begin with /b/p/m/d/ and vowel sounds. Begins gesturing.

  • 12 - 18 Months: First Recognizable Word

    Often the first recognizable word occurs around 12 months. A possibility of 10 - 20 words by 18 months, mixed with complex babble and jargon. An increase with the consonants: /m/n/p/b/d/w/h/ and further vowel sounds

  • 18 - 24 Months: Begins combining words on the basis of word-order rules

    10-20 recognizable words with jargon. First attempts at 2 syllable words. Begins adding bound morphemes. "An average length or mean length of utterance (mLu) is 1.6–2.2 morphemes" (Owens, Farinella, Metz. 2015).

  • 3 Years: More Adult like Structure

    Possibly up to 450 recognizable words by 36 months
    with some 3 word sentences. Becoming more understandable.

  • 4-5 Years: Language becomes more complex as it becomes longer

    Vocabulary is up to about 1500 words and utterances are
    longer and more complex. "In addition, these children have not acquired some of the pragmatic skills that are needed to be truly effective communicators" (Owens, Farinella, Metz. 2015).

  • 6-7 years: Mastering of Diphthongs, Adjectives and Adverbs

    The child should have mastered the consonants 's-z', 'r', voiceless 'th', 'ch', 'wh', and soft 'g'. The use and understanding of figurative language are also a reality. "First-graders have an expressive vocabulary of approximately 2,600 words but may understand as many as 8,000 root English words and possibly 14,000 when various derivations are included" (Owens, Farinella, Metz. 2015).

  • 8-10 Years: Well Into School Years

    Fluent speech with vocabulary of at least 2000 words and
    5-6 word sentences. Having the ability to speak the following sounds: /m/n/p/b/t/d/w/ng/k/g/h/f/s/y/l/r/v/z/sh/ch/th/sp/st/sk/sl/sm/sn/sw/tr/gr/br/pr/cr/fl/bl/pl/gl/spr/str/scr/spl. Children use most verb tenses with common verbs and auxiliary or helping verbs, such as would, should, must, and might; possessive pronouns (his, her, your); and the conjunctions and, but, if, because, when, and so." (Owens, Farinella, Metz. 2015)

  • 12-18 Years: Teenage

    The teen years is a time of evolved writing skills in which they are challenged with tasks that stretch them beyond the basic transmission of information. There is also growth in the frontal lobe, where cognitive processing takes place. teens should develop the ability to use more complex syntax and to adapt his/her oral and written communication to her audience, according to the U.S. Department of Education.