Developmental Milestones of Language
Stages of Language Development
The following stages provide information relative to the different stages of communication and language development that children go through. Milestones may vary from child to child and may develop a little earlier or later than the given age range. It can also slightly vary if the child is exposed to multiple languages.
Pre-Linguistic Development
Pre-linguistic communication are the forms of communication that a child uses before they have language. These include gestures, vocalizations, facial expressions, and body language.
Birth to 2 Months
Vegetative sounds
These are the natural sounds an infant makes during the first few months of life. These sounds include crying, burping, and coughing.
2 - 5 Months
Cooing and Laughter
These are the vocalizations an infant makes when they are happy and content. These sounds can include vocalizations of consonants and vowels.
4 - 8 Months
Vocal Play
This is when a baby begins to string together longer sounds exploring their voice. This includes longer productions of vowels and consonants together.
6 - 13 Months
Babbling
During this time, a baby continues to string together consonant-vowel productions. The baby may produce utterances that repeat sounds such as "ma-ma" and "da-da".
12 + Months
Jargon
The baby will begin to interact and imitate adult speech. This means the vocalizations they produce will have different intonations, pauses, and emphasis. Although the vocalizations are still unable to be understood, the interaction begins to imitate a conversation.
5 Language Subdomains
These subdomains provide information regarding the language development within children. They are identified through language abilities, observations, and documentation. These subdomains will co-occur and influence one another throughout the child's language development.
Subdomain 1:
This subdomain begins at birth, and includes the pre-linguistic communication mentioned above.
Subdomain 2:
Vocabulary Development
The early part of this subdomain overlaps with Subdomain 1. Vocabulary development begins around the 1 year mark, and will continue to develop throughout the child's life. A child's first words are typically produced between 10-16 months and will progress quickly to 200-500 words by 2 years of age.
Subdomain 3:
Multiple-Word Combinations
Multiple-word combinations will typically begin to occur after the child produces his/her first 50 individual words. Below are some examples of 2-word combinations:
Subdomain 4:
Morphosyntax Development
Around the ages of 24-36 months, the child will begin to include the plural s, -ed, and the -ing ending to words as well as using 's to show possession. By the age of 5, their sentence structure becomes more complex and detailed as they are able to connect ideas together in one thought.
Subdomain 5:
Advanced Pragmatic and Discourse Development
Between the ages of 3 to 7, children are learning how to use language to develop reason, reflect on past experiences, make predictions, express feelings, and maintain interactions with others. During this stage, children are developing and expanding on their knowledge of language and how to use it in conversations and narratives to express ideas and thoughts.