Wondertime: Child Stages: Speech Development in Young Children - and More Joys of Parenting Young Children

Speech Development

Newborn to 3 months
Babies begin to coo and gurgle at 1 to 3 months. Instead of simply being startled by sounds, babies start to respond more specifically to sounds — first by turning their heads and changing their facial expressions and then by actually cooing and gurgling. These sounds will probably be music to your ears, as well they should be. You can consider these sounds to be your child's first words to you, as simple cooing and other verbalizations represent the very beginning of language development.

3 to 6 months
Babies at this age enjoy making sounds. Not only do they like to laugh and squeal with pleasure and excitement, but they perfect their ability to gurgle, coo, and blow raspberries. Some begin to make consonant sounds (n, d, p, b), most can link sounds with the objects that made them, and by the time they reach 6 months of age, they often start to actually imitate sounds.

6 to 9 months
Babies will babble at this age. During these months, most babies start to vocalize a lot more in ways other than crying, not the least of which is laughing more frequently. You're also likely to notice a progression in your baby's talking abilities — from making four different consonant sounds or stringing together chains of vowel-consonant sounds to combining syllables into word-like utterances and shouting to attract attention.

9 to 12 months
Babies will say their first words during this time. At 9 months, infants are often fairly talented at multi-syllable babbling and imitating sounds. Over the subsequent months, you may find that your baby starts to imitate the tone and inflection in your voice as well and may even say his first word.

Words such as "mama" and "dada" clearly have meaning to infants at this age, and some will even say them by the time they turn 1. ("Dada" is much more common than "mama," not as a reflection of a baby's preference, but because "da" is a much easier sound to make than "ma.")

Also at this age babies develop improved nonverbal communication skills. This is a fun age, where many babies not only start to communicate verbally, but clearly seem to understand more and interact more. They typically learn to point in response to simple questions such as "Where's the ball?" or "Where's Mommy?" and to wave good-bye.

12 to 18 months
Kids this age will continue to improve their communication skills. By 12 to 15 months, the average child says two or more words besides "dada" and "mama." Some 18-month-olds will even begin to put two words together, although this is considered to be a 2-year-old accomplishment.

In addition to talking, most toddlers at this age can imitate animal sounds, recognize objects by name, and follow commands. You're likely to find that this newly developed ability to follow directions is particularly endearing when your toddler begins to give a hug or kiss when asked.

While your toddler is probably making great strides in communicating at this age, it helps to be aware that toddlers at this age can become very frustrated because they can understand a lot more than they can say.

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18 to 24 months
Toddlers at this age will greatly increase their vocabulary and ability to understand. The average toddler toward the end of the second year can say 30 to 50 words and make two-word sentences. Even more impressive is their ability to understand and follow simple commands.

2 years
Two-year-olds talk in sentences. While the typical 2-year-old has a vocabulary of 30-50 words and can put two words together, another year of language development usually brings the ability to make three-word sentences and communicate more effectively.

Not only do children start to use pronouns such as I, me, you, and we, but they also start to use them to express emotions (in ways other than through tantrums!).

Two-year-olds also learn to name and categorize. They commonly learn the names of five or more body parts and are able to recite their own names (first and last) by the time they reach their third birthday. Sorting objects according to category and understanding descriptive categories like "big" and "little" or "soft" and "hard" are also typical accomplishments at this age.

By the time a child is 3 years old, grown-ups should be able to understand at least 75 percent of what he says.

3 years
Three-year-olds have greatly expanded language skills. During this year, you're likely to notice that the length of your child's sentences increases from around three words at her third birthday to five (or more) by her fourth. By this time, most children have also become fully understandable.

As your child masters the use of pronouns (I, me, you, we, etc.) during the upcoming months, be forewarned that you're also likely to find that she has entered a new stage of development that includes asking a whole lot of questions.

4 years
Four-year-olds make good use of their language skills. During this year, you're likely to notice that your child masters language well enough to put sentences together into full stories and just generally talk your ear off.

5 years
Five-year-olds can understand harder concepts and begin to increase their vocabulary. They typically can understand and apply concepts such as "under," "over," "because," "why," "before," and "after." They often have vocabularies of more than 2,000 words.

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