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Prenatal Language Development
Babies in the womb can hear around week 23 and around week 29 starts to make high pitched crying sounds. A newborn's cries bears ties to them trying to speak our language. -
2 Months
Infants Coo, making vowel sounds -
4 Months On
Infants observe with interest as caregivers play turn-taking games.
Between 3 and 4 months infants gaze in the same general direction adults are looking at.
By 5 months infants respond to their name. -
6 Months On
Infants babble, leading to babbling including sounds of spoken languages such as mama/mommy and dada/daddy. Infants begin to comprehend a few commonly heard words. -
8 - 12 Months
Infants become more accurate at establishing joint attention with the caregiver, who often verbally labels what the baby is looking at.
Infants actively participate in turn taking games.
Infants start to point and show to influence others' goals and behavior and to convey information.
First spoken words are around month 12. -
18 - 24 Months
At this point, vocabulary has expanded but during this time there is a huge increase in learning pace leading to a much larger vocabulary. Can use nouns with other words they know. At age 2, toddlers should be able to put their thoughts into words. Between age 2 - 2 1/2 they can classify themselves by gender, age, and competencies. -
3 Years
Children should have about a 200 word vocabulary and can follow two/three-step directions. They also know their gender, age, and name. -
4 Years
Children can say their name, identify numbers, colors, etc., can express sentences, can sing, and tell stories. -
5 Years
Children can carry on conversations and use more advanced grammar. Knows most, if not all, of the alphabet. May know their address and phone number. -
Period: to
Ages 6 -12 Years
Children are reading and think more logically and complex. They can express themselves via talking or writing with a vast vocabulary in complete sentences. As children age, they can detect sarcasm and comprehend proverbs.