Which of the following describes the first two stages of language development?

Of all the milestones in your child’s life, hearing them say their first word is one of the biggest. Here you have this baby that’s now been in your care for around a year and, after getting to know and understand them during that time, you finally have the opportunity to start to communicate with them using words. It’s also kind of mind-blowing when you think about how these once-tiny, squishy babies end up turning into walking, talking mini-adults (even though that’s pretty standard at this point in human development). Of course, they don’t go from cooing in their crib to expressing themselves in complete sentences overnight — there are stages of language development.

RELATED: Start Communicating With Your Baby Using These Easy Baby Sign Language Tips

But as a new parent, you may not be familiar with those stages. That’s totally understandable! Since you’re here, though, it’s clear you’re ready to discover what comes after your baby’s first coos. So, here’s what to know about the four stages of language development in early childhood.

What is language development in children?

In general, young children tend to follow a similar progression through four steps of language development. Before we go any further, let us be clear: There is no set timeline for this happening. Sure, there are approximate ages when a child typically reaches a particular stage. But every child is different, and these guidelines should not make you panic. If it gets to the point where you are concerned about your kiddo’s language development later on, by all means, discuss this with their pediatrician. Having said that, if your baby isn’t babbling in repetitive patterns by the time they’re eight-months-old, it’s likely not something to worry about.

It’s also important to keep in mind that there are several different language development theories. These theories vary in how they take into consideration both nature and nurture and favor certain approaches over others. So again, if your child doesn’t follow a timeline, that doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with their language development.

What are the four stages of language development?

While there can be a lot of variation, language development in children does tend to follow this pattern of four broad categories, or stages. (And as a reminder, the ages included here are approximate!)

Stage 1: Babbling

Typically happens when a baby is between six and eight-months-old, and involves repetitive patterns of consonants followed by vowels (i.e. ma/ma, da/da, ga/ga, etc).

Stage 2: One-word stage

Also known as the holophrastic stage, this typically occurs when a child is between nine-months-old and 18-months-old, and involves communicating via single words, or a single word stem (i.e. doggy, no, stop, etc).

Stage 3: Two-word stage

This one is exactly what it sounds like: when your little one speaks in basic two-word sentences. It typically occurs in toddlers between the ages of 18 and 24 months (i.e. doggy bark, mommy hat, etc).

Stage 4: Early multiword stage

Also known as the telegraphic stage, this is when children are asked to repeat sentences, and when they do, leave out a few words (i.e. “I can see a cow” repeated as “See cow”). Toddlers typically reach this stage between 24 and 30 months.

What are the most critical years in a child’s development?

Helping your child grow is an ongoing process, but the crucial years of development start from the moment they’re born, to five years old. The relationships they form and the experiences they have during their first five years of life have a huge impact on their brain’s growth. This period is filled with sensitive milestones that are key to their cognitive development.

Do girls develop language before boys?

Starting with a reminder that gender is a social construct, this is a question that has been researched quite a bit. In the early 2000s, which appeared to confirm the idea that baby girls start speaking earlier than baby boys. More recent research challenged these findings, examining if it’s another example of nature versus nurture, and/or potentially some type of gene. But in general, just remember that all kiddos develop at their own pace — and you’re doing just fine, Mama.

Are there activities to encourage speech and language development?

Each kid is different and moves at their own pace when it comes to talking. So there is nothing wrong with needing an extra push. Here are a few exercises you can practice with your sweetheart at home.

Review the skills demonstrated by the child up to their current age. If you notice skills that have not been met below their current age contact Kid Sense Child Development on 1800 KIDSENSE (1800 543 736).

Appendix

Grammar Explanations

Regular Plurals – adds a ‘s’ to the end of words to represent more than one (e.g. 1 dog, 2 dogs)

Articles – learns to use the words ‘a’ and ‘the’ (e.g. “I would like a piece of fruit please” or “I would like the blue lolly please”)

Progressive –ing – adds –ing­ to the end of verbs (e.g. The boy is jumping)

Uses Pronouns ‘you, I, me, mine’ – e.g. “What are you doing?”; “I am happy”; Adult: “Who wants a lolly? Child: Me!; “That’s mine”

Regular Past Tense – learns to put –ed on the end of verbs to represent that something has happened earlier. This tends to be used for all verbs even if it requires an irregular past tense (e.g. “I runned” instead of “I ran”)

Possessive ‘s – learns to put an ‘s on the end of nouns (i.e. naming words) to indicate possession (e.g. “Daddy’s car”)

Auxiliary ‘is’ – learns to include the “helping verb” ‘is’ in a sentence (e.g. The girl is skipping)

Pronouns ‘he/she’ – learns that when talking about males we use the pronoun ‘he’ and when talking about females we use the pronoun ‘she’ (e.g. “He is running” or “She is drinking”)

Connector ‘and’ – learns to join two small sentences together using the word ‘and’ (e.g. “I want a banana and an apple” rather than “I want a banana. I want an apple”)

3rd Person Singular – learns to add an ‘s’ to the verb (action word) when it is followed by a 3rd person pronoun (he/she/it) – e.g. “He wants the ball”; “It eats grass”; “She reads books”

Contracted Negative – learns to combine the auxiliary verbs (e.g. is, does, have, should) with the negative ‘not’ – (e.g. isn’t, doesn’t, haven’t, shouldn’t)

Contracted Copula – learns to combine a pronoun with a copula (i.e. a verb that connects the subject of the sentence to the word after the verb) – e.g. He’s happy

Past Participle –It’s broken

Pronouns ‘his, hers, theirs’ – e.g. “It is his/hers/theirs”

Comparative –er and Superlative -est:e.g. big, bigger, biggest

Use of ‘is’ vs ‘are’ – learns to use ‘is’ and ‘are’ based on the number (i.e. ‘is’ for singular and ‘are’ for plural – e.g. “The monkey is eating a banana” vs “The monkeys are eating the bananas”)

Past Tense “to be” – e.g. “I was running” and “They were running”

Connector ‘because’ – learns to join two sentences together using the word ‘because’ – e.g. The boy was crying because he fell over and hurt his knee”

Adverb –ly – e.g. quickly, slowly, quietly

Irregular Plurals – irregular plurals are used fairly consistently by the age of 5 years (e.g. mice, children, men)

Irregular past tense – irregular past tense is used consistently (e.g. fell, broke, ate)

This chart was designed to serve as a functional screening of developmental skills per age group.  It does not constitute an assessment nor reflect strictly standardised research.

The information in this chart was compiled over many years from a variety of sources. This information was then further shaped by years of clinical practice as well as therapeutic consultation with child care, pre-school and school teachers in South Australia about the developmental skills necessary for children to meet the demands of these educational environments. In more recent years, it has been further modified by the need for children and their teachers to meet the functional Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) requirements that are not always congruent with standardised research.

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