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Track your child's emerging language skills.
Babies are born programmed to learn language, and are actually quite adept
at it. Their built-in language ability follows a universal timetable,
one that transcends ethnicity and socioeconomic class. Here's an overview
of what to listen for and when in your child's language development.
2 months: Cooing; making long vowel sounds like "oo," "aa,"
and "ee"
6 months: Babbling using consonants
7 1/2 months: Recognizing familiar words or names
10 months: Pointing, grunting, and gazing to get her demands met; using
her own invented words
12 months: Saying his first real words, such as Mama and Dada, a sibling's
name, body parts, animal names, or noises like "woof, woof"
14 months: Identifying objects; following simple one-step commands like
"Get the ball."
18 months: Saying 50 words; using verbs; asking "What's that?"
to get name recognition
24 months: Speaking in two-word sentences, such as "Drink milk"
or "Play ball"; using the words "no" and "mine"
frequently 2 to 5 Years
2 1/2 years: Conveying whole thoughts by employing just a few words, like
saying "Mommy no socks" for "Mommy isn't wearing any socks
today."
3 years: Speaking in longer sentences; putting several thoughts together
to tell a story; using about 300 words; following a story line and remembering
ideas from it; enjoying nonsense phrases
4 years: Having extensive conversations with adults; using adjectives
in detailed sentences; telling knock-knock jokes; asking questions with
proper intonation
5 years: Using expressive vocabulary of 2,500 words; understanding 14,000
words; expressing complicated thoughts like fears and dreams; saying "thank
you"; using words to elicit reactions from others
Sources: Johns Hopkins University; J. Lane Tanner, MD, FAAP; Kathy Hirsh-Pasek,
PhD; John Bonvillian, PhD
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