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| Language Development |
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| It is understandable for parents to be interested in or to worry about their children's development in many areas. Language development is one area that is commonly asked about. Here is a table of developmental stages with descriptions of the typical achievement at each age. I should stress that these descriptions are averages and that any individual case is bound to vary from the average. In particular, it is not uncommon for children to be significantly behind these averages without there being a problem.
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| Age
| Description
| Vocabulary
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| 3 months
| Makes eye contact. Smiles. Quietens or turns head when spoken directly to or on hearing a parent's voice. Vocalises (coos) when happy.
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| 6 months
| Vocalisation with recognisable phonemes (typically 'p', 'b' and 'm') and intonation. Vocalises excitement and displeasure. Responds appropriately to angry and friendly voices. Interested in music and toys that make noises. Responds to voices with no visual cues.
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| 9 months
| Vocalisation with long and short groups of repeated speech sounds ('mamamama', 'baba'). Vocalises to get and keep attention. Enjoys social games such as 'peek-a-boo'. Turns to look at the source of noises. Listens when spoken to.
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| 12 months
| Has one or a small number of words with meaning (pronunciation might be incorrect). Beginning to use inflection. Is aware if the social value of speech. Recognises the words for common objects. Responds appropriately to some simple requests and instructions.
| 1 word
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| 18 months
| Vocabulary of 5-50 words — mostly nouns. Sometimes repeats words, possibly over and over. Vocalisations often have emotional content. Follows simple commands.
| 20 words
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| 2 years
| Vocabulary typically in the range 150 to 500 words. Can name many common objects. Uses at least two prepositions (usually from 'in', 'on' and 'under'). Uses two pronouns ('I', 'me', 'you' etc.) correctly — although often confuses 'I' and 'me'. Posessive forms ('my', 'mine') emerging. Uses short sentences of 2 or 3 words (often verb-noun combinations). Average sentence length is 1.2 words. Asks short questions with question intonation. Voice control is typically poor in terms of rhythm, fluency, pitch and volume. Some unintelligibility. Follows commands and responds correctly to simple questions. Listens to stories, rhymes and songs.
| 250 words
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| 3 years
| Vocabulary around 1,000 words. Seems to have a word for everything. Uses at least three prepositions. Uses pronouns 'I', 'you', 'me' correctly. Often uses correct word endings for plurals, tenses, posessives. Has a good grasp of opposites. Speech is intelligible almost all the time. Sentence length increasing with 3 word sentences handled with ease. Verbs in sentences predominate. Uses 'and' to link ideas within a sentence. Can relate events as a simple narrative. Asks questions with questioning words ('what', 'where', 'why') and has a period of intense questioning ("Why... why... why?"). Should be able to give correct name, age and gender. Can follow complex or compound requests and commands. Can understand most questions, although will not always respond. Can understand hypothetical questions: 'What should you do if...'. Responds when called from another room.
| 1,000 words
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| 4 years
| Vocabulary up to 5,000 words. Uses at least 4 prepositions. Knows colours. Can repeat four digits given slowly. Can repeat unfamiliar words up to four syllables when given slowly. Easily uses sentences of 4 or more words. Talks fluently without repeating words or syllables. Little words ('to', 'the', 'and') are regularly used. Uses 'cos', 'when', 'after', etc., to link clauses. Correctly pronounces most vowels and diphthongs and consonants 'p', 'b', 'm', 'w' and 'n'. Intelligible to everyone. Talks easily about events as a narrative and commontates on current activities. Tells stories, either related or invented, and role plays. Understands 'under' and 'over' and comparatives such as 'longer' and 'larger'.
| 5,000 words
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| 5 years
| Voice is clear and fully intelligible. Pronounces most sounds correctly with only a few exceptions: 'l', 's', 'r', 'v', 'z', 'ch', 'sh' and 'th' are typical. Uses complex, compound sentences with correct grammar and lots of details, using adjectives and adverbs at will. Can count to ten or more and has number concepts up to at least four. Tells coherent stories. Can define objects in terms of their use. Hears and understands almost everything. Can pay attention to stories and answer questions on them. Has time concepts such as 'yesterday', 'today', 'tomorrow', 'night', 'day', 'morning', 'afternoon', 'now', 'later'. Can listen to and repeat sentences up to nine words long.
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