Language Development: Typical Guidelines

Through my years as a speech/language pathologist and mom, I've been asked the same question many times: "Is my child's language development on track for his age?"  Needleless to say, there is a wide range of "normal" in any area of development - even, and maybe especially in language development.  That is why in this post I'm going to just highlight some typical guidelines for you.

By 1 year:

Typically by the time a baby is one year old they are understanding many words in their environment (about 50 words) and they are just beginning to verbalize their first word. Their ability to communicate, however, encompasses more than just their ability to say words, but also involves grunting, pointing, gesturing (like shaking their head "no") and of course crying.

By 15 months:

By 15 months your chid should be understanding about 100 words and should have about 10-15 words that he says with meaning. This is different than babbling or jargon that he uses when "talking" to his toys. Words that have meaning are words that he uses again and again for the same thing - or he can even use the same "word" for several meanings. Whe he says "ba" you absolutely know that he is referring to his bottle or a ball or even his favorite stuffed animal. At 15 months, your chid should also be imitating a whole bunch - both gestures like waving bye-bye and peek-a-boo and also he should be trying to imitate simple words and mouth movements.

By 18 months:

By 18 months children typically have an understanding of 150-200 words in their environment. They are comprehending many commom nouns, some simple verbs, some simple action words, and some pronouns like me and mine. They should now have an expressive vocabulary of about 50 words. It is extremely typical for these words to not be pronounced clearly and adults in their environment may still need to "translate" for them.

By 2 years:

At two,  your child should be understading just about everything!  Typical expressive vocabulary at this age is about 150-200 words and your child should be beginning to combine two and three words together (e.g., "daddy go bye-bye)" "more milk"). 

I really hope this helps give you a better understanding of typical language development and when an evaluation may be necessary. If your child is two and not yet saying any words, please seek an evaluation for your child because the earlier intervention begins, the quicker your child will be able to catch up with his peers. An evaluation at this age does not have to cost you anything. Every state has a Child Find program that offers state funded assessments from birth to 5 years old. I will give you information about the evaluation process in an upcoming post.

   

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