Language development is an important part of child development. Show
It supports your child’s ability to communicate. It also supports your child’s ability to:
Learning to understand, use and enjoy language is the first step in literacy, and the basis for learning to read and write. In their first few years, children develop many of the oral language skills that help them to learn to read when they go to school. And they keep developing language skills throughout childhood and adolescence. How to encourage early language development in childrenThe best way to encourage your child’s language development is to do a lot of talking together about things that interest your child. It’s all about following your child’s lead as they show you what they’re interested in by waving, babbling or using words. Talking with your child When you finish talking, pause and give your child a turn to respond. As your child starts coo, gurgle, wave and point, you can respond to your child’s attempts to communicate. For example, if your baby coos and gurgles, you can coo back to them. Or if your toddler points to a toy, respond as if your child is saying, ‘Can I have that?’ For example, you could say ‘Do you want the block?’ When your child starts using words, you can repeat and build on what your child says. For example, if your child says, ‘Apple,’ you can say, ‘You want a red apple?’ And it’s the same when your child starts making sentences. You can respond and encourage your child to expand their sentences. For example, your toddler might say ‘I go shop’. You might respond, ‘And what did you do at the shop?’ When you pay attention and respond to your child in these ways, it encourages them to keep communicating and developing their language skills. Reading with your child Linking what’s in the book to what’s happening in your child’s life is a good way to get your child talking. For example, you could say, ‘We went to the playground today, just like the boy in this book. What do you like to do at the playground?’ You can also encourage talking by chatting about interesting pictures in the books you read with your child. When you read aloud with your child, you can point to words as you say them. This shows your child the link between spoken and written words, and helps your child learn that words are distinct parts of language. These are important concepts for developing literacy. Your local library or mobile library is a great source of books. If your family speaks two languages, you can encourage your child’s language development in both languages – for example, English and Spanish. Bilingual children often have language skills similar to their peers by the time they’re in primary school. Language development: the first eight yearsHere are just a few of the important things your child might achieve in language development between three months and eight years. 3-12 months At around 4-6 months, your baby will probably start babbling. Baby will make single-syllable sounds like ‘ba’ first, before repeating them – ‘ba ba ba’. Babbling is followed by the ‘jargon phase’ where your child might sound like they’re telling you something, but their ‘speech’ won’t sound like recognisable words. First words with meaning often start at around 12 months or so. If your baby isn’t babbling and isn’t using gestures by 12 months, talk to your GP or child and family health nurse. Find out more about language development from 3-12 months. 12-18 months 18 months to 2 years If your child doesn’t have some words by around 18 months, talk to your GP or child and family health nurse or another health professional. Find out more about language development from 1-2 years. 2-3 years Find out more about language development from 2-3 years. 3-5 years Your child will probably also want to talk about a wide range of topics, and their vocabulary will keep growing. Your child might show understanding of basic grammar and start using sentences with words like ‘because’, ‘if’, ‘so’ or ‘when’. And you can look forward to some entertaining stories too. Find out more about language development from 3-4 years and language development from 4-5 years. 5-8 years Find out more about language development from 5-8 years. When to get help for language developmentYou know your child best. If you have any concerns about your child’s language development, ask your child and family health nurse, GP or paediatrician. They might refer you to a speech pathologist.
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The first 3 years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing, is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others. There appear to be critical periods for speech and language development in infants and young children when the brain is best able to absorb language. If these critical periods are allowed to pass without exposure to language, it will be more difficult to learn. What are the milestones for speech and language development?The first signs of communication occur when an infant learns that a cry will bring food, comfort, and companionship. Newborns also begin to recognize important sounds in their environment, such as the voice of their mother or primary caretaker. As they grow, babies begin to sort out the speech sounds that compose the words of their language. By 6 months of age, most babies recognize the basic sounds of their native language. Children vary in their development of speech and language skills. However, they follow a natural progression or timetable for mastering the skills of language. A checklist of milestones for the normal development of speech and language skills in children from birth to 5 years of age is included below. These milestones help doctors and other health professionals determine if a child is on track or if he or she may need extra help. Sometimes a delay may be caused by hearing loss, while other times it may be due to a speech or language disorder. What is the difference between a speech disorder and a language disorder?Children who have trouble understanding what others say (receptive language) or difficulty sharing their thoughts (expressive language) may have a language disorder. Specific language impairment (SLI) is a language disorder that delays the mastery of language skills. Some children with SLI may not begin to talk until their third or fourth year. Children who have trouble producing speech sounds correctly or who hesitate or stutter when talking may have a speech disorder. Apraxia of speech is a speech disorder that makes it difficult to put sounds and syllables together in the correct order to form words. What should I do if my child’s speech or language appears to be delayed?Talk to your child’s doctor if you have any concerns. Your doctor may refer you to a speech-language pathologist, who is a health professional trained to evaluate and treat people with speech or language disorders. The speech-language pathologist will talk to you about your child’s communication and general development. He or she will also use special spoken tests to evaluate your child. A hearing test is often included in the evaluation because a hearing problem can affect speech and language development. Depending on the result of the evaluation, the speech-language pathologist may suggest activities you can do at home to stimulate your child’s development. They might also recommend group or individual therapy or suggest further evaluation by an audiologist (a health care professional trained to identify and measure hearing loss), or a developmental psychologist (a health care professional with special expertise in the psychological development of infants and children). What research is being conducted on developmental speech and language problems?The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) sponsors a broad range of research to better understand the development of speech and language disorders, improve diagnostic capabilities, and fine-tune more effective treatments. An ongoing area of study is the search for better ways to diagnose and differentiate among the various types of speech delay. A large study following approximately 4,000 children is gathering data as the children grow to establish reliable signs and symptoms for specific speech disorders, which can then be used to develop accurate diagnostic tests. Additional genetic studies are looking for matches between different genetic variations and specific speech deficits. Researchers sponsored by the NIDCD have discovered one genetic variant, in particular, that is linked to specific language impairment (SLI), a disorder that delays children’s use of words and slows their mastery of language skills throughout their school years. The finding is the first to tie the presence of a distinct genetic mutation to any kind of inherited language impairment. Further research is exploring the role this genetic variant may also play in dyslexia, autism, and speech-sound disorders. A long-term study looking at how deafness impacts the brain is exploring how the brain “rewires” itself to accommodate deafness. So far, the research has shown that adults who are deaf react faster and more accurately than hearing adults when they observe objects in motion. This ongoing research continues to explore the concept of “brain plasticity”—the ways in which the brain is influenced by health conditions or life experiences—and how it can be used to develop learning strategies that encourage healthy language and speech development in early childhood. A recent workshop convened by the NIDCD drew together a group of experts to explore issues related to a subgroup of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not have functional verbal language by the age of 5. Because these children are so different from one another, with no set of defining characteristics or patterns of cognitive strengths or weaknesses, development of standard assessment tests or effective treatments has been difficult. The workshop featured a series of presentations to familiarize participants with the challenges facing these children and helped them to identify a number of research gaps and opportunities that could be addressed in future research studies.
Voice, speech, and language are the tools we use to communicate with each other. Voice is the sound we make as air from our lungs is pushed between vocal folds in our larynx, causing them to vibrate. Speech is talking, which is one way to express language. It involves the precisely coordinated muscle actions of the tongue, lips, jaw, and vocal tract to produce the recognizable sounds that make up language. Language is a set of shared rules that allow people to express their ideas in a meaningful way. Language may be expressed verbally or by writing, signing, or making other gestures, such as eye blinking or mouth movements. Your baby’s hearing and communicative development checklist
This checklist is based upon How Does Your Child Hear and Talk?, courtesy of the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association. Where can I find additional information about speech and language developmental milestones?The NIDCD maintains a directory of organizations that provide information on the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language. Use the following keywords to help you find organizations that can answer questions and provide information on speech and language development: For more information, contact us at: NIDCD Information Clearinghouse 1 Communication Avenue Bethesda, MD 20892-3456 Toll-free voice: (800) 241-1044 Toll-free TTY: (800) 241-1055 Email: NIH Publication No. 13-4781 *Note: PDF files require a viewer such as the free Adobe Reader.
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What are the milestones in language development and when is the critical period for acquiring language?
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