3 months
responds vocally to partner
8 months
begins gesturing
12 months
first word spoken, words fill intentions previously signaled by gestures
18 months
begins combining words on the basis of word-order rules
2 years
begins adding bound morphemes, average length or mean length of utterance (MLU) is 1.6-2.2 morphemes
3 years
more adult-like sentence structure, MLU is 3.0-3.3 morphemes
4 years
begins to change style of talking to fit conversational partner, MLU is 3.6-4.7 morphemes
5 years
ninety percent of language is learned
6 years
beings to learn visual mode of communication with writing and reading
Adolescense
able to participate competently in conversations and telling of narratives, knows multiple meanings of words and figurative language, uses a gender style, genderlect when talking
During pre-language to maintain attention
a parent or caregiver exaggerates their facial expressions and voice and vocalizes more often
Motherese/parentese (baby talk)
higher pitch, sing-song quality, slower pace, shorter sentences, more frequent pitch changes
Pre-language gradually starts turning
vocalizing into babbling, more speech like and mature, containing syllables rather than individual sounds
During first 3 months, caregivers response to children’s vocalizations teaches the child that
there is a utilitarian function of language (crying— gets picked up)
At about 8-9 months
children develop intentionally in their interactions, primarily through gestures
During the first year, an infant learns
the sound patterns of the native language, and starts to ignore sound patterns of non-native languages
By 18 months
children can typically produce approximately 50 single words and are capable of learning associations of new words and the things to which they refer in as few as three exposures
Vocabulary rapidly grows by 18 months and children start to produce
3-4 word combinations
By age 2, a toddler has an expressive vocabulary of about
150 to 300 words
By preschool language, children’s expressive vocabularies grow to approx
300 words by age 2, 900-1500 at ages 3 and 4
Fast mapping
in which the child infers the meaning from context and then uses the word in a similar manner, is how children learn words so quickly
By preschool age, children learn and start to use
prepositions which modify statements and produce longer, more complex units of language
At age 2, many children can say
2-4 words
Children’s language development can be measured by calculating the
utterance (MLU) in morphemes
“I see cats” (MLU=4)
“I am seeing a lot of cats” (MLU=9)
