Talking toddler

So often we talk about children ‘blossoming’ as they develop new skills, so, from a bud to a bloom, how does their language grow? Speech pathologist Michelle Hermon describes how children acquire their mother language.

Your Child’s Speech

Communication is a powerful skill that begins even before a baby’s first words are uttered. Babies learn about the people and things around them by watching, listening, feeling and playing with them. They watch arm and hand movements and facial expressions that others use while communicating to them and going about their daily routines.

The language of understanding, and the language of expressing a need, want or impression of the world around them, develops gradually. Each child’s speech and language development will occur at a slightly different pace compared to any other child, or even between siblings.

Ages and Stages

In the first 12 months

Expression - Infants must be able to vocalise in order to develop speech. Infants progress from using random vocal sounds rather unintentionally, to using sounds for a purpose. Babbling is important to the development of words and language.

You may notice your child:

• cooing and babbling - producing strings of connected sounds, eg ‘baba’ and ‘dada’
• sound as though they are having little conversations with themselves
• making sounds or movements in response to face-to-face interactions

As a child grows they understand meanings of words before using them correctly.

By 12 months your child may have a few real words, most likely relating to familiar people (‘mum’, ‘dad’), objects or routines (‘boo’, ‘up’).

By 18 months, your child should have more single words and perhaps even joining two words together (‘my bikky’).

Expression by non-verbal means also develops through eye contact, gestures or movements of the arms, legs and head (pointing, giving, showing, waving bye-bye, clapping hands, blowing a kiss, shaking head for ‘no’). Vocalising and gesturing often occur together. Children of this age will also play simple games such as ‘peek-a-boo’ and banging objects on the table or floor.

Comprehension – A child is developing their listening skills and should respond to everyday sounds such as keys rattling, a phone ringing or a doorbell by searching for the source of the noise.  By the end of their first year a child should understand the word ‘no’, recognise their own name and the names of familiar people, and recognise specific words for pets, social routines or objects.

By age 2 years

Expression – by the end of the second year a child’s vocabulary has grown to between 50 and 200 words, with words such as ‘milk’, ‘no’, ‘gone’; and they will begin to join two and perhaps three words together to form sentences such as ‘teddy gone’, ‘no more bikkie’. Facial expressions (smiling and frowning) and specific arm and hand movements (waving, pointing, pushing or pulling) still accompany speech, but overall, speech is used more than gestures. Children will begin to copy words they hear from an adult – so be very careful when you’re driving the car!

Comprehension – Children are able to understand simple questions, ‘where is the ball?’, instructions such as ‘give me the ball’ and can recognise body parts on themselves, others or toys. They learn about concepts relating themselves to space, such as ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘off’, and are able to follow two-step instructions -‘go to your room and get your shoes’.

By age 3 years

Expression – a veritable explosion in vocabulary occurs in this third year. A child’s vocabulary grows to roughly 900 words. Language use is a little more social, rather than simply fulfilling one’s immediate needs and wants and a child becomes interested in talking about current or recent events. Language is d a lot during play.

Children begin to ask ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions and use more describing words such as ‘big’, ‘little’, ‘wet’.  Sentence length also grows to three-four word combinations and they begin to use simple grammar - ‘Mummy walk’ becomes ‘Mummy walking’ or ‘Daddy car’ becomes ‘Daddy’s car’. They particularly understand pronouns (‘your’, she’, ‘he’, ‘yours’, ‘we’) with ‘mine’ being the favourite!

The development of grammar is a lengthy process and many children will not demonstrate consistent use of all grammatical markers until they reach school age. By three years of age, a child’s speech should be clear enough for most people to understand.

Comprehension – Children begin to understand the use of objects (‘a spoon is for eating’, a cup is for drinking’) and when looking at pictures or books, can recognise actions (running, jumping). They can follow directions with three parts and concepts such as ‘big’, ‘little’, ‘in’ and ‘on’ (‘go to your room and get your big teddy’) and answer ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions. 

By age 4 years

Expression – by now a child is using sentences four and five words in length and the grammar is mostly correct. Words are now used that describe number (one, some) and possession (his shoe, the girl’s cat). Questions can be answered logically and the child is able to talk about feelings, attitudes and ‘what-if’ situations.

At this age, children are continually learning about how language can be used differently with different groups of people and about the social rules that accompany language use (eg using eye contact, interrupting, turn taking, being rude). Children are also developing their skills in maintaining attention to a task and listening carefully to follow instructions.

Comprehension – Children begin to understand concepts of quantity (some, all, the rest, two, more, most) and colour. They are able to think about how objects/pictures can be grouped.

By age 5 years

Expression – children who are readying themselves for school entry should be able to carry out meaningful conversations. They will be asking lots of questions and answering questions that require thought and reason. Children of this age will be able to repeat sentences, talk about past and future events using appropriate grammar and use descriptive language.  Sentences may be joined by the words ‘and’, ‘when’ or ‘because’. 

By the age of 5 the child has progressed through the journey of discovering the rules that govern word order and grammar. The next stage is learning how language can be used for self-expression, successful social interaction and as a tool to learn new skills and also help others to learn.

Comprehension – children are still learning about concepts of quality (tall, short, shape), time (night, day), space (under, in front of, behind, next to), and sequence (next, after). They can understand quite complex sentences.

They are also in a phase of early literacy development. These are the skills of recognising and manipulating sounds and syllables that compose words.  It  include such things as rhyming, segmenting words, recognising sounds within words, and words within words.

Oral language development relates to the ability to read aloud and relies on a well-developed knowledge of the grammatical rules of language and a well-developed spoken vocabulary. Well-developed spoken language skills are an important precursor to the ability to read, spell and write.

Encouraging Speech

• Acknowledge your child’s attempts to communicate. The more a child s speech, the clearer the words will become. The more excited you get about their speech attempts, the more likely they are to try it again.
• In play and in everyday situations, comment about what is happening and what you are doing, eg ‘let’s put your red jumper on’.
• Encourage speech. Hold up two objects and encourage your child to name what they want. If your child only points, say ‘You want the car? Say car’. If your child says the name of the object straight away, give him the object and praise him.
• Encourage good listening skills.  Make a point of talking about everyday sounds that you hear and try to identify the source of the sound.  For example, if you hear an aeroplane, say ‘I can hear an aeroplane. Look, it’s up in the sky!’
• Let your child pick the topic of conversation and follow their lead. This will reinforce for your child the power of initiating conversation and develop their confidence in using language.
• Use shorter sentences than you would when talking to an adult. When you make your language simpler, it is easier for you child to understand it and copy it.
• Expand on your child’s language; if he/she uses a single word, you repeat that word and add more, eg your child says ‘dog’, you say, ‘big dog’.
• Read books to your child and take turns to talk about the pictures, or allow your child to finish your sentences. Reading books helps to develop listening skills, vocabulary, and story telling skills. If you want to ask questions, try to limit them to ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’, and ‘why’ questions that your child cannot simply answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.
• Provide models of the appropriate level of language and grammar that you might expect from your child. Children develop language by copying others around them, whether they are adults or peers. Copying allows a child to learn conversation skills as well.
• Correct production of sounds

Children learn particular sounds by a certain age and as a general rule, by age 8, a child should be competent in the production of all English speech sounds.

Children should have mastered these sounds 75% of the time:

By age 3: h, Zhu (as in measure), y, w, ng, m, n, p, t, b, g, d
By age 3 ½: f,k
By age 4: l, sh, ch
By age 4 ½: j (as in jump), s, z
By age 5: r
By age 6: v
By age 8: th (as in this)
By 8 ½: th (as in thing)

[Source; Kilminster and Laird (1983)]

Naturally, children will take time to learn to use these sounds accurately, but their speech should become clearer as they get older. By three years of age, your child’s speech should be understandable to adults most of the time. If your child has not developed the sounds listed above beyond the ages indicated, they may need help to do so. 

Seeking Help

Getting advice about your child’s speech and language development early is far more preferable than allowing your child to continue on to school without strong communication skills. If you have your child assessed and there are no problems, then no harm has been done! 

Deciding to let your child ‘grow out of it’ may not be possible without therapy. Early problems with speech and language left untreated affect later learning, social interaction and crucially, confidence in communication.

It is never too early to seek advice about your child’s development of communication, eating and drinking skills. A speech pathologist will be able to tell you if what your child is doing is normal or whether your child needs help to develop through the stages.

They will also let you know if there are other professionals that could help your child, for example, an audiologist (to assess hearing) or a paediatrician (to assess your child’s overall development) or a dietitian (to discuss eating behaviours and nutrition). The earlier a problem is recognised and assessed, the more likely the problem will be resolved quickly.

Your first visit(s) to a speech pathologist will involve a thorough assessment of your child’s overall communication abilities, generally via formal standardised testing and observation.

Questions relating to health, hearing, behaviour, speech and language development, overall development of other skills (motor skills, eating and drinking skills, social skills, and development of routines such as bed time and toilet training) and family history of speech and language problems will also be asked.

Before the first appointment, consider creating a speech diary noting:

• sounds, words and sentences that your child currently uses
• the situations in which they are used
• non-verbal communication (pointing, taking you to an object or vice versa).
• words, sentences, and sounds (vocal, or environmental eg telephone ringing, keys rattling) that your child understands or responds to.

It is important to write down exactly how your child says (or indicates) something, then, if necessary, write the ‘real’ word or interpretation next to it. This will provide the speech pathologist with valuable information about the stage of development your child is at or the types of difficulties your child is having.

Said "ca"

Context  "saw a cat"

Meaning "cat"

If the speech pathologist thinks your child needs help, the therapy will consider the communicative strengths of your child, as well as their communicative needs. Family support is essential in carrying through any recommendations and so should be involved in the treatment planning process.

See a Speech Pathologist if your child:

• is not using real words by 18 months
• stutters
• is not making sentences by 2 ½ years
• is frustrated by not being able to understand or make themself understood.
• has an unusually husky voice that never seems to get better.
• can’t be understood by you at 3 years.
• mispronounces any speech sounds beyond 7 years of age.
• tends to use grunts or noises and pointing rather than words at 2 years.
• has difficulty with eating and drinking (eg trouble with biting, chewing, swallowing; coughing after eating).
• does not appear interested in shared attention toward an object or person.
• does not appear to be ‘interested’ in or have a desire to communicate.
• appears to have difficulty holding attention in class and/or following instructions.
• their grammar appears immature for their age.
• still has difficulties with early reading and spelling skills at the end of Year 1

by Michelle Hermon

Where to go for help:

To access your local Speech Pathologist, speak with your Maternal and Child Health Nurse, your local family doctor, or contact Speech Pathology Australia (03) 9642 4899.

More detailed information can be accessed at the following addresses:

Royal Children’s Hospital Speech Pathology Department, Melbourne, Australia

Speech Pathology Australia

Speech-language-therapy.com   (Detailed information regarding speech and language development)

This article was published in Australian Family Magazine, March 2003. Updated July 2009.