Is Your Child's Language on Track?
by Jennifer Carson
5/15/2012
Way back in the day, when I was an undergraduate in the Communication Disorders program, I was required to take a language development class before doing any course work related to language disorders or delays. The theory being that one needed to fully know and understand the normal development of language throughout infancy and childhood before being able to recognize when that development had gotten off track. And since I attended a liberal arts university, I was able to take several extra child development and developmental psychology classes. But even with all of those classes and training and being a professional speech and language pathologist, when it came to my own son’s language development, I still needed outside professional advice. What I’m trying to say is, Don’t beat yourself up if you are having doubts or concerns about your own child’s development. I think that as parents, we sometimes don’t really notice changes or even the lack of changes because we see our children every day. That’s why the grandparents visit and exclaim, “oh, look how tall you’ve gotten!” --they haven’t seen your child in 2 months, so the change is really remarkable to them. So the lack of changes can also sometimes be overlooked by parents.
When my son was 22 months old, he only had a verbal (or expressive) vocabulary of about 5 words: mom, dad, dog, more and ah-oh. Granted, we had taught him some sign language, so he knew lots of signs like “all done” and “shoes” which really helped his frustration level and his understanding (receptive language) was terrific; he could follow directions and could point to items we named all day long. One day, I was visiting with a friend who is also an SLP. She politely inquired if I was getting at all worried about my son’s speech and language. Despite her delicately and diplomatically phrased question, I knew that what she really meant was “I think there’s a problem and you better do something now.” Up until that point, although it had of course crossed my mind numerous times, I had let it slide to the back burner, usually thinking of one of these excuses: he’s the youngest; his sisters talk for him; he’s a boy (boy’s are slower at language development); and the “Scarlett O’Hara” I’ll think about it tomorrow, right now, what’s for supper? I called the very next day to set up an appointment for an evaluation at the local university Speech and Hearing Clinic.
Here are some of the language developmental milestones that you should look for in your child’s development.
12 months
Responds to their name.
Responds when you say "no"
Uses gestures such as pointing and showing.
May speak one or more words although they may not be clear.
Follow simple requests with gestures ("Come here").
15 months
Mostly uses gestures and sounds.
Babbles strings of sounds together that almost sounds like real words.
Has a 4-6 word vocabulary
18 months
Has a vocabulary of 10-20 words.
Begins to use two words together
Points to some body parts when asked.
Follows simple commands ("Give me the ball").
2 years
Has a vocabulary between 150-300 words.
Uses words more than gestures to communicate
Uses short 2 word phrases
Points to objects or pictures in a book when named
Learns a few new words each week.
Understands simple questions
Uses pronouns: me and it.
3 years
1,000 word vocabulary
answers yes/no questions
Uses simple 2 to 3 word sentences
Uses some regular plurals
Uses some pronouns
Uses the prepositions in, on, and under.
Uses -ing and -ed endings, although not always correctly
answer some simple yes/no and "what" and "where" questions.
Follows simple two-step commands
4 years
Asks lots of questions.
Uses 4 to 5 word sentences.
Most regular verbs, pronouns and plurals are used correctly.
Can retell short stories and recent past events with a beginning, middle and end.
If these milestones raise a flag of concern, ask your spouse or a trusted friend if they agree with your concerns. If they do, don’t hesitate to get some professional guidance regarding your child’s language development. Waiting to see if they “grow out of it” could result in a less positive outcome, while on the other hand, there really isn’t a downside to getting some extra help through language therapy.
Other helpful resources to check out:
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart.htm
Tips for Talking Fact Sheets for ages birth to 4
http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/Parent/Directory/Free%20Resources%20for%20Parents.aspx
Jennifer is a licensed speech-language pathologist and a home schooling mom of three. Two of her children had Childhood Apraxia of Speech.