How Children Learn to Talk: Early Years Guide

As parents and caregivers, it’s essential to understand the typical milestones of speech and language development in children. This guide outlines what to expect at different ages and how to identify potential delays.

Speech production skills help children speak clearly, while expressive language skills involve knowing and using words to form sentences. By considering chronological and linguistic ages, we can better understand a child’s development and provide appropriate support. For more on how these skills differ in children with autism, read about our NYC speech therapy for autism.

12 Months

• Chronological Age: 12 months
• Typical Expressive Language Skills: At this age, children usually have a small vocabulary, around 2-6 words, and can communicate using simple sounds and gestures.
• Typical Speech Production Skills: They can produce sounds like “b,” “d,” “m,” and “h” at the beginning of words and might use single syllables or repeated syllables like “mama.”

Example: If a 12-month-old child has a linguistic age of 9 months, they might not be using any words yet and could primarily communicate using sounds and gestures. This means their speech production skills will also be behind, and they might not produce as many sounds as a typical 12-month-old.

18 Months

• Chronological Age: 18 months
• Typical Expressive Language Skills: Children usually have about 50 words and start combining two words to form simple sentences like “want cookie.”
• Typical Speech Production Skills: They can produce more sounds, including “b,” “d,” “m,” “n,” “h,” “w” at the beginning of words, and sounds like “t” and “s” at the end of words.

Example: If an 18-month-old child has a linguistic age of 15 months, they might only have around 10-15 words and may not combine words yet. Their speech production skills will be more similar to those of a 15-month-old, with fewer and simpler sounds.

24 Months

• Chronological Age: 24 months
• Typical Expressive Language Skills: Children usually have a vocabulary of 200-300 words and can form simple sentences. They start using pronouns like “I” and “it” and might begin using the “-ing” ending in words.
• Typical Speech Production Skills: They can produce many sounds, including “b,” “d,” “p,” “t,” “k,” “m,” “n,” “h,” “s,” “w” at the beginning of words, and sounds like “t,” “k,” “n,” “s” at the end of words.

Example: If a 24-month-old child has a linguistic age of 20 months, they might only have a vocabulary of around 100 words and may still be using single words or very short phrases. Their speech production skills will also be delayed, resembling those of a younger child, with less variety in the sounds they can produce and possibly more simplification of words.

Adjusting Expectations Based on Linguistic Age

It’s important to adjust expectations for speech production skills based on the child’s linguistic age rather than just their chronological age. This helps provide a more accurate understanding of their development and identify areas where they might need additional support.

Birth to 24 Months Milestones Guide

Speech Intelligibility and Speech Articulation

Speech Intelligibility: How well other people can understand what a child is saying. At 19-24 months, people who don’t know the child well can understand about 25% to 50% of what the child says. The child uses a mix of sounds, syllables, and real words that sound like speech.

Speech Articulation: How clearly a child can say different sounds and words.

Oral Mechanism: Refers to the development and function of parts inside the mouth, like teeth coming in. Baby teeth continue to come in.

Acquired Sounds: A child can say specific speech sounds at a certain age. Girls at 2 years old can say sounds like /m, n, h, g/. Boys at 2 years old can say sounds like /m, n/. By 1.5 years old, children can correctly say about 82% of vowel sounds.

Phonetic Inventory (Sounds Children Can Make): The collection of sounds a child can produce when they speak. At 1 year old, initial sounds: /b, d, g, m, h/; final sounds: /m, h/. At 1.5 years old, initial sounds: /b, d, m, n, h, w/; final sounds: /t, h, s/. At 2 years old, initial sounds: /b, d, p, t, k, m, n, h, s, w/; final sounds: /t, k, n, s/.

Phonological Processes (Common Patterns in Child Speech): Common ways young children simplify speech, like leaving off the ends of words or mixing up sounds. Present: Dropping final consonants, simplifying clusters, changing sounds from the back to the front, stopping airflow sounds, and changing liquids to glides. Declining: Repeating syllables and making all consonants similar.

Prosody: The rhythm and melody of speech, like how our voice goes up and down when we talk. Early development of speech intonation patterns. Rising and falling tones develop by 1.5 years old.

Metalinguistic Skills: A child’s ability to think about and notice their speech, like correcting themselves when they make a mistake. Between 1.5 and 2 years old, children start to notice their own speech and correct themselves. They also adjust how they speak to different listeners, and practice sounds and sentences.

Language (Expressive and Receptive)

Pronouns (12-26 months): Children may start using “I” and “it” as both subject and object pronouns.

Morphology (19-28 months): How a child starts to use word endings, like adding “-ing” to “run” to make “running.” Children begin using the “-ing” ending in words (e.g., running).

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) (12-26 months): The average number of words a child uses in their sentences. The average number of words in a sentence ranges from 1.0 to 2.0.

Concepts (1-2 years): Children follow simple directions and understand basic prepositions (e.g., on, in).

Vocabulary Development (1-2 years):

• 12 months: 2 to 6 words.
• 15 months: About 10 words.
• 18 months: About 50 words.
• 24 months: Between 200 to 300 words.
• 30 months: About 450 words.

Answering Questions (1-2 years): Children respond to simple questions and can identify objects.

Asking Questions (1-2 years): They start to ask questions using rising intonation.

Listening Skills (1-2 years): Children follow directions, recognize pictures in books, and understand basic commands.

Protowords: Made-up words that a child uses consistently to mean something specific. Children often consistently use made-up words, known as “protowords.”

Brown’s Stage 1 (1-2.2 years): An early stage of language development in which children use one-word sentences to express simple ideas like “want cookie.”

Communication (Non-verbal) – (1-2 years)

• Points to make requests, comment, or get information.
• Shakes head for “no” and nods head for “yes.”
• Uses gestures when excited or being silly.

Literacy (1-2 years)

• Children recognize books by their covers.
• Listen to stories, songs, and rhymes.
• Begin to engage in pretend reading.

References, Websites, & Resources

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