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5.7 Language and Communication Milestones

Infants and toddlers experience major transformations in their ability to communicate and express themselves through language. Figure 5.6 shows common language milestones for American children 0–3 years old. It is important to note that each child develops language skills in their own way and may not follow the progression stated below. Cultural differences also account for variance in language and communication milestones.

Figure 5.6 Language and Communication Milestones.

Typical Age

What Most Children Do at This Age

2 months
  • make sounds other than crying
  • react to loud sounds

4 months
  • make sounds like “oooo” and “aahh” (cooing)
  • make sounds back when you talk to him
  • turn their head toward the sound of your voice

6 months
  • take turns making sounds with you
  • blow “raspberries” (sticks tongue out and blows)
  • make squealing noises

9 months
  • make a lot of different sounds like “mamamama” and “bababababa”
  • lift their arms to be picked up

1 year
  • wave “bye-bye”
  • call a parent “mama,” “dada,” or another special name
  • understand “no” (pauses briefly or stops when you say it)

15 months
  • try to say one or two words besides “mama” or “dada,” such as “ba” for ball or “da” for dog
  • looks at a familiar object when you name it
  • follow directions given with both a gesture and words. For example, they give you a toy when you hold out your hand and say, “Give me the toy.”
  • point to ask for something or to get help

18 months
  • try to say three or more words besides “mama” or “dada”
  • follow one-step directions without any gestures, like giving you the toy when you say, “Give it to me.”

2 years
  • point to things in a book when you ask them to locate something, such as “Where is the bear?”
  • say at least two words together, like “More milk.”
  • point to at least two body parts when you ask him to show you
  • use more gestures than just waving and pointing, like blowing a kiss or nodding yes

30 months
  • say about 50 words
  • say two or more words together, including one action word, like “Doggie run”
  • name things in a book when you point and ask, “What is this?”
  • say words like “I,” “me,” or “we”

3 years
  • talk with you in conversation using at least two back-and-forth exchanges
  • ask “who,” “what,” “where,” or “why” questions, like “Where is mommy/daddy?”
  • say what action is happening in a picture or book when asked, like “running,” “eating,” or “playing”
  • say first name when asked
  • talk well enough for others to understand most of the time

Theories of Language Development

There are several schools of thought around how young children learn language and communication skills. Common or more traditional theoretical frameworks, such as nativism, learning theory, and social pragmatics, place varying importance on nature, or biological factors, and nurture, or social and environmental factors. We now understand that language acquisition is a combination of all of these things and that children display a range of language and communication skills in their early years. As mentioned earlier, cultural and social factors play a vital role in language development and how language is used to communicate.

The linguist Noam Chomsky is a believer in nativism, or the nature approach to language, arguing that human brains contain a language acquisition device (LAD) that includes a universal grammar that underlies all human language (Chomsky, 1965, 1972). Chomsky’s account proposes that children are born with a knowledge of general rules of syntax that determine how sentences are constructed. Language develops as long as the child is exposed to it. No teaching, training, or reinforcement is required for language to develop. Although there is general agreement that babies are genetically programmed to learn language, studies show that language rules are not universal. Evans and Levinson (2009) surveyed the world’s languages and found some that did not have noun or verb phrases, some that did not have tenses (e.g., past, present, future), and some that did not have nouns or verbs at all.

Learning theory proposes that language development occurs through the principles of association and reinforcement (Skinner, 1953) and observation and imitation (Bandura 1977). Children learn the language that they hear spoken around them, and they modify their language through imitation and reinforcement, such as parental praise. However, language cannot be entirely learned by reinforcement. First, children learn words too quickly. Between the ages of 18 months and 5 years, children learn up to 10 new words every day (Anglin, 1993). Secondly, language is not finite. One can create an infinite number of statements, thoughts, and ideas, including those that have never previously occurred. When a child says that they “swimmed” in the pool, for instance, they are showing generativity. No adult speaker of English would ever say “swimmed,” yet it is easily generated from the normal system of producing language.

Social pragmatics emphasizes the social nature of language. Language is a tool humans use to communicate, influence, and inform. Most of all, language comes out of a need to cooperate. The social nature of language has been demonstrated by a number of studies that have shown that children use several pre-linguistic skills (such as pointing and other gestures) to communicate not only their own needs, but also what others may need. Grosse et al. (2010) found that young children would make linguistic repairs to get their point across when communicating. This would suggest that children are using language not only as a means of achieving some material goal, such as getting a desired object, but also as a way to make themselves understood in the mind of another person.

Licenses and Attributions for Language and Communication Milestones

“Language and Communication Milestones” by Christina Belli is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“Theories of Language Development” by Christina Belli, adapted from Lifespan Development – A Psychological Perspective by Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French is licensed under CC BY 4.0; heavy edits, original introductory paragraph.

Figure 5.6. Developmental Milestones 2022 by the CDC is in the public domain.

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Understanding Human Development: Prenatal Through Adolescence Copyright © by Terese Jones; Christina Belli; and Esmeralda Janeth Julyan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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