Talking

Hello new parents... today we are going to discuss infants learning to talk. You will learn some statistics about when and what children will say as well as learn that not every child will do these things at the same time. 

The Universal Sequence

There is a sequence that all babies/children go through when learning how to talk. Whether your child is in the most advanced 10 percent of 2-year-olds who speak more than 550 words or in the least advanced 10 percent of 2-year-olds who speak fewer than 100 words, they will still always follow a sequence. 

Infants begin learning language before birth. Newborns look closely at facial expressions and prefer to hear speech over other sounds, a preference that is evident by 4 months (Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2011). By the time an infant is 6 months old, they can distinguish whether that person is speaking their native language or not. Careful analysis has found that adult communication with babies is distinct from communication with other adults (Falk, 2004). Adults tend to use child-directed speech, better known as "baby-talk," when speaking to babies. At around 7 months, infants begin to recognize words that are highly distinctive before words that sound alike. Infants can respond to adults in many ways including crying and cooing. By 4 months, most babies should be able to growl, grunt, and gurgle. 

Babbling can be defined as an infant's repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins when babies are between 6 and 9 months old. All babies babble, even babies who are deaf. However babbling is encouraged by other people's responses and therefore deaf babies stop babbling because they cannot hear responses, while hearing babies continue. Toward the end of the first year, babbling begins to sound like the infant's native language; infants imitate what they hear in accents, cadence, consonants, and so on (Berger, 2012). Many parents and caregivers teach the infants "baby signs" so that they can communicate with hand signs before they are able to make words. At around 10 months old, infants pick up the gesture of pointing. 

First Words

At around 1 year of age, babies can say a few words. However, since their words may not be clear, usually only the caregivers can understand what they are saying. For example, a baby might say "ba-ba" and it mean bottle. My daughter never said "ma-ma" which is usually the norm but instead has always called me "mommy." But, because I call my own mother, Mom, my daughter calls her grandmother, "Mom." So when we are out in public, I am sure that her calling me "mommy" and grandma "mom" confuses people but since I am her caregiver, I can understand exactly what she means. 

At around age 2, spoken vocabulary gradually increases, about one new word per week. However, babies between 6 and 15 months tend to learn meanings more quickly than they learn the words. They understand about 10 times more words than they can say. For example, my daughter can point to a large amount of her body parts but can only actually say a few of them. A single word can convey various messages. This is called a holophrase and can be defined as a single word that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought. 

The naming explosion is a sudden increase in an infant's vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of age. Once vocabulary reaches about 50 expressed words, it builds rapidly, at a rate of 50 to 100 words per month, with a 21-month-old saying twice as many words as 18-month-olds (Adamson & Bakeman, 2006). In almost every language, the most common words for 12 to 18 month olds include: the names of caregivers, favorite foods, and elimination (pee-pee, poo-poo). 

Theories of Language Learning

There are a few theories regarding learning languages. Theory one indicates that infants need to be taught. Theory two states that social impulses foster infant language. And the third theory says that infants teach themselves. 

** Here is a chart that might be helpful to you new parents

At About This Time 

        The Development of Spoken Language in the First Two Years

Age                  Means of Communication

Newborn          Reflexive communication-cries, movements, facial expressions.

2 mos.              A range of meaningful noises-cooing, fussing, crying, laughing.

3-6 mos.          New sounds, including squeals, growls, croons, trills, vowel sounds.

6-10 mos.        Babbling, including both consonant and vowel sounds repeated in syllables. 

10-12 mos.      Comprehension of simple words; speechlike intonations; specific vocalizations 

                          that have meaning to those who know the infant well. Deaf babies express their

                          first signs; hearing babies also use specific gestures to communicate.

12 mos.            First spoken words that are recognizably part of the native language.

13-18 mos.      Slow growth of vocabulary, up to about 50 words.

18 mos.            Naming explosion-three or more words learned per day. Much variation; Some 

                          toddlers do not yet speak.

21 mos.            First two-word sentence

24 mos.              Multiword sentences. Half the toddler's utterances are two or more words long.

** The ages of accomplishment in this table reflect norms. Many healthy children with normal intelligence attain these steps in language development earlier or later than indicated above.

Sources: Bloom, 1993, 1998; Fenson et al., 2000; Lenneberg, 1967.

Children will learn to speak at their own age. If I could reflect a little on my own experience. My son (who is now 9 years old), started talking very late. He showed very little signs until around 2 years old. The doctor wasn't really concerned but of course I was, after reading the "norms." Around age 2, he started talking and never stopped!! He is now in 4th grade, an honor roll student, and in the GATE program. My daughter was also showing no interest in talking (she is now a little over 2 years old), but this time, the doctor showed some concern. I told my daughter's doctor that my son started talking late and she said that it could be hereditary but that we really needed to watch it. Now, she is talking up a storm and learning multiple words per day. If I looked at the above chart, yes I would have been concerned. But just know that is it in fact a chart on the norms. Every child is different and will learn and do things at their own speed. Just remember that.   

-Nicole Fanning