Language Development

Successful communication relies on the ability to use verbal and nonverbal cues to understand and express thoughts, ideas and emotions. There are two kinds of language skills: receptive (hearing and perceiving) and expressive (talking and gesturing). In children developing normally, these skills grow through opportunities to listen, respond and interact with adults and other children. Consider these typical skills as you plan for the children.

Infants

• Imitate some sounds (first vowel sounds and later some consonants) and vocal tone.
• Need the attention of adults who can interpret their signals - cries, coos, smiles and babbles.
• Coordinate looking, vocalizing, and moving when interacting with a familiar adult. This coordination mimics the give-and-take of conversation.
• Respond to the tone of a speaker's voice; respond when their names are called by looking for the speaker.
• Enjoy songs, rhymes, and music; vocalize and dance to musical stimulation.

Toddlers

• Follow simple, spoken directions like "bring me the ball" or "get your shoes."
• Respond to simple questions with "yes" or "no" accompanied by head movement.
• Speak 50 to 300 different words by age two. Vocabulary includes some descriptive words for feelings, thoughts and desires.
• Enjoy and follow stories with simple concepts and clear, realistic pictures that they can point to and describe.

Preschoolers

• Speak in complex sentences. Enjoy stories with elements of humor, fantasy and exotic places and animals.
• Can follow three-part directions, understand more than 1,000 words and speak between 800 and 900 words.
• Talk about past and future happenings but often confuse the meanings of tomorrow and yesterday. Reproduce the forms of some letters and associate the related sounds.
• Recognize several printed words.

Grade-schoolers

• Can pronounce and use most sounds. Some children have difficulty pronouncing sh, l, th, and r until age six or later.
• Share elaborate stories - real and fantasy in complex sentences with up to 10 words.
• Sometimes use unacceptable vocabulary exploring powerful words that guarantee a swift adult response.
• Use speech that is almost 100-percent intelligible.
• Use past tense accurately.
• Use visual (what they see) and auditory (what they hear) symbols to begin learning to read.
• Often err when trying to integrate word sounds with printed letters and words. Letter and word reversals are common.
• Continue to expand vocabulary, explore complex sentence constructions and formulate questions about the natural world and relationships among people.
• Creatively explore and devise word play and games with rhymes, definitions, sequences and puzzles.

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