Speech and Language Acquisition
Acquisition of speech and language skills follows a fairly systematic progression, with easily identifiable milestones associated with specific ages in each area, as briefly outlined here (22,23).
■ Birth-3 Months
? Makes pleasure sounds such as cooing
? Develops differential cries for different needs
? Develops social smile
■ 3-6 Months
? Increase in variety of vocalizations
? Babbling sounds more speechlike, with increased consonant productions
? Uses sounds and gestures to indicate wants
■ 6-12 Months
? Reduplicative babbling occurs (eg, dada, bibi, etc.)
? Uses speech sounds to get attention
? First words emerge (~10-12 months)
? Responds to simple requests
? Imitates speech sounds
■ 18-24 months
? Uses words more frequently than jargon
? Has expressive vocabulary of 50-100 words
? Has receptive vocabulary of 300+ words
■ 2-3 Years
? Uses two- to three-word sentences
? Points to pictures in books
? Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time
■ 3-4 Years
? Uses simple sentences with negatives, imperatives, and questions
? Talks about activities at school and home
? Understands simple “wh-” question words
■ 4-5 Years
? Mean length of utterance (MLU) = 4.6-5.7 words
? Uses grammatically correct sentences
? Relays a long story accurately
■ 5-6 Years
? MLU = 6.6 words
? Uses all pronouns consistently
? Comprehends 13,000 words
■ 6-7 Years
? MLU = 7.3 words
? Comprehends 20,000-26,000 words
? Refines syntax