Health Topics for Child Health and Development

UI Children's Hospital

UI Family Care Centers

Divisions Within the Department of Pediatrics

Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders

Speech development in 0-2 year olds

Children acquire language at different rates. They go through predictable stages in the first year and a wide range of development in the second year. A one-year-old's vocabulary can range from zero to 40 words, while a two-year-old's can range from very few words to over 600 words!

One-month-old infants cry and 2-month-old infants begin to coo. By 3 months, babies can squeal, chuckle, whimper, and make vowel-like sounds. At 4 to 6 months of age, vocalizations include sighing, grunting, gurgling, squealing, laughing, and different sounds of crying. Pleasure and displeasure are vocalized. Babbling in syllables progresses for the next three months as well as imitating tones and speech sounds. During playtimes, between 10 and 12 months, much babbling occurs.

Children's first words fall into 5 basic categories. These include names (mama, daddy), objects (ball, apple, bottle, milk), action words (up, eat), adjectives (more, dirty), and personal and social words (no, bye-bye). A major milestone occurs after children master 50 words. They begin combining two words into micro-sentences such as "Read book!" This happens between 18 and 24 months.

Help your child articulate his thoughts with the following strategies:

• talk slowly and clearly
• let the child lead the conversation and help him expand on his thoughts
• do not correct when the wrong words are used; instead, simply rephrase the statement
• avoid testing, such as asking questions like "What's this?" (Children learn better without pressure and when they are interested.)
• talk about your activities to encourage language learning
• play interactive games like "peek-a-boo" and "pat-a-cake" and *
• limit supervised TV watching to less than 1 or 2 hours a day

If your child speaks only a few words, if you are unable to understand him, or he has not started combining words by 24 months of age, consult your healthcare provider.

Last Reviewed 2005

Disclaimer: This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information provided is intended to be informative and educational and is not a replacement for professional medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.

HIL File CHIL3084.rf2 VRS# 7759 Data Version 7.0 Copyright 1998 McKesson Health Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.