10 significant milestones that define children’s language development from birth to 18 years

By Jeff Waske
  • Period: to

    Birth to 18 years

    10 language milestones examined in the first 18 years of life

  • 4-6 months: Prelinguistic canonical stage

    Begins using sounds that begin with p, b, & m and end in the most primitive vowel sound "ah". Thus, creating holophrases.

  • 4-6 months: Music is first recognized as different from common speech

  • 2-3 years: Telegraphic speech and truncation

    Utilization of k, g, f, t, d & n sounds. Telegraphic and truncated sentences are used, typically containing 5 words or less and often containing missing words such as determiners

  • 4-5 years: Using ryhming words

  • 6-7 years: Mastering of dipthongs, adjectives and adverbs

    Child should have mastered the consonants s-z, r, voiceless th, ch, wh, and soft g.

  • 8-10 years: Paiget's concrete stage

    According to Paiget's studies, a child in this stage can use logical thought, as applied only, to physical objects.

  • 11-12 years: Paiget's formal operational stage

    Children can express abstract theoretical concepts.

  • Teen years: Physical changes in the acquistition and production of utterances

    Physical changes in the language learning centers of the brain are dramatically declined after age 12. Growth is increased in the cognitive frontal lobe of the brain thus, allowing more abstract understanding of non-physical ideas.

  • Teen years: evolution of writing skills

    Typing and texting have eroded the handwriting skills of today's teens. This is to say nothing of the effect that speech-to-text software has had on writing skills.However, the teen years are still a time of evolved writing skills.

  • Teen years: Increased use of language as a social tool

    The progress of technological communication has led teens to whittle down their daily vocabulary to about 800 words. However, their understanding averages at about 40,000 words. This increase in text-based speech is no doubt due to social pressure to keep up with the latest emerging technology which guides much of society's concerns and/or actions.