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Period: to
Language Development Through Childhood
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3 Months
By 3 months of age, infants start to respond vocally to a partner and begin to form expectations of events and participate more due to predictable patterns of behavior and speech. -
8 Months
At about 8 to 9 months, infants develop intentionality in their interactions primarily through gestures. -
12 Months
By 12 months of age a child's first words are spoken and can replace intentions previously signaled by gestures. -
18 Months
By about 18 months, a child can produce approximately 50 single words and begin to combine words in predictable ways. -
2 Years
By age 2, a toddler's average length of utterance is 1.6 - 2.2 morphemes and they have an expressive vocabulary of about 150 - 300 words. -
3 Years
By age 3, most children's utterances contain a subject and a verb, deeming the sentence structure to be more adult-like. Their average length of utterance is 3.0 - 3.3 morphemes and their vocabulary is at around 900 words. -
4 Years
By age 4, children begin to change their style of talking to fit the conversational partner. The average length of utterance is 3.6 - 4.7 morphemes, and their vocabulary is at around 1500 words. -
5 Years
By age 5, ninety percent of a child's language form (adult syntax) is learned, but pragmatic skills still need development. -
6 Years
By age 6, a child begins to learn visual modes of communication through writing and reading. -
Adolescence
When a child reaches adolescence, they are able to participate competently in conversations and telling of narratives. They know multiple meanings of words and figurative language, and use a gender style, or genderlect, when talking.