A Language Development Timeline Guide

Language Development Milestones

Please remember that every child is different and learns at their own pace. If your child appears to behind with some milestones, they could be ahead in other areas - that is very normal. It could be that they are progressing faster with their physical coordination, for example.

If you have concerns with any aspect of your child's development, seek advice from your health professional. Also try focusing on our activities and see if things improve.

First Communication From Your Baby - From Birth

A baby's cry is powerful and a highly emotional form of communication.

When your baby cries, there could be many things they are trying to let you know about. For example, they could be hungry, tired, bored, too cold, too hot, want a nappy change or perhaps they are feeling unwell. For parents, one of the difficulties is working out what the actual problem is. A good tactic is to systematically go through the list of possibilities and eliminate them one-by-one. For example -

Nappy change ? Check nappy.

Hungry ? Try to offer milk.

Over-tired ? Try a nap.

etc...

This list of possibities grows as your baby gets older. What can make things more difficult for parents is when a new thing should be on your list which you have not encountered yet. For example, needing to be 'burped' which might start with the introduction of bottles for milk.

Having a good 'baby care' book or advice from other trusted parents can help a lot in working out what your baby needs.

Parents may not be so surprised to find out that a baby's cry can be as loud as a pneumatic drill. Phew !

Remember no-one knows your baby better than you, this is mainly due to the complex natural communication that already exists between you and your baby. Learn to trust your instincts and importantly if you feel something is wrong rather than worry, seek help.

Your baby's sight is limited at birth. So spend some time talking to your new baby with your face about 8 to 12 inches away. It is no coincidence that this is about the distance between a mothers face and her baby whilst breast feeding.

When you talk, your baby will be focused on your mouth, intently watching and learning.

Although you and your baby are not 'talking' with eachother, there is lots of important non-verbal communication going on between you.

Your Baby Responds to Familiar Voices - From Two Months

Your baby will confidently recognise their parent's voice and respond to them.

Your baby will also move to see where the of the sounds they hear are coming from.

Your Baby Begins to Babble - From Seven Months

Your baby can make many 'babytalk' sounds such as "ma ma" and "da da" but not necessariliy use them correctly.

Your Baby Communicates using Sounds - From Ten Months

Your babies sight will be almost fully developed.

Your baby begins to make babytalk with themselves and others, they are 'playing' with the sounds they can make.

They begin to communicate using their hands, for example to say 'bye bye'.

Your Baby Uses Words! - From 1 Year

About this time babies have have enough control and practice using their tongues and lips to make sounds, and they may say their first words!

They can demonstrate knowledge of vocabulary even though they cannot say the word themselves. For example if you say "Where is Mummy ?", they will point to her.

The number of words babies know varies depending on how active their parents have been talking to them and also the babies personaility. While most babies will speak only a few words, they are able to comprehend the meaning of hundreds more.

The number of words your baby knows could be the first clear sign that proves to yourself the dramatic difference to your child's development you can make.

Your child will understand many words before they can speak them. This enables you to describe to your child what's going on around them... as you do so their vocabulary will grow.

As well as pointing to what they want, they will nod their head for yes, and shake their head for no.

Often, but not always, girls will have better speech skills than boys.

Uses Simple Words like sentences - From 12 months to 24 months

Working out what your child wants gets a little easier.

When your baby says "ma ma", could mean they want food. These words may be accompanied with facial expressions, gestures like bumping up and down or pointing.

You will quickly be able to work out what they mean having developed a good level of communication between yourselves.

Uses Simple Words like sentences?? - From 2 to 3 years

Your baby loves nursery rhymes, being read to, being told what things are in picture books.

The time you spend with your child doing these and other activities we'll talk about later, will make a huge difference in your child's the growing vocabulary.

Enjoys being read to and nursery rhymes even more.

They can remember the stories and rhymes you tell them.

Commonly, some sounds may not be pronounced correctly, like 'l' in 'jelly' - this is very normal and certainly nothing to worry about. Certain sounds are harder to sound out.

Spoken sentences become more complicated.

The level of parent participation in the child, dramatically shows in the childs vocabulary and level of understanding.

Towards the end of this period, your child can understand a lot of what you tell them. and can hold a simple conversation with you. They can say their name, age, and sex, and use describing words like big and small.

To continue, click the "Next Step" button at the top right-hand of the page.