A child's speech and language development can be seen through a series of milestones that occur during the vital first years.
The first five years of your child's life are vital to language development. From the very beginning, babies begin to distinguish voices, knowing his mother's voice from another woman's voice at only 7 days old. Parents are instrumental in this ongoing process of speech and language development and should engage their children in activities that promote language and communication.
At three months of age, your child will begin to coo""the first milestone in language development. This is the perfect time to begin engaging your child regularly in language developing activities. Imitation is key at this age. By both imitating your baby and encouraging your baby to imitate you, you will be increasing his communication skills. Challenge your baby with consonant-vowel sounds, such as ba, da, and ma.
Between six and eight months of age, your child will begin to add a few simple consonants to his growing vocabulary and may be able to say mama and dada, although he won't be able to attach meaning to the words until he's about a year old. At a year, his language comprehension will have grown considerably, and he will be able to follow simple commands and understand simple questions (e.g. where is your nose?)
Between 12 and 18 months of age, your child's vocabulary will grow steadily. By 15 months, he may have up to 10 different words that he can speak and apply meaning to. By 18 months, he will be able to say and remember the names of close friends and family members, common nouns, and a few verbs.
At two years old, your child will begin to form short sentences, repeat words he hears often and follow a series of simple commands. (Get your plate. Put it on the table.) His ability to string words together in coherent sentences will increase over the next few years and by the time he reaches four years old, he will be able to speak clearly enough to be understood by strangers. By this point, he will be able to understand most sentences, speak in sentences of up to 6 words and be able to say his name, age and sex.
The progress of language development should steadily increase throughout the years. If you notice your child progressing slightly slower than other children, don't panic unless there are lapses in his progression. Remember, you are your child's best teacher and you can have a great impact on his language development by engaging him in language developing activities.
An effective way to increase your child's language development is by reading. Pick books with large, colorful pictures that will attract your child's attention. Reading can even mean flipping through a book and talking about the pictures. At around 6 months of age, encourage your child to participate by having him point to or say different objects on the page.
Another easy way to increase your child's development is to talk to him as you walk through your neighborhood, eat and bathe him. Point out common objects, identify colors and count items. By making everyday activities opportunities to learn language, you will help increase your child's communication skills.
