AYESHA BADAR
LECTURER (UOL)
Development of language
REHAB II
• The stages of language development are universal
among humans.
• From birth up to the age of five, children develop
language at a very rapid pace.
• However, the age and the pace at which a child
reaches each milestone of language development
vary greatly among children.
Language basically comprises of
• Receptive Language
• Expressive Language
• Receptive language development (the ability to
comprehend language) usually develops faster
than expressive language (the ability to
communicate).
• In language development, children first speak
single words and then join words together,
• first into two-word sentences and then into three-
word sentences.
• In expressive language development, children
first speak in long unintelligible babbles that
mimic the rhythm of adult speech.
• Most children use a combination of these styles
• Language development in an individual child
must be compared with norms rather than with
other individual children.
• In general girls develop language at a faster rate
than boys.
• More than any other aspect of development,
language development reflects the growth and
maturation of the brain.
• After the age of five it becomes much more
difficult for most children to learn language.
Stages of Language Development
• There are six stages in children's first language
acquisition, namely:
• Pre-talking stage / cooing (0-6 months)
• Babbling stage (6-8 months)
• Holophrastic stage (9-18 months)
• The two-word stage (18-24 months)
• Telegraphic stage (24-30 months)
• Later multiword stage (30+months)
Birth (o month)
• Language development begins before birth.
• Towards the end of pregnancy, a fetus begins to
hear sounds and speech coming from outside the
mother's body.
• Although crying is a child's primary means of
communication at birth.
• Language immediately begins to develop via
repetition and imitation
0-3 months
Between birth and three months of age, most
infants acquire the following abilities:
• seem to recognize their mother's voice
• quiet down or smile when spoken to
• turn toward familiar voices and sounds
• make sounds indicating pleasure
• cry differently to express different needs
• grunt, chuckle, whimper, and gurgle
• begin to coo (repeating the same sounds
frequently) in response to voices
• make vowel-like sounds such as "ooh" and "ah"
3-6 months
Between three and six months, most infants can do
the following:
• turn their head toward a speaker
• watch a speaker's mouth movements
• respond to changes in a tone of voice
• Shape their mouths to change sounds
• Vocalize different sounds for different needs
• Communicate desires with gestures
• Babble for attention
6-9 months
• Between six and nine months babies begin to do the
following:
• search for sources of sound
• listen intently to speech and other sounds
• take an active interest in conversation even if it is not
directed at them
• recognize "dada," "mama," "bye-bye"
• consistently respond to their names
• respond appropriately to friendly and angry tones
• express their moods by sound and body language
• play with sounds
• make long, more varied sounds
• babble random combinations of consonants and
vowels
9-12 months
• Between nine and 12 months babies may begin to do the
following:
• listen when spoken to
• recognize words for common objects and names of
family members
• respond to simple requests
• understand "no"
• understand gestures
• associate voices and names with people
• know their own names
• repeat sounds
School age
• At age five most children can do the following:
• follow three consecutive commands
• talk constantly.
• ask innumerable questions
• use descriptive words and compound and complex sentences
• know all the vowels and consonants
• use generally correct grammar
• Six-year-olds usually can correct their own
grammar and mispronunciations.
• Most children double their vocabularies between
six and eight years of age and begin reading at
about age seven.
• A major leap in reading comprehension occurs at
about nine.
• Ten-year-old begin to understand figurative word
meanings.
Adolescents
• Adolescents generally speak in an adult manner.
• They may gain language maturity through high
school
