Criterion Child Enrichment
  |  Back to Home Page 
Speech and Language Development


Babies and toddlers begin to use communication in many different ways. When we speak of communication the words speech and language are mentioned. However, the terms speech and language are not synonymous. Speech is the motor act which conveys ideas and intentions. We use our mouth, lips, tongue, jaw and cheeks to help us. Language is one of several ways to communicate. It is a system which oversees the organization of sounds, signs, words, gestures and meaning and use. It is one way of receiving and giving information. Assessing Speech and Language: When we assess babies and young children we look at what the child's verbal production is, how is he saying it, when does he say it and if he is not verbal, then how does he make his needs known. We must remember that not all communication is verbal. Parents are wonderful facilitators when trying to encourage a child to talk. Even babies begin to respond to turn-taking with their babbling conversations.

These are some of the activities or abilities that we look for when assessing your child:

  1. Can he imitate after a verbal model is given or during social interaction
  2. Is his language functional, is it spontaneous and can he socialize with it
  3. Does he have appropriate intonation, inflection and vocal quality
  4. Does he have a vocabulary, how many words, and is it increasing
  5. Can we understand him; does he need help trying to make sounds and words
  6. Can he repeat different sounds together
  7. Parental language, i.e., what are their expectations, interactions, and models
  8. What is the content of his verbal communication; can he relate information from memory
  9. What are his communicative preferences
  10. For babies, does he have different kinds of cries, is he beginning to say a sound such as /p/, /b/, /m/, and does he have good breath support
We also will observe the child's ability to listen, attend and play. Our most wonderful communication takes place during a child's play where he learns, explores and works.

Normal Speech and Language Development
Speech and language skills develop following a sequential, predictable pattern. However, the rate in which skills develop may vary within a normal range.
Birth to three months: Children begin to vocalize and coo using vowel sounds perhaps /g, k/ consonant sounds.
Four to eight months: Children engage in vocal sound play and begin to babble. They initially use the same string of sounds (ba-ba-ba) then nonduplicated strings of sounds (ma-ba). Early consonant sounds to develop include; bilabial sound /m,b,p/.
Nine to twelve months: Children enjoy social games that involve turn-taking and language. They begin to use inflectional speech patterns and even say their first word.
12 to 18 months: Children add on to their sirigle word vocabulary and use gestures such as waving bye. True words are often dispersed with jargon speech. Language is being used to label both objects and pictures, request, comment, and greet.
18 to 24 month: This is a time for rapid language development. Jargoning decreased with an increase in expressive vocabulary (approximately 50 single words). Children are beginning to imitate and spontaneously produce two-word phrases.
24 to 30 months: Children use two to three word utterances, begin to use action words (want), pronouns (me, my), negation (no-juice), and ask for "more".
30 to 36 months: This is a time for increased knowledge of grammar usage. Children begin to use plural and possessive "s", early preposition (in, on), different verb forms: simple past tense (washed) and present progressive "ing" (walking), and contractions (don't).
As a child is developing speech sounds and the ability to sequence sounds into meaningful words, it is often difficult to understand the child's speech. However, by three years of age, 90% of what the child says should be understood by both familiar and unfamiliar listeners. By that time, the child's sound repertoire should include: /b, p, m, h, w, k, g, d, t/.

Encouraging Speech and Language Development
There are many ways to encourage speech and language development during a child's daily life and in a child's familiar environment. These are considered the most important strategies as they occur during natural times and in a natural manner.
A. Language Modeling and Language Expansion:
Language modeling is the process of talking to your children and narrating what is occurring in their immediate environment. It is pairing actions or objects with simple words to explain their purpose. Language expansion is the process of taking a verbalization your child uses and adding to it (i.e., C: "Apple" P: "Yes, big apple"). Language modeling and expansion not only allow the child to hear and learn language but also allows the child to hear appropriate articulation and attempt to imitate these sounds and sound combinations. Remember that modeling and expansion is simple words or basic sentences that are easily understood and have reduced complex structures.
B. Play:
Playing with children can be the most rewarding and the best time to utilize the strategies of language modeling and expansion. Play is the most natural of all experiences for children and the mode through which children learn best. During play, modeling of such language concepts as labeling, requesting and commenting can occur. In addition, characteristics of and actions of objects can also be demonstrated for explanatory propose (i.e., "fast", "slow", "up", "down", "stop", "go", "cars go vroom-vroom/beep-beep" etc...).
C. Singing:
Singing, similar lo play, is also a great time for children to learn language. With frequent use of simple and familiar songs, a child with eventually begin to learn the tune. When this is occurring the adult can stop the song occasionally soothe child can fill in the missing words.
D. Providing Choices:
Everyone, including the toddler, wants to make their own choices and have control over their own environment. By giving the child choices (i.e., "Do you want ____ or ____?") he/she now has to communicate his or her want. Initially the child may just grab or point to the object desired. This is fine! Language modeling can now occur with the adult staling such a response as "Oh, apple. Here is an apple.". With this strategy children feel as though they control the interaction; conversely, the adult has actually limited the objects to choose form and has required the child to communicate, whether verbally or gesturally.
E. Pairing Gestures with Words:
Children learn best when they see as well as hear a concept being modeled. Pairing a gesture such as hands up when asking a child if they want to come up, gives the child a better idea of what is being requested. Initially the child maX imitate the gesture for up to request. Later, the child may actually pair the gesture with the verbalization. When the child is confident enough with using the verbal mode, the gesture will disappear. As a final note, children ultimately respond best and are most excited about their new found verbal capabilities when they have been praised for effort to communicate, even if the communicative attempt is not initially perfect. Give your child plenty of time and encouragement. The phrase "Good Talking!" or "Hooray for you!" goes a long way in encouraging more verbal language!