Growing from a baby to a child requires achieving many milestones in language, physical, social, emotional and intellectual development. Most children develop skills in roughly the same order but the actual age a child reaches that milestone can vary considerably. Our child “Bill” has normal hearing. During the 24 -30 month period of development Bill is starting follow 2-step instructions. His expressive language has increased to 200 words by 30 months and he is becoming much more understandable.
Bill is really starting to talk more freely now and by 30 months has an expressive vocabulary of 200 words. Many sounds have to develop still but he has m n p b t d h w in his inventory and ng k g are now being used more freely. More consonants appear in word final positions (m,b,p), although he still over pronounces some words, produces the same words differently, shortens words, and misses out medial (middle) sounds.
Although Bill’s speech contains omissions and approximations, his speech is still 75% understandable to friends and family. His use of jargon is disappearing and he is able to whisper.
As the growth in single words increases Bill starts to use a lot more 2-word combinations. He begins to use verbs, uses some personal pronouns (me/you) and possessive pronoun “mine”, and begins to use his own name to talk about himself. He can now answer “who/what” questions and uses negation “don’t / no”.
Bill imitates new words that others say and uses words in creative ways (e.g., a stick thrown into the sky becomes a bird).
Bill is now referring to himself by name. He is more readily responding to requests from adults as well as requesting more information about new things in return. He wants to describe events after they occur and is becoming more skilled with turntaking and conversation.
He will verbalise basic needs for food and drink.
Bill starts to initiate pretend play more often and starts to play parallel with other children. He is imitating symbolic play e.g. household activities and using one object for another and pretending to talk on the phone.
Along with the growth in expressive language, Bill’s understanding of language is growing at a fast rate. He is following 2-step instructions easily and understanding sentences containing simple prepositions in/on/under and different sizes (big/little). His understanding of pronouns also increases and he can differentiate between he/she/they/we.
Bill probably now understands the meanings of between 500-900 words, which is far in excess of the words he actually uses expressively.
Bill is also developing other skills, he can match identical pictures and shapes and is understanding number concepts one and two.
Bill is well aware of cause and effect now and knows that pressing buttons and pulling strings make things happen.
Bill is combining 2-word phrases and may even be attempting simple 3-word phrases as his confidence grows e.g. “Daddy bye-bye.” He begins to use verbs, uses some personal pronouns (me/you) and possessive pronoun “mine”, and begins to use his own name to talk about himself. He can now answer “who/what” questions and uses negation “don’t / no”.
Bill is now climbing easy apparatus, jumps with 2 feet together and is attempting to use a tricycle.
His fine motor skills are also developing at a fast rate with Bill eating skilfully with a spoon and putting on his hat and shoes.
Bill is also becoming better at manipulating his toys, building a tower of 4-6 blocks, painting dots and lines and imitating horizontal and vertical lines and circles, activating mechanical toys and being able to place a triangle, circle and square in a shape board, and thread a bead.
Additional reading
For more information on child development, and activities to develop speech and language skills visit the website www.icommunicatetherapy.com. Reproduced with permission.
Disclaimer: The information contained on this website is not intended as a substitute for independent professional advice.
