Language Development in Infants

Language Development Stages

• Crying is considered the first form of language.
• Language development is divided into 8 stages.

Stage 1: 0-2 months

• Infants produce vowel-like sounds (e.g., "aaaaah", "oooooh", mainly consisting of "a" and "o" sounds).
• This stage is marked by cooing.

Stage 2: 3-6 months

• Infants start babbling and add consonants to sounds (e.g., "maaaaa", "baaaaa", mainly consisting of "a", "o", "e" vowels and "b", "m", "d", "t" consonants).

Stage 3: Beginning of 2nd year

• Infants develop a link between communication and sound-making signals, marking the onset of language.
• One-word utterances emerge (e.g., "Ma", "ba", "da", "bab bab bab").
• Vocabulary is limited to around 5 words.

Stage 4: 18 months

• Vocabulary explosion/spurt: infants learn words at a faster rate (20-50 words).
• Overgeneralizations occur (e.g., "baba" for all men, "mama" for all women).

Stage 5: Just before end of 2nd year and beginning of 3rd year

• Two-word utterances emerge (e.g., "dad go", "mamy milk", "go sleep").
• Telegraphic speech develops (abbreviated language).
• Overgeneralizations continue.
• Very few inflections are used.
• Language is limited to the here-and-now environment.

Stage 6: Third year to beginning of 4th year

• Complete utterances emerge.
• Conversational skills develop.
• Wider here-and-now skills are acquired.
• Metalinguistic awareness starts (e.g., understanding "bad words").

Stage 7: 5-6 years

• The child possesses basic syntactic, semantic, phonological, and phonetic systems of L1 (native language).
• Fluency and mastery of L1 knowledge are achieved.
• Conversational skills become similar to those of adults.
• Deeper and wider metalinguistic awareness develops.

Stage 8: 7-13 years

• More complex, adult-like conversational skills develop.
• Advanced and complex grammar and knowledge of L1 emerge.
• Complete mastery and fluency of L1 knowledge are achieved in all aspects.

This quiz explores the stages of language development in infants, from cooing to babbling, and the onset of language ability.