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.