The most intensive period of speech and language development in humans occurs during the first three years of life. Language seems to develop best in an environment that is loving, caring, and interactive.

First words are one of the most important milestones that parents wait and listen for. Although first real words typically appear somewhere around a child’s first birthday, there is much variability among typically developing children. Most children will develop age-appropriate speech and language skills by the time they enter kindergarten.

What Is Speech and Language?
What’s the difference between speech and language? To understand your child’s development, it may help to better understand what’s involved with speech and language.

• Speech and language are tools that humans use to communicate or share thoughts, ideas, and emotions.
• Language is the set of rules, shared by the individuals who are communicating, that allows them to exchange those thoughts, ideas, or emotions.
• Speech is talking, one way that a language can be expressed. Speech consists of voice and articulation
• Language may also be expressed through writing, signing, or gestures. There are many languages in the world, and each includes its own set of rules for phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, prosody, and pragmatics.

Speech and Language Developmental Milestones

There is a range of typical speech and language development. However, children typically reach speech and language milestones at these points in time.

• 0–5 months: Your baby cries, coos, laughs, and vocalizes sounds, expressing both pleasure and displeasure. Often an adult can tell the meaning of these sounds, for example: “I’m hungry.” The baby watches the caregiver’s face when he or she speaks and will make sounds in response.
• 6–11 months: Baby desires to communicate and has a full range of gestures. Babbling begins. Your baby may repeat the sounds you make.
• 12–17 months: Your child seeks attention or tries to direct attention to something in the environment. She or he can follow simple directions with gestures. First words develop. Some children will attempt combining two or more words.
• 18–23 months: Children demand desired objects or request an action by pointing, gesturing, or using words. Although your child uses words, they may not be clear. The child understands simple requests without gestures and verbs like “eat” and “sleep.”
• 2–3 years: Your child is using about 50 words. At age 2, your child is beginning to understand and use words for spatial concepts (in, on) pronouns (mine, you) and descriptive words (big, happy.)

Speech Sound Development

There is wide variability among children regarding acquisition of adult-like pronunciation of spoken language. One recent way of talking about sound development divides the sounds of English into the “Early Eight, the “Middle Eight,” and the “Late Eight.” This model recognizes that children differ in the age they acquire these sounds. But many kids follow the same general developmental sequence. Here’s the sequence in which these consonant sounds typically develop:

Vowel sounds are some of the earliest ones heard from infants. This is because the vowel sounds are produced with a fairly open vocal tract. Just by vocalizing, your baby is producing the earliest sounds that will become speech! Imitating your baby’s sounds becomes some of the earliest “conversations” you have with your child.

Speech and Language Development Delays

Seven percent of children are “late talkers.” They have what is called specific language impairment (SLI) . Children with SLI are typical in just about every way. For example, they share typical understanding, hearing, motor skills, and social-emotional development with their peers.

But by age two, children with SLI have fewer than 50 words and just a few two-word sentences. The expressive language of some of these late talkers will eventually resemble their same-age peers. However, many of these children will continue to have trouble with acquiring expressive language. Early intervention therapy has been shown to be effective in helping these children catch up.

Related Articles
Developmental Milestones: Communication
(http://www.abilitypath.org/milestone-concerns/developmental-milestones-language-speech.html)

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References
Rescorla, L. & Ratner, N.B. (1996) “Phonetic profiles of toddlers with specific expressive language impairment (SLI-E)”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 39, 153-165.

Lof, G.L. (2004) “Confusion about speech norms and their use.” Thinking Publications Online Conference.
www.thinkingpublications.com/LangConf04/OLCIntro.html