Language Development 18-30 Months
What You're Child Should Be Doing
Language development 18-30 months: Your child uses
speech and language that will surprise you on a daily basis.
At this age your child has learned A-L-O-T of words and
phrases from you...
...now they
will verbalize more.
When my daughter was 21 months
old my wife and I couldn't believe how
much she started picking up from us.
I'll never forget when my daughter and I went to get the mail one day. After
we had grabbed the mail. She turned around and held up her arms
pointing to the left and right of the street.
She then shook her head to the left and the right (it looked like she
was saying "no") and said...
..."no ca-s"
(no cars).
I had been trying to
teach her to "Look both ways" for cars for 2-3 months, and then she
spontaneously said it on her own. I was so proud.
Of all the stages of speech and language milestones 18-30 months is my
favorite.
Notice
that
some
of
them can
happen after 30
months too.
Jump down to
24 MONTHS
Expressive Language / What The Child Says
- Spoken Vocabulary Size = 50-100 words
- 2-5 communicative acts per minute
- Names common objects
- Begins naming familiar actions (kiss, hug,
hold, tickle)
- Begins naming familiar basic concepts (hot,
cold, up,
down)
- Begins to put 2 words together (18-24 months)
- Begins using "big", "little"
- MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence
Length)
=
1.3 words
- Words are used to state existence,
nonexistence, rejection, denial
Examples: Child
says
"this" or "bear" to tell you that is their
bear.
Child says "allgone" or "bye bye" to tell you mom is gone.
Child says "no" or "stop" to tell you
they don't want to.
Uses these
Grammar Parts/ Brown's Morphemes:
- "-ing" on the ends of words (19-28
months)
Examples: "Mommy
driving."
"Daddy walking."
- "plural s, ies" on the ends of words
(24-33 months)
Examples:"Shoes on
feet.
"Kitties running.
Receptive Language / What The Child Understands
- Begins to understand prounouns "mine", "yours"
- Begins to understand "big", "little"
- Begins understands action words (jump, kick, kiss, throw, etc.)
- Begins to understand gender (boy, girl)
- Understands 2 to 3 words out of each sentence spoken to them, single words understood without pointing or gesturing
(responds by getting the objects mentioned, looking to see if you noticed, putting the object in container or on a
surface, and then acting on it in the way you mentioned)
- Begins to follow 2-step related
directions
Example: "Go get
your shoes and put them on."
"Get your bear and give him a hug."
Emergent
Literacy Skills
- Looks at, listens to, and shows appreciation of
books
Social/Play
- Uses toys functionally
- Begins to enter a play group with adult
assistance
- Plays by his/her self for at least 5 minutes
and increasing
- Pretend develops
- Seeks
adults' help
- Begins
to initiate interactions using signs, symbols, or words
- Begins
to attend during group activities
- Symbolic Play (Pretending) Level increases
rapidly over the next year
Play Level 2 (18-24
months) - Pretends with self-related activities
Example: Pretends
to drink
from toy cup.
Pretends to eat from an empty spoon.
Expressive
Language / What The Child Says
- Spoken Vocabulary Size = 150-300 words
- Only 50% (half) of their phrases are related to
other's words
- 5 to 7 communicative acts per minute
- Names common objects
- Names familiar actions (kiss, hug, hold, tickle)
- Names familiar basic concepts (hot, cold, up,
down)
- Puts 2 words together (18-24 months)
- Says "WHAT" (24 months)
- Says "big", "little"
- Uses words to request information, answer
questions, and acknowledge that something is correct or right
- MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence
Length)
= 1.9 words
- Combine words in the following patterns:
(semantic relations)
Examples: agent +
action = "mommy kiss"
agent + object = "daddy ball"
action + object = "throw ball"
action + location = "come down"
entity + location = "baby out"
possessor + possession = "daddy shoes"
Uses these Grammar Parts/ Brown'sMorphemes:
- "ING" on the ends of words (19-28 months)
Examples:
"mommy
driving"
"daddy walking"
- "Plural S, IES" on the ends of words (24-33
months)
Examples: "Shoes
on feet."
"Kitties
running."
Receptive
Language / What The Child Understands
- Understands prounouns "mine", "yours"
- Understands action words (jump, kick, kiss,
throw, etc.)
- Begins to understand "big", "little"
- Begins to understand gender (boy, girl)
- Understands 2 to 3 words out of each
sentence spoken to them, common 2 word combinations understood
(responds by getting the objects mentioned,
looking to see if you
noticed, putting the object in container or on a surface, and then
acting on it in the way you mentioned)
- Follows 2-step related directions
Examples: "Go get
your shoes and put them on."
"Get your bear
and give him a hug."
Emergent Literacy Skills
- Looks at, listens to, and shows appreciation of
books
Social/Play
- Uses toys functionally
- Enters play
groups with adult assistance
- “Please” used for polite requests
- Misrepresenting reality (lies, teases)
- Plays
for at least 10 minutes (30 months)
- Gives
up a toy easily if they are done with it (30 months)
- Seeks
adults' help
- Initiates
interactions using signs, symbols, or words
- Attends
during group activities
- Symbolic Play (Pretending) Level increases
rapidly over the next year
Play Level
3 (24-36 months) - Extends pretending to involve objects of
action
or other people/dolls
Examples: Feeds doll.
Pretends to sweep the
floor.
Moves car/block and makes car sounds.
Play Level 4 (24-36
months) - Pretends to do actions, followed by doing
it
on others, and then by related actions
Examples: Combs own
air, then combs mom's hair.
Drinks from bottle, then feeds the doll.
Kisses doll, puts it to bed, puts blanket on.
Stirs in the pot, feeds doll, and washes
dishes.
Play Level 5 (24-36
months) - Plans ahead what actions to do and tells you
with words or gestures
Examples: Finds the
iron, sets it down, searches
for the
cloth,tossing
aside several objects.
When cloth is found, irons it.
Picks up the bottle, says "baby", then feeds the
doll and covers it with a cloth.
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