Stages of Language Development

The first form of speech expressed by infants prior to six months of age is known as cooing. Cooing consists of sounds of vowels being repeated.

Babbling emerges around 5 to 6 months of age. Babbling is the repetition of sounds that babies hear consisting of phonemes such as "da da da" or "ba ba ba." As the baby hears more and more of his/her own language, the baby will drop the sounds not used in his/her own language.

One-word utterances appear around 12 months and this first word is a familiar person or object. By about 18 months of age, the toddler speaks in two-word simple sentence phrases known as two-word utterances. Around 2 ½ - 3 years of age, children enter the sentence phase and begin to talk in simple sentences.

The critical period for language acquisition in humans is thought to end by age 12. Researchers believe that when children are not exposed to any human language before this age, their language abilities never fully develop. Have you ever tried to learn a language as an adult, and it seemed too difficult to master? Researchers believe this is because your critical period has passed, and you are not as receptive to new languages.


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