Early Stages (0-12 months)
* Pre-linguistic stage:
* Cooing and gurgling (0-4 months): Babies produce vowel-like sounds.
* Babbling (4-12 months): Babies experiment with consonant-vowel combinations (e.g., "ba-ba-ba", "ma-ma-ma"). They also start to imitate sounds and recognize familiar voices.
First Words (12-18 months)
* Single words: Children begin to use their first words, often nouns like "mama", "dada", "ball".
* Holophrastic speech: A single word is used to express a whole thought or sentence (e.g., "milk" meaning "I want milk").
Two-Word Stage (18-24 months)
* Two-word combinations: Children begin putting two words together to form simple sentences, often in a telegraphic style (e.g., "want juice", "more cookie").
Early Sentences (2-3 years)
* Simple sentences: Children start to form basic sentences with subject-verb-object structure (e.g., "I want juice", "The dog is sleeping").
* Vocabulary growth: Rapid vocabulary expansion with an understanding of basic grammar rules.
* Questioning: Children begin asking "wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why).
Preschool Years (3-5 years)
* Longer sentences: Children can now form more complex sentences with conjunctions, prepositions, and articles.
* Grammatical development: They are able to use past tense, plurals, and other grammatical structures.
* Increased vocabulary: Their vocabulary continues to grow rapidly, and they understand more complex concepts.
School Years (5-12 years)
* Fluency and complexity: Children become more fluent and can use increasingly complex sentences.
* Reading and writing: They begin to read and write, which further enhances their language skills.
* Refined vocabulary: Children continue to expand their vocabulary and learn more nuanced language.
Beyond School Years:
* Continued language development: Language skills continue to develop throughout life, with vocabulary and grammar expanding as we encounter new experiences and learn from others.
Important notes:
* This is a general guideline, and individual children may develop language at a different pace.
* There can be significant variation in language development based on factors like environment, socioeconomic status, and language exposure.
* The order of acquisition may also vary between different languages.
It's also worth noting that this describes spoken language development. Reading and writing development follow a separate trajectory, though they are interconnected with spoken language skills.