Birth-24 Months

Normal Language Acquistion Milestones for children starting at birth to 24 months (two years) old

Phonology

According to the textbook, phonological development involves acquiring the rules of language that govern the sound structure of syllables and words.
At birth, a baby is able to discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes, such as the differences between English vs. Japanese. They can also produce reflexive sounds.
At two months, the baby can now distinguish their own language from nonnative language, and they begin to produce cooing and gooing sounds.
At four months, the baby distinguishes languages belonging to the same rhythmic class such as English vs. Dutch. At this age, they also start to produce vowel sounds, vowel glides, squeals, and growls.
At six months, the baby is discriminating between two allophones of the same phoneme such as aspirated vs. unaspirated /p/. They are also now segmenting words from fluent speech and uses stress to locate boundaries of words in fluent speech. Lastly, they are detecting clausal units in fluent speech.
At eight months, the babies are discriminating their native from nonnative stress patterns and are starting to pay attention to the fine phonetic detail. Also, the babies are able to distinguish between native and nonnative phonotatic patterns. They are also using phonotactic cues to locate boundaries of words in fluent speech. Lastly, they are learning to babble and it is reduplicated and variegated.
Between ten and twelve months, the baby is no longer discriminating between two allophones of the same phoneme and they are identifying words in speech that do not conform to the native language stress pattern. They are also now identifying function words in utterances and are using jargon in babbling.
At 12 months, the baby has mostly unintelligible speech, except for a few words.
At 16 months, they are pronouncing around 25% of all words intelligibly. They also say two to three words to label a person or object, but won't be clear.
At 20 months, the baby processes spoken words incrementally.
At 24 months, they are asking questions with rising intonation and are pronouncing about 65% of all words intelligibly.

(Speech Milestones)

(Textbook)

Articulation

For articulation, we will be focusing on early vocalizations
"Infants follow a fairly predictable pattern in their early use of vocalizations. Researchers who study early vocalizations often classify these sounds according to a stage model" (Textbook, p. 129)
The first stage is reflexive, from 0-2 months. These are the first sounds an infant produces and are typically discomfort sounds like crying, distress sounds such as fussing, vegetative sounds such as burping, coughing, and sneezing. The baby does of have control over these. This is when they are vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds. (Textbook)
The second stage is control of phonation, which is 1-4 months. In this stage,, the baby is producing cooing and gooing sounds. These consist of mainly vowel-like sounds. They may also combine vowel-like segments with a consonant-like segment. There may also be isolated consonant sounds like nasalized sounds. The consonant-like sounds are produced far back in the oral cavity and are easier to produce since the tongue, lips, and teeth aren't as involved. They are also making noise when talked to. (Textbook)
The third stage is expansion, which is 3-8 months. During this, the baby gains more control over the articulators and begins to produce isolated vowel sounds and vowel glides. They will also begin to practice using loudness and pitch of their voices and this can be seen in their squeals. They will also use marginal babbling which is an early type of babbling containing consonant-like and vowel-like sounds with prolonged transitions between the consonant and vowel sounds. (Textbook)
The fourth stage is the basic canonical syllables stage, which is 5-10 months. In this stage, the baby begins to produce single consonant-vowel syllables. There is also canonical babbling which refers to when they produce more than two c-v syllables in sequence. Whispered vocalizations begin in this stage, which has c-v combinations followed by an isolated consonant and disyllables, which consist of two c-v syllables separated by an audible gap. Deaf babies will babble with their hands during this stage. Babbling will either be reduplicated which is repeating c-v pairs or non reduplicated/variegated babbling which is non repeating c-v combinations. Babbling may be "ba-ba-ba" or "ma-ma-ma." (Textbook, RR)
The fifth stage is the advanced stage which is 9-18 months. The baby begins to produce diphthongs, which are combinations of two vowel sounds within the same syllable. Infants also begin to produce more complex syllable forms, including single-syllable types and multi syllabic strings with and without varied stress intonation patterns. The biggest achievement is jargon, which is a special type of babbling that has at least two syllables and at least two different consonants and vowels, as well as varied stress or intonation patterns. The baby correctly pronounces most vowels and n, m, p, h, especially in the beginning of syllables and short words and they also begin to use other speech sounds (Textbook, RR)

**"Although the vocalizations infants produce while they are babbling or using jargon may sound like short words or syllables, these vocalizations are not considered true words because they are not referential and they do not convey meaning. At this stage, infants are still experimenting with the sounds of their native language."**

(Speech Milestones)

(Textbook, RR)

Examples of ASL Babbling/Cooing and Verbal Babbling/Cooing

Morphology/Syntax

Morphology and syntax development is closely related and will be combined. These skills start developing at twelve months.
At twelve months, 50% of all utterances consist of single nouns.
At sixteen months, they child is using negation, meaning "no", and 33% of all utterances consist of single nouns.
At eighteen months, their MLU's are about 1.31 and they are Brown's Stage I
At twenty months, they now have an MLU of about 1.62 (more close to 21 months). They are also beginning to use grammatical morphemes such as present progressive -ing.
At 24 months, they are now starting to use two-word combinations and the prepositions "in and on". They are also using plural and possessive morphemes and some irregular past tense verbs. They have an MLU of around 1.92 and are now in Brown's Stage II.

(Language Milestones)

(Textbook)

Semantics

At birth, the baby is looking towards the source of sound and startles in response to loud sound. They are turning their head toward a sound source and can react to loud sounds. (Textbook)
At two months, they are briefly holding and inspecting two objects and mouths some objects. (Textbook)
At four months they are distinguishing between purposeful and accidental actions and begin to form object categories. (Textbook)
At six months, they attempt to imitate gestures and actually start to understand "No" or "No-No." (Textbook)
At eight months, they are now looking in the correct place for objects out of sight and search for partially hidden objects. (Textbook)
Between ten and twelve months, they are now understanding rational actions as means to a goal and they also produce first words and understands 5-10 words. (Textbook)
At 12 months, they speak their first word and can answer simple questions non-verbally (Textbook)
At 16 months, they use between 3-20 words. (Textbook)
The baby can also follow simple directions accompanied by gestures. (Textbook)
At 20 months, they now produce around 50 words, including some verbs and adjectives. They can now follow simple commands without gestures (Two-step) (Textbook)
At 24 months, they comprehend approximately 500 words and produces 200 words. They can also understand a variety of word types, simple concept terms, basic emotion words, and basic grammatical markers (Semantic Development Milestones)

(Language Milestones)

(Textbook, Semantic Development Milestones)

Pragmatics

At birth, the baby prefers infant-directed speech to adult-directed speech and begins to attend to social partners. (Textbook)
At two months old, they become aware of strangers and unfamiliar situations and begin to briefly look at people. During this, they will watch your face when you speak. (RR)
At four months, they recognize their own name and fixes gaze on face. (Textbook)
At six months, they engage in joint attention. (Textbook)
At eight months, the baby is beginning to use intentional communication and has the following preverbal language functions: attention, seeking, requesting, greeting, transferring, protesting or rejecting, responding or acknowledging, and informing. (Textbook)
Between ten and twelve months, they are now using imperative pointing and utters their first true word. They can point to objects, pictures, and family members. They may also try to communicate by actions or gestures and try to repeat your sounds. (Textbook, RR)
At 12 months, the baby is using referential gestures and uses line of regard, gestures, voice direction, and body posture to infer intentions underlying other people's actions.(Textbook)
At 16 months, they are using verbal turn taking and attends to a book or toy for about two minutes. (Textbook)
At 20 months, they are now using gesture-word combinations and uses two-gesture combinations. Points to simple body parts such as "nose". (RR)
At 24 months, the baby is beginning to use imaginative, heuristic, and informative language functions. (Textbook)

(Language Milestones)

(Textbook, RR)

Preliteracy

Starting at 3 months, the baby will begin to begin to babble and imitate sounds. At this age, the baby is beginning to hold their head higher with less support. This will help them develop a better grasp of the books being read and facial expressions, as well as learning to swipe at objects and attempt to bring them to their mouth. They will also enjoy bold colors and nursery rhymes, which can promote phonological awareness. Incorporating textured books can help with fine motor skills.
At this young age, they also will begin to reach for soft-covered books or board books, look at and touch the pictures in books, respond to a storybook by cooing or making sounds, and help turn pages
Between the ages of 6-12 months, the baby will begin to take a more active interest. At this age, their bodies are continuing to develop and the baby is now able to sit up with their head up and grab at pages. The baby may gravitate towards putting the book in their mouth, which is a good sign and expected as it shows interest. They will also have an increased attention span.
Between 12-18 months, the baby will be sitting up without support and will be holding and carrying around their books. The baby will probably ask or gesture for a book to be read and be an active listener by being able to answer questions. They will also be able to notice a book out of place, like missing a page or it being held upside down.
Between 18-24 months, the child will now be turning their own pages and taking charge, however paper pages can be more challenging to pick up. The child will be again able to answer questions and can name familiar pictures and characters. They may also be able to finish some sentences in certain books when you pause. The child may become their own story teller and use narrative skills. At this stage, it is important to repeat stories, follow the child's lead based on interest, and be silly! This will promote a love of reading. The child will be interested in looking at pictures and naming familiar items. They will also answer questions about what they see in books, recognize the covers of favorite books, and recite the words to favorite books.

Preliteracy skills are a building block of Language Milestones

(Babysparks.com, healthychildren.org, eugene.libguides.com)

14 month old demonstrating Preliteracy skills by responding and naming items asked of him

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