Language plays a critical role in young children’s development, as it is what all other areas are built on, and it is also a prime area in the early years foundation stage (EYFS). It lays the foundation for thinking and learning (Department for Education), helps children build and maintain relationships with others and enables them to make sense of the world around them. It also helps them to develop important skills, such as problem-solving, social and communication and enables them to understand and express emotions.
Parents, caregivers, and even educators play an essential role in children’s language development. They should provide a nurturing and stimulating environment conducive to learning in the home and educational settings and monitor and support language development in their children. They can use various strategies to enhance language development in early years children, which can also help to develop other skills and gauge whether there are any language and speech problems early.
This blog post aims to give insights into language development in the early years and will provide information on language milestones in early childhood. It will cover why early language development is important, and some examples of strategies parents and caregivers can adopt to enhance language and speech skills in children between 0-5 years old.
The Importance of Early Language Development
Language is: “The principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture” (Oxford Dictionaries). Language is fundamental to everything humans do and is how we communicate. It encompasses many things, such as using words, speech, gestures, sounds, writing, symbols, signs, etc. Babies develop language skills even before they utter their first words (the University of Edinburgh, 2021), and young children develop rapidly in their early years. Therefore, their experiences, influences and what they learn during the first few months of their lives will set the foundations for forming language later on. Early language development has lifelong impacts. Without it, children cannot learn, understand and interpret information, express themselves, communicate, socialise or make sense of the world around them. There have been numerous cases of “feral” children, which can demonstrate this point, who have been isolated from human contact at an early age and have grown up without communication, language and social skills, significantly impacting their learning and development. Research on the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns also suggests that the isolation and lack of socialisation impacted young children’s language skills (BBC News). A child’s healthy development depends on having a good understanding of language in their early years. Language is an essential building block for all other areas, and it can be difficult to achieve later if they do not develop it early (GOV.UK). For example, most older adults trying to learn a foreign language will find it more difficult than when they were children. Early language development is also crucial for future academic success. According to Roulstone et al. (2011), the first few years of a child’s life are critical to their subsequent performance. If children’s language skills develop slowly during their early years, it can result in them having difficulties with literacy and academic skills. Language development prepares them for school, as they will need these skills to know how to read, write and understand what they are learning. Research conducted by Bleses et al. (2016) suggests that early years children’s vocabulary, especially in decoding and reading comprehension, can predict their educational outcomes. They found that children who started to talk later than others were at risk of lower attainment and obtained below-average scores in reading measures. Therefore, language skills development is also essential for literacy and reading. According to Speech and Language UK, facts concerning children’s speech and language have only recently started to hit the headlines, and some examples include:- “Children’s language at age 2 predicts reading, maths and writing ability when they start school”.
- “Vocabulary at age 5 can predict how well a child does in exams at the end of school, and even their longer-term outcomes”.
- It helps children build social connections and communicate with other children to establish friendships and play, enhancing their learning and language development.
- It is strongly correlated with cognitive development, as it involves play, back-and-forth interactions and learning in the early years (Department for Education, 2023).
- It helps children communicate their needs better to others, improving their health and well-being and reducing outbursts, tantrums and frustration.
Language Milestones in Early Childhood
There are language milestones in early childhood, which are stages where children develop language and speech. Here are some of the typical language milestones for children aged 0-5 (these ages are a rough guide only):0-12 months
Between birth and six months, children may:- React to loud noises.
- Recognise familiar voices, i.e. parents.
- Turn towards sounds on hearing them, e.g. toys.
- Smile and laugh, especially when someone else is smiling and laughing at them.
- Make sounds to themselves when someone is talking to them and to get attention, such as coos, gurgles, squeals, babbling, etc.
- Watch people’s faces when they talk to them.
- Have specific cries for different needs, i.e. hunger cries and tiredness cries.
- Smile and laugh (giggle), especially when someone is smiling or laughing at them.
- Listen carefully to what people are saying and turn when someone is talking.
- Watch faces and look at people when hearing their name called and when someone talks to them.
- Start to play with sounds, but it is still babble, such as “no-no” or “up-up”, and will take turns when speaking to adults.
- Try to get attention by making sounds and gestures, such as pointing and waving.
- Start to understand simple words, such as “bye-bye”, “daddy”, “teddy”, and “mummy”, especially when pointing and using other gestures.
- Enjoy games such as “peek-a-boo” and get excited when someone sings songs and rhymes.
12-18 months
Between twelve and eighteen months, children may:- Understand more words but cannot yet say them, e.g. body parts and everyday objects. They may point to these when asked.
- Enjoy simple stories and point to pictures when an adult reads to them.
- Understand simple instructions and questions, such as “Kiss mummy” or “Kick ball”.
- Babble strings of sounds and use up to 20 single words, such as, “car”, “daddy”, “dog” or “duck”.
- Copy adult gestures, such as waving goodbye, and what they say, such as “bye”.
- Like listening to people singing and music playing, and maybe do a little dance.
- Enjoy engaging in easy pretend play, e.g. pretending to give their teddy a drink.
18 months-2 years
Between eighteen months and two years, children may:- Use 50 or more single words that are recognisable, but they will often cut some letters off, i.e. b, d, p, m, t and w.
- Enjoy listening to simple stories with pictures.
- Start to understand more words, e.g. between 200 and 500, and acquire new ones more regularly.
- Combine words into two to three-word sentences, e.g. “Bye daddy” or questions such as “Where’s mummy?”.
- Increase their mimicking of words and sounds.
- Name objects they see more regularly.
- Focus on activities more, especially when pretend-playing with a favourite toy.
- Understand simple instructions and questions better, e.g. “pick up teddy”.
2-3 years
Between two and three years, children may:- Use more words, e.g. up to 300, but may shorten them, e.g. “nana” for “banana”. They may also have difficulty with particular sounds, such as r, th, ch and sh, but adults should still be able to understand them.
- Be able to listen to and remember picture stories.
- Start to put longer sentences together, e.g. made up of 2-3 words, such as “I want teddy”.
- Start using plurals and some past tenses.
- Say their first name when asked and refer to themselves as I, my, me or mine.
- Understand simple questions starting with where, who, and what.
- Begin to grasp instructions with more words, e.g. “Where is teddy?”.
- Ask more questions, such as what things are or what they do.
- Remember the names of things and action words, such as “fall”.
- Respond to adults more frequently and talk about what they are doing during play.
- Start to play and share with other children more.
3-4 years
Between three and four years, children may:- Focus and listen to longer stories with pictures and some words.
- Speak more clearly so it is easier for strangers to understand them.
- Start to ask enquiring questions, such as “where”, “who”, “why” and “what”.
- Join words together and start using longer and linked sentences, e.g. four or more words, but may still find certain sounds difficult, such as sh, ch, th, f, j, l, r and w.
- Still making some mistakes in pronunciation, especially when using the past tense, i.e. we “swimmed” instead of we “swam”.
- Begin to plan how they will play with others, e.g. games, and engage in imaginative play, such as make-believe.
- Be able to focus when listening to longer stories.
- Answer questions on what they are doing, where they went, what they have read or why something has happened. However, it will still be basic responses.
- Start to join numbers and colours to words, e.g. ‘blue ball’ and “two dogs”, and understand time-related words, such as “tomorrow”.
4-5 years
Between four and five years, children may:- Be able to have longer conversations, take turns and use well-formed sentences.
- Better understand instructions and follow requests.
- Use more complicated words in sentences, such as “might”, “because”, “in-between”, etc. They may also understand those related to sequences, e.g. “first” and “next”.
- Still have some grammatical difficulties, e.g. they may say “deers” instead of “deer”.
- Stay on topic when telling a story.
- Consider the meaning behind words and ask more questions about what certain words mean.
- Find it easier to say words with trickier sounds, but may still struggle with certain ones, such as “elephant”.
- Begin to select their own playmates and friends.
- Use different sounds – when a young child coos or babbles, make the same noises back to them to encourage them to make more. Mimic conversations with them when they make sounds and give them time to respond, teaching them to take turns when talking. Also, to keep them interested, introduce various sounds, such as a rattle.
- Keep them close – a child needs to be able to see faces clearly when someone is talking, so they should be close to their face. Ensure they are at eye level by kneeling, lying down or picking them up.
- Play with them – playing with a child daily is essential for their language and overall development. It can involve playing with toys, reading, singing, rhyming or playing games like “peek-a-boo’”. As they move into the further stages, board games, online games, or outdoor games can teach them how to listen, focus and take turns. Some examples of different types of play can be found here.
- Talk to them – talking to a young child about everyday activities, such as mealtimes, can help them to learn words. Even though a child will not understand the words at certain stages, they will be listening. Talking in a light singing voice and short and simple sentences can keep them interested and help them to copy. In the later stages, get them to talk about various things, e.g. their day, a specific subject, past occurrences or activities, which can help them learn language and memory skills.
- Use various ways to keep them interested – when talking to a child, it is important to captivate their interest in different ways, such as singing and acting or using gestures, facial expressions, pictures, drawings, objects, toys, costumes, etc. It will also help with memory retention and learning.
- Use open questions where possible – instead of asking questions that require children to respond with yes or no answers, try to ask open questions to encourage them to talk more, e.g. “What game would you like to play”? It is also a good idea to provide them with some choices if they struggle to decide.
- Link actions and gestures to words, questions and instructions – to help a child associate words with actions or gestures, do both simultaneously, e.g. saying “bye-bye” while waving. They can also be combined with questions and instructions, e.g. pointing to juice while saying, “Do you want juice?”. Limit options to two or three to avoid confusing them.
- Suggest more words – to help a child add more words to their sentences, give them suggestions, e.g. if they point and say “teddy”, say back to them “Teddy please”. It can also help them learn how words fit together, e.g. if they say, “big dog'” say, “big black dog”. Continue to introduce new words to enhance their language and communication skills. Also, giving them choices can encourage them to talk, e.g. “juice or milk?”.
- Repeat words – saying words repeatedly is a good way for a child to remember them. Also, if they get a word wrong or cannot remember it, ask them what they mean, e.g. if they point to their teddy and say dog, a parent or caregiver could say, “Teddy?”. If a child does not get a word quite right, do not correct them but repeat the whole word to help them learn the word and sound.
- Let them help – providing a child with an opportunity to help with simple tasks, such as planting seeds, can help them learn more words when talking about what things are and what is happening.
- Be patient with them – young children may still find certain words and phrases difficult at various stages, so it is important to be patient when they talk, give them time to finish their sentences and not jump in.
- Identify and understand what they are learning at school – if parents and caregivers know what their children are learning at preschool or school, they can help them with their learning and support them in learning new words.