Steps

in Language Development

When a child and caregiver attend to the same object or play at the same time

Pre-linguistic Development
For example: when a child is reaching for a toy that is out of reach and looks at the
Joint caregiver to gain their attenion and look back at the same toy, this displays joint
Attention attention

4 to 6 when a child starts making noises and the adult imitates the child's sounds, which in turn
encourages the child to make another noise
months It's a back and fourth engagment between two individuals
Turn-taking

Non verlbal gesture used to express needs and feelings before a child develops words
For Examples, pointing, reaching, grasping, body posture and facial expressions all show
a form of expression without langugae.
Gesture

When a child puts consonants and syllables together that do not have meaning attached to them
For example, when a child says puh. At this point in time a child may say something that sounds like
vocalizations a word, because they are trying out sounds but there isn't meaning to that, they realize when they
make a noise they recieve attention

Emerging Language
7 to 9 when a child is experimenting with intonation, prosody and pitch. When using jargon children use
months communication norms such as pausing for the other person to respond
For example, when a child has a toy phone and they bable into it and change their tone just like
Jargon adultl-like converstions

When a child attempts to produce a true word and reach a close approximaton for it
Word For example, a child may produce the approximation "ock" for block, since that (bl) onsonant cluster
approximations is hard to produce at this age.

When a child uses a single word that is backed with meaning (functional)
For example, a child may say "mom, Dad, no, bye or hi" at the appropriate
10 month One word times
utterances
Language Production
to 1 year

When a child pairs two words together for a functional use

Two word For example, a child may say" doggy come" as they are looking at the dog
18 month utterances
to 2 years
When a child starts to form short sentanances, using three word utterances
For eaxample, when a mother asks her child "what are we going to do at the
Three word park?" and the child say "I go swing".
2.5 to 3 Utterances
years

Created by Colleen Douglas 2017 adapted from Macdonald, J. & Staika, P.(2007). Play to talk: A practical guide to help you
late talking children join the conversation. Kiddo Publishing.