Language development

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Nicole Wendler holds a PhD in biology in the field of oncology and immunology. As a medical editor, author and proofreader, she works for various publishers, for whom she presents complex and extensive medical issues in a simple, concise and logical manner.

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Language development begins in the baby with the first cry after birth. But a few months pass from the first swing of the vocal cords to the first correct word. Find out here when babies speak their first words, what steps there are on the way there and how you can promote your child's language development.

Language development: voice training before the first word

Language development and learning to speak begin long before your baby speaks the first clear word. The first step is the development of the voice and thus with the first scream. The archaic sounds, i.e. crying, screaming, moaning, chuckling, form the basis for language development. Your child has mastered this from birth.

Communicate without words

Your baby does not need words for the first simple communication. It uses gestures, facial expressions, laughing and crying early on to communicate with you. This non-verbal (non-linguistic) exchange is the first step in learning to speak (preverbal development phase).

You will notice after a few weeks that this connection between you and your child works wonderfully. You can tell what your baby is missing from the sound of screaming: Is it hungry, tired or is it just bored?

Before children learn to speak properly, they test their voices in a playful way: they try out which sounds can be produced in the interplay of lips, tongue tip, soft palate and the back of the pharynx. The result is the first babbling sounds and babbling. Although these sounds do not yet convey any content, they still serve for verbal interaction with the environment. Your child is expressing boredom, pleasure, hunger, contentment, or dissatisfaction.

Language development: when do children start to speak their first words?

Language development is part of mental (cognitive) development. As with every developmental step, each child learns to speak at a different speed. When children start to speak cannot therefore be answered in general. In addition, the transitions between onomatopoeia and the first recognizable words are fluid.

Before your child can speak, they first learn to interpret your facial expressions and gestures. Towards the end of the first year of life, language comprehension is so pronounced that your child listens clearly and can understand individual words and instructions.

The point at which babies speak their first words varies greatly. Some children get the first understandable word out of their lips when they are around eight months old, while others do not say it until they are over a year old. Children seem to have one focus: Some learn to speak first, others to walk first!

Baby's first words

Baby's first words are closely linked to his environment and his everyday life. Expressions such as "da" or "on" are particularly popular at the beginning. In addition to social words such as "Bye" or "Hello", there are mainly things and people from his immediate everyday life.

These are mostly so-called names: Mama, Papa, the name of brother or sister, ball, dog or cat. The first verbs of course also describe processes with which it is confronted on a daily basis, such as "sleeping", "eating" or "walking".

Phases of language development

Language development in the child progresses month by month. The phases of language development can be easily observed in the first year:

first reactions to voices and noises
Babble period, first lute (1st to 3rd month)
Vocalization (spontaneous from the 3rd month, targeted from the 6th month): The child now makes different sounds. To do this, it has to move the larynx, breathing, vocal cords, lips, lower jaw and tongue in a controlled manner. This is a learning process that gradually becomes more successful. At about six months, the vocalization takes place in a targeted manner - the baby "responds" to being spoken to.
Imitation of the language and first strings of syllables like "wawawa" (6th to 12th month)
Baby's first words (from 12 months)

By one year, most toddlers can master around 50 words. After that, language development progresses rapidly: two-year-old children already have a vocabulary of up to 200 words. From the age of five, the pronunciation is almost perfect - the offspring rarely make grammatical errors. By the age of six, your child has already mastered around 6,000 words.

If the individual phases of language development occur with a significant delay (more than six months later), there may be a language development disorder. As a rule, this is noticeable in the U-examinations at the pediatrician.

Language development in the child: table

The following table provides an overview of the milestones in language development in a child who grows up monolingual.

age	Language development
1 month	Baby recognizes the parents' melody of speech; the screaming becomes more differentiated: parents can distinguish between hunger, tiredness and pain
2 months	First babbling phase (cooing), first laugh
3 month	First throat sounds: sounds in the back of the mouth (in the supine position)
4th and 5th month	Chats, early childhood monologues, loud laughter and cheering
6th month	Second babbling phase: hangs first syllables one after the other in chains, babbling words ("lalalala")
7th to 9th month	New sounds, new chains of syllables, good voice control: whispering, forming double syllables ("gaga") that sound like a word, but there is still no connection between syllable and word; understands first words (mostly toys)
10th to 12th month	Baby's first words can appear ("Mama", "Papa"), pronunciation not yet correct ("ato" for car), word understanding develops
13 to 15 month	One-word utterances, understands one's own name and processes, continues to expand vocabulary: the meaning of the new words is still vague and broad, one word can stand for the entire course of action
16th to 18th month	Most of the children can master other first words in addition to "Mama" and "Papa"; active vocabulary of around 50 words, Word understanding (passive vocabulary) but already greater
2nd year of life	First 2-word utterances from verb and noun “Mama play”, vocabulary explosion: learns about 10 new words every day, question age begins
3rd year of life	Vocabulary continues to grow, 3-word sentences and more, first subordinate clauses possible ("and"), sounds from the back of the mouth (k, g, ch, r) work better, sibilants and difficult sound connections ("-kl", "- tr "," -schl ") are often difficult

Language development from the 3rd year of life

The language development of three-year-old children is far from complete. Up to the fifth birthday, vocabulary and grammar will continue to develop, pronunciation will noticeably improve, and general language skills and performance will increase. Children use colors, pronouns, present and future, subjunctive and more complicated subordinate clauses ("because", "if") more and more confidently, and they get better and better at storytelling.

Promote language development

Intensive communication between parents and child is the most important contribution to promoting language development in the baby. It happens all by itself. Intuitively, lower the pitch and speak softly when you want to calm your child, or louder when you warn them of danger.

The following behavior promotes language development in the child:

Comment on and respond to sneezes, coughs, laughs, or chuckles: positive feedback on their sounds encourages the child to repeat, and they enjoy experimenting with their voice.
Rhythmic and melodic skills are important foundations for the acquisition of language: Simple singing games and rhymes shape perception and shape the brain.
Soft, slow, stressed language: "Baby language" is definitely helpful for language development at the beginning.
Babies love the human voice and would rather hear mom or dad hum than listen to the music box.
Change of attention between object and parent (triangulation): Search and naming games with picture books ("How does the dog do?") Or dressing rituals ("Where is the foot?") Encourage this.
Children learn in conversation: To emphasize the meaning of a word, it should be at the end of the sentence ("Gaga makes the DUCK").
Corrective feedback (correct repetition, but without evaluation and criticism, e.g. "Yes, there is a car" if the child says "ato" when looking at a car) is all the more important, the further the child's language development has progressed.

The individual points highlight what most parents use intuitively: They automatically respond to their child's language skills. Promoting language development happens all by itself.

Learning to speak is, however, a thoroughly social act. A lack of interpersonal exchange impairs language development in the child: Mutual imitation and repetition, naming and commenting are important in order to learn to speak correctly.

Language development: important prerequisites

A functional voice and oral motor skills are important prerequisites for smooth language development in children. That means the mouth, lip, jaw, roof of the mouth and facial muscles must be fully functional.

In addition, of course, normal hearing is required. If the hearing works, the baby can already hear in the mother's womb from the 5th month of pregnancy. In this way, it learns the tonality of the mother tongue in the womb. It learns to distinguish the mother's voice from others and to recognize emotions such as anger, stress and joy.

How far newborns are in their speech development shortly after birth can be seen from the following observations: Newborns prefer the speech melody (prosody) of their mother and can distinguish speech sounds from other noises. When it comes to language development, especially in the first year, the language melody and the accentuation are more important than the actual word.

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