A subheading reads, Communication Milestones: The First Two Years. The following text reads, These are norms.
Many intelligent and healthy babies vary in the age at which they reach these milestones. A table mentions the
months taken by babies to reach certain communication milestones as follows.
0 months: Reflexive
communication—cries, movements, facial expressions.
1 month: Recognizes some sounds; Makes several
different cries and sounds; Turns toward familiar sounds.
3 months: A range of meaningful
noises—cooing, fussing, crying, laughing; Social smile well established; Laughter begins; Imitates
movements; Enjoys interaction with others.
6 months: New sounds, including squeals, growls, croons, trills,
vowel sounds; Meaningful gestures including showing excitement (waving arms and legs); Deaf babies express their
first signs; Expresses negative feelings (with face and arms); Capable of distinguishing emotion by tone of voice;
Responds to noises by making sounds; Uses noise to express joy and unhappiness; Babbles, including both consonant
and vowel sounds repeated in syllables.
10 months: Makes simple gestures, like raising arms for ‘pick
me up’; Recognizes pointing; Makes a sound (not in recognizable language) to indicate a particular thing;
Responds to simple requests.
12 months: More gestures, such as shaking head for ‘no’; Babbles
with inflection, intonation; Names familiar people (like ‘mama,’ ‘dada,’
‘nana’); Uses exclamations, such as ‘uh-oh!’; Tries to imitate words; Points and responds
to pointing; First spoken words.
18 months: Combines two words (like ‘Daddy bye-bye’); Slow
growth of vocabulary, up to about 50 words; Language use focuses on 10 to 30 holophrases; Uses nouns and verbs;
Uses movement, including running and throwing, to indicate emotion; Naming explosion may begin, three or more
words learned per day; Much variation: Some toddlers do not yet speak.
24 months: Combines three or four
words together; half the toddler’s utterances are two or more words long; Uses adjectives and adverbs
(‘blue,’ ‘big,’ ‘gentle’); Sings simple songs.
A subheading reads,
Universal First Words. The following text reads, Across cultures, babies’ first words are remarkably
similar. The words for mother and father are recognizable in almost any language. Most children will learn to name
their immediate family and caregivers between the ages of 12 and 18 months.
A table shows the Language for
Mother and Father, respectively, as follows.
English: mama, mommy; dada, daddy. Spanish: mama; papa. French:
maman, mama; papa. Italian: mamma; bebbo, papa. Latvian: mama; te-te. Syrian Arabic: mama; babe. Bantu: be-mama;
taata. Swahili: mama; baba. Sanskrit: nana; tata. Hebrew: ema; abba. Korean: oma; apa.
A photo shows a baby
imitating its mother doing a flying kiss.
A subheading reads, Mastering Language. The following text reads,
Children’s use of language becomes more complex as they acquire more words and begin to master grammar and
usage. A child’s spoken words or sounds (utterances) are broken down into the smallest units of language to
determine their length and complexity:
Mean Length of Utterance (M L U), Illustrated
‘Baby!’ = 1
‘Baby plus Sleep’ = 2
‘Baby plus Sleep plus ing’ =
3
‘Shh! plus Baby plus Sleep plus ing’ = 4
‘Shh! plus Baby plus is plus Sleep plus
ing’ = 5
‘Shh! plus The plus Baby plus is plus Sleep plus ing’ = 6