Understanding toddler speak

Expanding vocabularies
It's in your child's second year that you will see a difference in how boys and girls learn and use language. Don't be worried if your son doesn't chatter away as much as your daughter did at eighteen months. All babies are different but, on average, girls acquire language much more quickly until about two years of age, when the boys begin to catch up.

A child adds words slowly to his speaking vocabulary in the first eighteen months, about 20 words, but that grows to between 100 and 200 words by his second birthday. Meanwhile, the child's understanding of words races well ahead of his ability to say them. At eighteen months, toddlers understand as many as 50 words. Amazingly, that increases more than twenty times to about 1,200 at two years of age. In these six months, the child also begins to grasp more complex syntax. He can follow a two-step command like "Go get your coat, then open the door." He may no longer need you to point to the coat in order to understand. If you say, "Show me the dog" while reading a picture book, he can point to it. He also begins to understand the idea of putting things in categories. He begins to realize that the word dog applies to the picture in the book, to the family pet, and to the animal across the street.

As the child's vocabulary of words grows, two styles of learning begin to emerge. Some children concentrate on building up their bank of names for things, up to 50 words; others quickly pick up words that express emotions or desires, such as Up for Pick me up and Want for I want it. It's an individual preference, as far as researchers can tell, and not an indicator of a child's intelligence or language ability.

Starting sentances
By the second birthday, a child can usually compose two-word questions like What's that? or sentences like All gone or demands like Me cookie and Go car. Between two and two-and-a-half, children start using modifier words like possessives and adjectives. They refer to the big car or my bear.

The age of your child is a rough guide to the length of sentences he's capable of uttering. At the age of one, children use one-word sentences, at two years of age, two-word sentences, and so on up to the age of five or six. It's true that children pick up language at their own speed, but if your child isn't using 5 to 10 words by the age of two, or if he isn't making two-word sentences by the age of three, it's worth discussing your concerns with your doctor. Hearing problems are the most common reason for language difficulties. Or the child may simply be having a problem pronouncing words clearly enough for you to recognize. Whatever the trouble, it is always better to find out early enough to help.