Language Development
Expressive LanguagePronouns:
12-26 months: I, it 27-30 months: my, me, mine, you 31-34 months: your, she, he, yours, we 35-40 months: they, us, hers, his, them, her 41-46 months: its, our, him, myself, yourself, ours, their, theirs 47+ months: herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves Average length of utterance: 12-26 months: 1-2 words 27-30 months: 2-2.5 words 31-34 months: 2.5-3 words 35-40 months: 3-3.75 words 41-46 months: 3.75-4.5 words 47+ months: 4.5+ words Language Milestones: 12-26 months: uses one-, two-, and three-word utterances, uses intonation to ask yes/no questions, uses limited wh- questions 27-30 months: begins to use grammatical morphemes, uses in and on 31-34 months: increases in length due to use of auxiliaries, increases use of wh- questions, uses interrogative reversals 35-40 months: uses object-noun-phrase complements, uses indirect or embedded wh- questions 41-46 months: coordinates simple sentences, uses locatives (e.g., up, down), uses “and” as main conjunction 47+ months: adds negative interrogatives, adds indefinite forms (e.g., nobody, no one), has some difficulty with double negatives |
Receptive Language1-2 years: follows simple spatial directions, such as in and on, understands another, uses simple directional terms, such as up and down, uses two or three prepositions, such as on, in, or under
2-3 years: distinguishes between in and under, one and many, understands number concepts of one and two, understands size differences, such as big/little, understands in, off, on, under, out of, together, away from, begins to understand time concepts of soon, later, wait, selects three that are the same from a set of four objects, selects the object that is not the same from four objects with three of them identical, begins to use adjectives for color and size 3-4 years: Follows quantity directions empty, a lot, follows equality directions same, both, understands next to, beside, between, identifies colors, distinguishes different, uses position concepts behind, in front, around 4-5 years: Understands comparative and superlative adjectives, such as big, bigger, biggest, understands time concepts yesterday, today, tomorrow, first, then, next, days of the week, last week, next week, understands different, nearest, through, thin, whole, identifies positional concepts first, middle, last |