Language Acquisition Article

Your child’s language development

Having a conversation with your baby might seem a long way off and a lot of nappy-changing to be got through before then, but it is sooner than you might think. Babies hear and respond to voices even in the womb and his or her learning process starts from the word go. From gurgling to full conversation and those never-ending questions, ‘but why, mummy?’ we all know that children learn to speak, but just how do babies acquire language?



Some of the first ideas about language acquisition were that babies learn through imitation – ‘monkey see, monkey do’ – you say something and your baby copies you. But your little one is smarter than a monkey. Children not only understand words, but they also understand grammar, or the rules about how to use words, from an early age. This is evident when children make up words like ‘eated’ – they have never heard someone else say this word, but they understand the word ‘eat’, and the idea that putting ‘-ed’ on the end of the word makes it something that happened in the past.

Another theory is that children learn through reinforcement. That is, when your baby makes little noises and seems to be trying to say a word you encourage them and respond with words. ‘Da da’ is taken to mean your baby trying to say ‘daddy’.

It has been suggested that babies simply have an inbuilt ability to learn language. However, being around other speakers is essential for a baby to learn to speak. It seems certain that mastering language is part of your baby making sense of confusing world around them, like pretend play.

What will my baby’s first words be?
It depends from child to child, but all children start by making sounds, especially "p", "b" and "m". These usually start becoming single words like ‘mama’ and ‘bye-bye’ when your child is about 12 months old. Between one and two years old your child will probably start to use two-word sentences like ‘baby milk’ and ‘doggie gone’. In the next year the number of words he or she uses will grow hugely and often by four years old your child will start speaking in more complete sentences.

What can I do?
No two children are alike and it is best to not compare children’s language development. What is important is that your child learns to understand and use language.
Talking to even very young babies as if they understand is essential to their development. Speak naturally, for instance describing what you can see and what is happening. A lot of parents find themselves speaking in silly sounding incomplete sentences – rather like your child does. This will is good! It will help your toddler to engage with you and develop their use of language. Spend some time each day playing with your child, talking and listening and repeating sounds. Reading stories and pointing at the words and pictures will help your child to see communication and language as something fun.