English Language A2 - Developing Speech (Part 1: Stages of Language Development)

The Developing Speech section of the English Language A2 course is the longest section out of Speaking, Reading and Writing and so I've split it into 7 easy sections: 

- Basic Stages of Language Development

- Phonology 

- Lexis 

- Grammar 

- Pragmatics

- Child Directed Speech 

- Language Acquisition Debates

Stages of Language Development 

Speech is the first mode of communication that children learn to develop. There is a great deal to learn, and this learning takes place in logical steps, starting from learning the smallest unit of sounds (phonemes) to developing the subtleties of speech (pragmatics). 

Language development is an approximate timescale and each child develops at a different rate. 

The Pre-Verbal Stage 

Stage	Features	Approx. age (months)
Vegetative	Sounds of discomfort and reflexive actions.	0-4 months
Cooing	Comfort sounds and vocal play using open mouthed vowel sounds.	4-7 months
Babbling	Repeated patterns of consonant and vowel sounds.	6-12 months
Proto-Words	Word like vocalisations which don’t match actual words but are used consistently, e.g. “mmm” meaning “give me”, which is understood by accompanying gestures.	9-12 months

Lexical and Grammatical Stage of Development 

Stage	Features	Approx. age (months)
Holophrastic	One word utterances	12-18
Two-word	Two word combinations	18-24
Telegraphic	Three and more words combined	24-36
Post-telegraphic	More grammatically complex combinations	36+

During the post-telegraphic stage reading and writing started to develop separately.