This is a continuation of the speech and language developmental milestones resource and focuses on the development from 15 to 20 months of age. The rate at which children develop their speech and language development milestones can differ depending on the child and the environment that surrounds them.
Some children will learn certain speech and language skills faster than others. However, despite little difference between all children, we expect most children to develop certain skills within a definite time-frame. You will observe that many skills mentioned below may be repeated over different age groups as children are all different and diverse learners.
This information sheet is just a general guideline and may vary depending on what they believe to be the normal stages of development.
Your kid’s speech and listening skills are now becoming more integrated as they listen to others, learns new sounds and words, and are also learning the meaning of non-speech sounds.
During this period they tend to develop more speech sounds, and although some children may learn them a little later. Some babies attempt to learn letters of alphabets like m, n, p, b, d, w, h and by 15 months they may be practicing 1 or 2 meaningful words like mama or dada and may babble while reading a book.
He will attempt to imitate and learn new sounds, vowels and words. By 18 months he may be able to use up to 10 to 20 meaningful words mixed and may use them to request when pointing to an object. Auditory memory will also develop and your child can remember one item if he listens to the word at the end of a sentence.
Your kid will now start using a combination of gestures and words to request things like pointing and asking for something. At this point, the directory of recognisable words is very small and it is likely that his understanding of words far overreaches his use of words.
The child may be able to imitate some words, but be unaware of their meaning. The mixture of verbalisation or vocalisation and signs allows them to express emotions and communicate wants and greetings.
He will be able to understand more words, learn social skills such as turn-taking, will be developing prosodic features like intonation and rhythm in speech, and using gestures along with facial expression.
It may be just a few words to you, but it’s a complete sentence to your toddler and a big step forward in terms of language acquisition. “Daddy Cap” is her way of saying, “There’s daddy’s Cap.” Or, “Sissy Toy” indicates that she knows, that a particular toy belongs to her sister.
Her vocabulary may also include a few verbs like “gone” or “fall,” which they also utilize to create easy sentences for example “All gone,” or “Me fall”. At the age of 18 and 21 months, children seem eager to imitate the words they hear around them.
Typically a 20-month-old child has a spoken vocabulary of about 12-15 words, though many children have far more. But even if your kid is not talking in easy sentences yet, she will most likely understand more words than she can say.
By the end of 15 months, your child might:
• Will try imitating speech sounds
• They try using few words such as “dada,” “mama” and “uh-oh”
• Understand simple instructions like “Come here”
• Concede words for common items, such as “shoe”
• Turn and look in the direction of sounds.
By the end of 20 months, your child might:
• Acknowledge words and names of familiar people, objects and body parts.
• Follow simple directions accompanied by gestures
• Say as many as 10 words
What can you do to help your child develop their language skills :
Continue to motivate a love for language by talking to your child and identifying things that you see together. Your toddler will love listening to things like sirens, yelp (sharp cry for pain), dogs, or singing birds.
If your child wants to speak on the phone, engage a friend or relative who is willing to chat with her for a few minutes. Even though her reaction will likely be to nod or shake her head in reaction to her phone friend’s questions, she will enjoy the interchange.
The child knows some parts of the body and can point to them when asked.
YES NO
They can follow simple commands like “Roll the ball” and understands simple questions such as “Where’s your shoes?”
YES NO
Enjoys simple stories, songs, and rhymes.
YES NO
Points to pictures, when named in books.
YES NO
Acquires new words regularly.
YES NO
Uses one or two word questions (“Where kitty?” or “Go bye-bye?”)
YES NO
Puts two words together (“More cookie”)
YES NO
They will Use many different consonant sounds at the starting of words
YES NO
