Once children learn few words, they start to use those words to communicate their needs. Children between the ages of 12 and 18 months use holophrases, which characterizes a word combined with a gesture or vocal intonation, to convey a meaningful sentence. For example, a child says “water?” to ask for a drink of water.

Next, children put two or three words together. This process takes place between the first and second year of age.

In the first stage of grammar development, sentences include nouns, verbs, and adjectives with no attention to grammar rules. The sentences are closer to a telegraphic speech. For example, children don’t add an “s” to words to make them plural. The words can be an agent (who), object, possession, location, attribute, nomination, or recurrence (more). The verbs that describe actions come later. The expressions vary and there is no specific progression for when they are used.

At around two years, children can use 4 and 5 words in a sentence. The number almost doubles by 30 months. On average, girls use longer sentences than boys.

The more vocabulary the child knows, the more they use grammar rules to construct those words in meaningful sentences. For example, they start using plurals, tenses, and verbs. Children add “ing”, “on”, “in”, “s”, “ed”, “a”, and “the” to their sentences.

Three to four year old children use the “wh” questions and the negatives (not, no). They practise and correct themselves until the full sentence is accurate. The same applies to the use of “ed” to verbs in the past tense. At first, the children overregularize where “ed” is also applied to irregular verbs.

As children grow older, they continue to refine their language. Adults have the responsibility to reinforce children’s expressions by giving them time to self-correct without shaming them. Communication through language is necessary to succeed in a global world. Using more than one language and making mistakes are an inherent part of the process.

Reference:
Boyd, D., & Bee, H. (2012). The developing child (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

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