When and how do children learn to speak?
Children generally learn to articulate words clearly and form their first sentences within the first two years of life. When a child begins to speak varies greatly. Some say their first words at ten months, for others it doesn't happen until 18 months. But already within a few months, babies develop a sense of how language is used and begin to learn the rules of their native language — quite intuitively and naturally. Experts call this "unguided language acquisition".
Strictly speaking, learning to speak actually begins much earlier: with the ability to hear and therefore from about the 24th week of pregnancy. Here the baby already listens to mom's heartbeat and hears how she speaks. It also perceives other familiar voices and internalizes the sound of its native language. And with its first cry the baby begins to "practice" speaking, because this is how it initially makes itself understood.
The developmental steps in learning to speak
The most important thing first: The following age indications and abilities in learning to speak are only guidance, not a "curriculum" that your baby has to fulfill. Give your child the time it needs. Language development is an individual process.
Furthermore, the pediatrician determines during the U6 and U7 check-ups at the ages of 1 and 2 years whether a child's language development is within the normal range. Here parents have the opportunity to discuss their own observations.
0 to 3 months
The baby cries, coos and gurgles in a wide variety of tones.
Also with its facial expressions it already communicates.
This is how you can now support your child's language development:
Talk a lot with your baby and make eye contact.
Repeat its sounds, respond to its vocalizations and signals. The more, the better. This builds trust and bonding and with it the desire to communicate, to understand, to express oneself.
3 to 6 months
The baby makes its first smacking and hissing sounds.
It produces vowels and first syllables, which often sounds like babbling.
This is how you can now support your child's language development:
Translate and respond to your baby's sounds.
Comment on what is happening, and include toys or everyday objects: "There goes your ball.", "Now you're getting a fresh diaper." etc.
6 to 8 months
The baby babbles more and more.
It babbles sequences of syllables like "Bababa" and makes various gestures.
Individual words, such as its name, it can already understand.
This is how you can now support your child's language development:
Children's songs, finger games and nursery rhymes fascinate babies. The interplay of language, music and movement has a particularly positive effect on their development — not just for learning to speak.
Include as often as possible the baby's name in.
12 to 18 months
The child says its first understandable words (Mama, Papa, doggy, car …).
By the age of one and a half years, it knows about 50 words.
It can say its name , but refers to itself in the third person.
This is how you can now support your child's language development:
Keep commenting a lot on what you do. Involve your child by letting them choose between two options ("Do you want the car or the doll?").
Look at together picture books and let it name familiar things in them.
18 to 24 months
Your child can now approx. 200 words "produce" and increasingly often sentences of two to four words.
It combines nouns, verbs, adjectives and places verbs in their base form at the end of the sentence.
This is how you can now support your child's language development:
Best time for matching games, search-and-find and puzzle books!
If your child says something wrong, simply repeat it correctly in the next sentence correctly ("Daddy come." – "Yes, Daddy came.").
Games, puzzles and search-and-find books that help children learn to speak
24 to 36 months
Your child has mastered first complex sound combinations like "ch" or "gl".
It speaks short sentences, asks 'why' questions, uses pronouns ("I", "my"), can name colors and recognize actions in pictures.
It also talks to itself and imitates adults in everything it sees.
This is how you can now support your child's language development:
Read to your child and let them retell.
Paint, play with playdough, and play role-playing games together.
Talk a lot with your child during all of this. Name feelings.
This is how speech learning continues
Up to 4 years
Your child also learns difficult consonants such as "r".
Up to 5 years
Your child produces all sounds correctly (except possibly "s", "sch").
Your child already knows over 2,000 words.
Your child applies simple grammatical rules correctly, such as plural, simple past tense …
Up to 6 years
The Articulation in the child's speech development is complete.
Grammatical rules such as sentence structure, tenses and articles are correctly used by your child.
What should parents pay attention to when children are learning to speak?
Parents cannot speed up the process of learning to speak, yet they have a big influence on their children's language development. If we keep a few things in mind in everyday life, this awakens the joy of speaking almost incidentally – and, as is well known, everything is learned more easily with joy.
5 dos and don'ts for learning to speak:
Be a role model: Talk a lot with your child, even about trivial things, and maintain eye contact. That way they feel your attention and can see and imitate the movement of your lips.
Read aloud often: This promotes language comprehension and vocabulary.
Don't correct: The what is more important than the how when learning to speak. Constant correcting takes away the desire to talk. It's more effective to unobtrusively repeat mispronounced words correctly.
Don't use baby talk: Take your child seriously as a conversation partner, ask them questions and listen attentively.
Don't compare: Be patient. Every child learns to speak at their own pace.
5 games & exercises that support learning to speak:
Rhythm games: Children with a good sense of rhythm often also develop a good sense for language. Whether children's songs , rhymes or knee-riders: All of this is great fun for little ones and supports your child in their language development.
Finger plays : They train language comprehension and fine motor skills at the same time, because both areas are closely connected in the brain. In any case it's worth practicing fine motor skills playfully – whether with finger puppets, building blocks, finger painting or, or …
Blowing soap bubbles: This strengthens mouth muscles and breathing technique. Difficult sounds can also be easier to pronounce this way. Time for bubble fun!
Memory games: They work well as language games, because children learn new words and reinforce them. The individual cards can also be used excellently to tell small stories.
Speech support games : They don't have to be dry at all, but cleverly combine all aspects of learning to speak with lots of fun and often interesting facts.
More tips on how you can playfully support your child in learning to speak, you can find in our article on language support.
Learning to speak and multilingualism
Raising children bilingually or multilingually offers great opportunities, but also means some challenges. Here we show you the advantages and risks of bilingual upbringing.
Mistakes are part of learning to speak
The beginning is always hard:
Some children speak very slowly at first, others are extremely unclear. Many lisp a bit or have difficulty forming hard consonants or guttural sounds like "ch". All of this is normal when learning to speak. Most of the time it only leads to frustration when parents try to correct the supposed speech errors at this age.
Stuttering:
Many children stumble when they can’t find words quickly enough, or need several attempts to finish a sentence. This can sometimes sound like stuttering, but unlike true stuttering the syllables or words come easily and without tension. As a rule the so-called „Developmental stuttering“ usually disappears on its own by the age of 5. Here you can learn more about stuttering
Speaking requires hearing:
If learning to speak isn't going well, a hearing problem may be the cause. As a rule, hearing is checked during early screening examinations by the pediatrician. Parents who are unsure can have a separate hearing test at the pediatrician done.
Read more useful information about Speech disorders in children and what parents can do in such cases for their child's language development.
Discover more articles on parenting & psychology
Image credits:
Close-up of a smiling newborn baby on the mother's lap © Prostock-studio - stock.adobe.com
Dad talks to his son and cuddles with him © dusanpetkovic1 - stock.adobe.com
Baby lying on mom's thigh © Prostock-studio - stock.adobe.com