Do you suspect that your child’s speech delayed? Or just want confirmation that your child’s speech is developing normally. As a parent, you want to make sure your child’s speech and language skills are developing and if not, you want to make sure that you are doing all you can to help your child.
In the next few episodes, we’ll be talking about what typical two, three, four and five year olds understand and express. But before we start talking about what’s normal or typical, it’s important to briefly differentiate between the terms speech and language.
Language includes a system of symbols that are used to communicate thoughts and feelings. While there are many different languages, they all follow a given set of rules that govern how words are combined to express meaning. The rules relate to the sound system, the words and their meaning as well as the grammar, how words are combined. Receptive language refers to what a child understands and expressive language refers to what a child can say or express.
On the other hand, Speech refers to the physical ability to speak. Speech includes saying speech sounds, using your voice at a particular loudness level (loud, soft), pitch level (high, low) voice quality (hoarse, breathy) and with an appropriate rate of delivery (fluency).
The ability to understand words, concepts, sentences, etc. precedes expression and use.
This means that a child may, for example, understand questions that start with “what” as in “What are you doing?” before your child will ask “What” questions on his/her own.
Here’s a summary of what a typical two-year old understands and expresses:
Receptive Language
Understands up to 500 words
Begins to understand whole sentence
Pays attention to word order
Understands yes/no questions
Begins to understand WH questions (what, where, who)
Expressive Language
First word are nouns, actions and modifiers
Uses intonation to change meaning of the same word
Uses names of objects that are familiar
Common words child uses: “no”, mine, good, bad, hot, here, more, etc.
Begin to use 2 word utterances by 18-24 months- Child typically uses 50 single words before putting words together.
Uses 2-3 word sentences (average is 2 words
Expresses up to 300 words
Uses 25 different phonemes-vowels and some consonants
First pronouns appear (“me” and “my” are the first ones)
Uses vowels in mid central and low front part of the mouth. (These include “uh” (as in cup), “eh” (as in bed) and “ae” (as in cat). They do not use “ee”(as in see) or “oo” (as in shoe).
Lips are the most frequent place of articulation. That means your child will be saying words with p, b, m and w (papa, baby, mama, wawa (for water).
Even if you feel your child is delayed, you should be noticing that your child is doing new things with his/her speech and language each month, such as adding new words or using them in new ways.
Perhaps you’ve discussed your concerns with your pediatrician and been instructed to give your child time to develop. Some parents have shared that they feel guilty waiting for their child to develop. Research supports that children who receive early intervention have a better outcome than children who receive services when they are older.
If you still have nagging concerns about your child’s speech and language skills, there are places to go for information and referral.
The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) website at asha.org is a great resource. Click on the word “public” on the menu on the left side of the home page for information on various topics including normal development and ideas on how to help your child develop speech and language skills. If you want to talk to someone, you can reach the
If you’d like to have your child evaluated, contact “CHILD FIND”, a comprehensive system for identifying children with disabilities in a variety of areas, including speech and language skills. Child Find is a federally mandated program that is part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). For information, contact your state’s Part C Coordinator at http://www.nectac.org/contact/PTcoord.asp for information about services and eligibility in your state. You can also contact your local school district for information.
Sources of Information for this blog include:
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Website Public Section. www.asha.org
Child Find, www.childfindidea.org
Heavner, Krista. Using Developmental Milestones to Set Goals and Plan Therapy. Therapy Guideposts 2007 Webinar Series. www.bionicear.com
Let’s Talk, Publication of American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2003
I hope I’ve answered some of your questions about your two year old’s speech and language skills and if you still have concerns, that you have some ideas as to where to go for help.
You can listen to the entire podcast by going to speechdoc.podbean.com. If you would like you’d like to suggest a topic, you can contact The Speech Doc at TalkingKidz@gmail.com
