Language Development Milestones 18-30 Months

Language Development Milestones 18-30 Months

Your toddler uses speech and language that will surprise you on a daily basis.

At this age your child has learned many words and phrases from you…..now they will verbalize more.

Of all the stages of speech and language milestones, 18-30 months is a favorite although some of these milestones can happen after 30 months too.

Speech and language development growth charts can help you track your child’s progress and make sure they are meeting every milestone.  

18 MONTHS (1.5 Years)

 Expressive Language / What The Child Says

    • Spoken Vocabulary Size = 50-100 words

    • 2-5 communicative acts per minute

    • Names common objects

    • Begins naming familiar actions (kiss, hug, hold, tickle)

    • Begins naming familiar basic concepts (hot, cold, up, down)

    • Begins to put 2 words together (18-24 months)

    • Begins using “big”, “little”

    • MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence Length) = 1.3 words

Examples:

Child says “this” or “bear” to tell you that is their bear.

Child says “all gone” or “bye bye” to tell you mom is gone.

Child says “no” or “stop” to tell you they don’t want to.

Uses these Grammar Parts/ Brown’s Morphemes:

    • “-ing” on the ends of words (19-28 months) –  Examples: “Mommy driving.” “Daddy walking.”

    • “Plural “s”, “ies” on the ends of words (24-33 months) – Examples: “Shoes on feet.”, “Kitties running.”

Receptive Language / What The Child Understands

    • Begins to understand pronouns (mine, yours)

    • Begins to understand “big”, “little”

    • Begins understands action words (jump, kick, kiss, throw, etc.)

    • Begins to understand gender (boy, girl)

    • Understands 2 to 3 words out of each sentence spoken to them, single words understood without pointing or gesturing.

    • Begins to follow 2-step related directions – Examples: “Go get your shoes and put them on.”  “Get your bear and give him a hug.”

Emergent Literacy Skills

    • Looks at, listens to, and shows appreciation of books

Social/Play

    • Uses toys functionally 

    • Begins to enter a play group with adult assistance 

    • Plays by his/her self for at least 5 minutes and increasing 

    • Pretend develops 

    • Seeks adults help 

    • Begins to initiate interactions using signs, symbols, or words 

    • Begins to attend during group activities 

    • Symbolic Play (pretending) Level increases rapidly over the next year

 Play Level 2 (18-24 months)

    • Pretends with self-related activities – Examples:  Pretends to drink from toy cup.  Pretends to eat from an empty spoon. 

24 MONTHS (2 Years)

Expressive Language / What The Child Says

    • Spoken Vocabulary Size = 150-300 words 

    • Only 50% (half) of their phrases are related to other’s words 

    • 5 to 7 communicative acts per minute 

    • Names common objects 

    • Names familiar actions (kiss, hug, hold, tickle) 

    • Names familiar basic concepts (hot, cold, up, down) 

    • Puts 2 words together (18-24 months) 

    • Says “what” (24 months) 

    • Says “big”, “little” 

    • Uses words to request information, answer questions, and acknowledge that something is correct or right 

    • MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence Length) = 1.9 words

    • Combine words in the following patterns: (semantic relations) – Examples: “Mommy kiss”, “Daddy ball”, “throw ball”, “come down”

Uses these Grammar Parts/ Brown’s Morphemes

    • “ing” on the ends of words (19-28 months) – Examples: “Mommy driving”, “Daddy walking”

    • “Plural “s”, “ies” on the ends of words (24-33 months) – Examples: “Shoes on feet”, “Kitties running.”

Receptive Language / What The Child Understands

    • Understands pronouns (mine, yours)

    • Understands action words (jump, kick, kiss, throw)

    • Begins to understand “big”, “little” 

    • Begins to understand gender (boy, girl) 

    • Understands 2 to 3 words out of each sentence spoken to them, common 2 word combinations understood.

    • Follows 2-step related directions – Examples: “Go get your shoes and put them on.” “Get your bear and give him a hug.”

Emergent Literacy Skills

    • Looks at, listens to, and shows appreciation of books

Social/Play

    • Uses toys functionally

    • Enters play groups with adult assistance 

    • “Please” used for polite requests

    • Misrepresenting reality (lies, teases) 

    • Plays for at least 10 minutes (30 months) 

    • Gives up a toy easily if they are done with it (30 months) 

    • Seeks adults’ help 

    • Initiates interactions using signs, symbols, or words 

    • Attends during group activities 

    • Symbolic Play (Pretending) Level increases rapidly over the next year

 Play Level 3 (24-36 months)

    • Extends pretending to involve objects of action or other people/dolls. – Examples:  Feeds doll.  Pretends to sweep the floor. Moves car/block and makes car sounds.

Play Level 4 (24-36 months)

    • Pretends to do actions, followed by doing it on others, and then by related actions. – Examples:  Combs own hair, then combs mom’s hair.  Kisses doll, puts it to bed, puts blanket on.  

Play Level 5 (24-36 months)

    • Plans ahead what actions to do and tells you with words or gestures. – Examples:  Finds the iron, sets it down, searches for the cloth, when cloth is found, irons it. 

 
Sound Hearing Audiology and Speech – Dr. Robin Zeller, Ph.D.
50 Hazelwood Drive, Jericho NY 11753
516-932-7577
Audiologist, Speech Language Pathologist, Speech Therapy, Hearing Aids, Hearing Loss Treatments for Adults and Children