page_title: Language development
section_title: Stages
hierarchical_section_title: Language development / Stages
caption_attribution_description: English: This pyramid demonstrates the relationship between interpersonal communication and the stages of development. The downward formation of the triangle represents how much language is developed during that growth stage. The greatest amount of development occurs in the stage of infancy. As the triangle gets smaller, the development occurs less frequently and in a lesser amount.
context_page_description: Language development in humans is a process starting early in life. Infants start without knowing a language, yet by 10 months, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and differentiate them from other sounds after birth.
  Typically, children develop receptive language abilities before their verbal or expressive language develops. Receptive language is the internal processing and understanding of language. As receptive language continues to increase, expressive language begins to slowly develop.
  Usually, productive language is considered to begin with a stage of pre-verbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intents known to others. According to a general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions they had already expressed by proverbial means.
context_section_description: An infant mainly uses non-verbal communication (mostly gestures) to communicate. For a newborn, crying is the only means of communication. Infants 1-5 months old have different tones of crying that indicate their emotions. Infants also begin laughing at this stage. At 6-7 months old, infants begin to respond to their own name, yell and squeal, and distinguish emotions based on the tone of voice of the mother and father. Between 7 and 10 months the infant starts putting words together, for example "mama" and "dada", but these words lack meaning and significance. Verbal communication begins at approximately 10-12 months, and the child starts to imitate any sounds they hear, for example animal sounds.  The non-verbal communication of infants includes the use of gaze, head orientation and body positioning. Gestures are also widely used as an act of communication. All these stages can be delayed if the parents do not communicate with their infant on a daily basis.
  Nonverbal communication begins with the comprehension of parents and how they use it effectively in conversation. Infants are able to break down what adults and others are saying to them and use their comprehension of this communication to produce their own.
  1–2 years of age:
  Verbal and nonverbal communication are both used at this stage of development. At 12 months, children start to repeat the words they hear. Adults, especially parents, are used as a point of reference for children in terms of the sound of words and what they mean in context of the conversation. Children learn much of their verbal communication through repetition and observing others. If parents do not speak to their children at this age it can become quite difficult for them to learn the essentials of conversation. The vocabulary of a 1–2 year old should consist of 50 words and can be up to 500. Gestures that were used earlier on in development begin to be replaced by words and eventually are only used when needed. Verbal communication is chosen over nonverbal as development progresses.
  2–3 years of age:
  Children aged 2–3 communicate best in a turn-taking style. This creates a conversational structure that makes it easier for verbal communication to develop. It also teaches patience, kindness, and respect as they learn from the direction of elders that one person should speak at a time. This creates interactional synchrony during their preverbal routines that shapes their interpersonal communication skills early on in their development. Children during this stage in their life also go through a recognition and continuity phase. Children start to see that shared awareness is a factor in communication along with their development of symbolic direction of language. This especially affects the relationship between the child and the caregiver; it is a crucial part of self-discovery for the child when they begin to take ownership over their own actions in a continuous manner.
  3–5 years of age:
  In this age group children are still learning how to form abstract thoughts and are still communicating concretely. Children begin to be fluent in connecting sounds, syllables, and linking words that make sense together in one thought. They begin to participate in short conversations with others. Stuttering can develop, generally resulting in slowed-down speech with a few letter enunciation errors (f, v, s, z). At the beginning of this stage toddlers tend to be missing function words and misunderstand how to use verb tenses.Over time they start including functional words, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs. This is the stage at which most children can pick up on emotional cues of the tone of adults' conversation. If negative feedback is distinguished by the child, this ends with fear and avoidance of the associated verbal and nonverbal cues. Toddlers develop the skills to listen and partially understand what another person is saying and can develop an appropriate response.
  5–10 years of age:
  Much language development during this time period takes place in a school setting. At the beginning of the school age years, a 
caption: Relationship between interpersonal communication and the stages of development. The greatest development of language occurs in the stage of infancy. As the child matures, the rate of language development decreases.
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