PHASES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

 Pre-linguistic Period
 First Month
 1 to 4 Months
 4 to 8 Months
 9 to 12 Months
 Linguistic Period
 11 to 18 Months
 18 to 24 Months
 3 years onwards

PRE-LINGUISTIC PERIOD : FIRST MONTH

RECEPTION
 Can make out difference between /t/ & /d/
 Can identify mother’s voice
EXPRESSION
 Three types of vocalizations :
 Cry
 Reflexive vocalizations (cough, burp)
 Pleasure sounds
 Crying to indicate:
 Hunger
 Pain
 Discomfort

PRE-LINGUISTIC PERIOD : 1 TO 4 MONTHS

RECEPTION
 Eye-contact
 Social smile emerges
 Starts enjoying communication
 Can discriminate between /m/ & /p/ or /a/ & /i/
EXPRESSION
 Variations in crying (pitch/loudness/continuity)
 Cooing (/u/ or /oo/ sound)
 /k/ & /g/ sound emerges

Pre-linguistic Period : 4 to 8 Months

 RECEPTION
 Understands supra-segmentals (rise/fall of voice, loudness, pauses etc.)
 Discriminate more speech sounds
 EXPRESSION
 Vocal play (suck/play with thumb)
 Babbling (chain of repeated speech sounds) – important milestone

BABBLING
Importance:
 Evidence of innate linguistic capacity
  More controlled action
 Practice of speech mechanism
 Visual, Auditory & Tactile feedback
Characteristics:
 Chain of speech sounds are produced
 Common combinations : /VC/, /CV/, /VCV/
 Starts with back sounds (/k/), but common speech sounds are - /p/,/b/,/t/,/d/

PRE-LINGUISTIC PERIOD : 9 TO 12 MONTHS

 RECEPTION
 Understands meaning at phrase & word level.
 Popular baby games : “Show me ……” (pointing game), Peek-a-boo etc.
 EXPRESSION
 Echolalia : immediate reproduction of speech sounds.
 Jargon : string of supra-segmentals, but no meaning.
 Proto-words : word-like utterances

LINGUISTIC PERIOD : 11 TO 18 MONTHS (ONE WORD STAGE)

RECEPTION
 Starts behaving like a communication partner
 Vocabulary development
 Responding to utterances
EXPRESSION
 First Word & single word utterances
 Referential units: label objects, persons, actions etc.
 Holophrases: single word functioning as the whole sentence

LINGUISTIC PERIOD : 18 TO 24 MONTHS (TWO WORD STAGE)

RECEPTION
 Vocabulary explosion
 Start understanding one word – two meaning concept
 Stories & poems
 Responding to different sentence structures – negative, questions, imperative etc.
EXPRESSION
 Can speak most consonants & vowels
 Two word utterances – telegraphic speech (Agent + action or Action + object)

LINGUISTIC PERIOD : BEYOND 2 WORDS : 3 YEARS ONWARDS

 Rapid increase in reception & expression.

 Peer-child interaction – better language development
 Beginning use of complex sentences
 Starts understanding all 4 types of negation formation : “No cake”
 Non-existence “There is no cake”
 Rejection “I don’t want cake”
 Denial “I did not eat cake”
 Prohibition “Don’t eat the cake”
 Question formation : Supra-segmentals & Wh- words