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Researchers have found that language development begins before a child is even born, as a

fetus is able to identify the speech and sound patterns of the mother's voice. By the age of

four months, infants are able to discriminate sounds and even read lips. Researchers have

actually found that infants are able to distinguish between speech sounds from all languages,

not just the native language spoken in their homes. However, this ability disappears around

the age of 10 months and children begin to only recognize the speech sounds of their native

language. By the time a child reaches age three, he or she will have a vocabulary of

approximately 3,000 words. The behaviorist theory of B.F. Skinner suggests that the

emergence of language is the result of imitation and reinforcement. The nativist theory of

Noam Chomsky suggests that language in an inherent human quality and that children are

born with a language acquisition device that allows them to produce language once they have

learned the necessary vocabulary. Researchers have found that in all languages, parents

utilize a style of speech with infants known as infant-directed speech, or motherese(aka

"baby talk"). If you have every heard someone speak to a baby, you'll probably immediately

recognize this style of speech. It is characterized by a higher-pitched intonation, shortened or

simplified vocabulary, shortened sentences and exaggerated vocalizations or expressions.

Instead of saying "Let's go home," a parent might instead say "Go bye-bye."Infant-directed

speech has been shown to be more effective in getting an infant's attention as well as aiding

in language development. Researchers believe that the use of motherese helps babies learn

words faster and easier. As children continue to grow, parents naturally adapt their speaking

patterns to suit their child's growing linguistic skills. Below is the stages of language

development from infant to childhood.

1. Babbling:The first stage of language development is known as the prelinguistic,babbling or cooing stage. During this period, which typically lasts from the age of three

to nine months, babies begin to make vowel sounds such as ooooooand aaaaaaa. By five

months, infants typically begin to babble and add consonant sounds to their sounds such

as ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-maor da-da-da.

2. Single Words:The second stage is known as the one-word or holophase stage oflanguage development. Around the age of 10 to 13 months, children will begin to

produce their first real words. While children are only capable of producing a few, single

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words at this point, it is important to realize that they are able to understand considerably

more. Infants begin to comprehend language about twice as fast as they are able to

produce it.

3. Two Words:The third stage begins around the age of 18 months, when children begin touse two word sentences. These sentences usually consist of just nouns and verbs, such as

"Where daddy?" and "Puppy big!"

4. Multi-word Sentences:Around the age of two, children begin to produce short, multi-word sentences that have a subject and predicate. For example, a child might say

"Mommy is nice" or "Want more candy."

As children age, they continue to learn more new words every day. By the time they enter

school around the age of five, children typically have a vocabulary of 10,000 words or

more.