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Vocabulary Development

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adapted from HomeSpeechHome.com

 

Your child's early years are some of the most vital for communication development.

Communication is what makes us who we are and it is how we relate to one another so it is important to get a good start. 

 

 

30 Months (2.5 Years)

 

Expressive Language / What the Child Says

  • Spoken Vocabulary Size: about 546 words
  • Names common objects
  • Names familiar actions (kiss, hug, hold, tickle)
  • Names familiar basic concepts (hot, cold, up, down)
  • Says "WHERE?"
  • Asks "WHY?"
  • Says "big", "little"
  • Sentences are simple declarations or descriptions of events. Child can't tell a story/narrative yet (24-36 months)
  • MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence Length) = 2.5 words

 

Uses These Grammar Parts/ Brown's Morphemes

  • "Plural -S, -IES" on the ends of words (24-33 months)
             Examples:   "Shoes on feet."   "Kitties running.
  • "Irregular Past Tense" words (when child knows that something happened in the past so they use the correct form of the word to show it) (25-26 months)
             Examples: came, broke, sat, went, fell
  • "In"
             Example:    "Spoon in cup."
  • "On"
             Example:    Ball on couch."
  • "Possessive S" on the ends of words (26-40 months)
             Example:    "Mommy's shoes."
  • "Uncontractible copula" (27-39 months)
             Examples:   "Here it is."    "There it went."
  • Articles "A" and "The" (28-46 months)
             Examples:   "I see a kitty."    "Throw the ball."
  • "Regular Past Tense -ed" (26-48 months)
             Examples:   "He pushed me."   "She walked fast."
  • "3rd Person Singular" (26-48 months)
             Examples:   "Mommy jumps."    "He smiles a lot."
  • "Contractible copula" (29-49 months)
             Examples:   "That's mine."   "He's big."

 

Receptive Language / What The Child Understands

  • Understands pronouns "mine", "yours"
  • Responds to "big", "little"
  • Understands action words: jump, kick kiss, throw, etc.
  • Beginning to follow 3-step directions
  • Understands "WHY?" questions
  • Understands gender: boy, girl
  • Understands 3 word sentences, but context and past experience determine the meaning, don't understand word order yet (responds by doing the what was mentioned in the most familiar, probable location, and in the most familiar, probable way, and just fills in the missing information with their existing knowledge)
  • Follows 2-step related directions
             Examples:   "Go get your shoes and put them on."   

 

Emergent Literacy Skills 

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

 

Phonological Awareness

  • Awareness of rhyming emerges

 

Social/Play

  • Uses toys functionally
  • Seeks adults' help
  • Initiates interactions using signs, symbols, or words
  • Enters play groups with adult assistance
  • Plays for at least 10 minutes
  • Gives up a toy easily when they are done with it
  • Attends during group activities
  • Symbolic Play Level increases rapidly, pretending improves

    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.

    Level 4     (24-36 months) - Pretends to do actions, followed by doing it on others, and then by related actions.
             Examples:
                   Combs own air, then combs mom's hair.
                   Drinks from bottle, then feeds the doll.
                   Kisses doll, puts it to bed, puts blanket on.
                   Stirs in the pot, feeds doll, and washes dishes.

    Level 5     (24-36 months) - Plans ahead what actions to do and tells with words or gestures.
             Example: Picks up the bottle, says "baby", then feeds the doll and covers it with            a cloth.

 

 

36 Months (3 Years)

 

Expressive Language / What The Child Says

  • Asks "WHO?", "WHOSE?", "WHY?", "HOW MANY?"
  • Asks "HOW?" at 3 years 6 months
  • Uses "hard/soft", "hot/cold", "over/under"
  • Uses pronouns "I, you, he, she, they"
  • Uses at least one state of being/auxiliary verb: "is, am, are"
  • Says "plural s, ies" on the ends of words
  • MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence Length)
    3 years = 3.2 words
    3.5 years = 3.8 words

 

Uses These Grammar Parts/ Brown's Morphemes

  • "Possessive S" on the ends of words (26-40 months)
             Example:    "Mommy's shoes."
  • "Uncontractible copula" (27-39 months)
             Examples:   "Here it is."   "There it went."
  • Articles "A" and "The" (28-46 months)
             Examples:   "I see a kitty."   "Throw the ball."
  • "Regular Past Tense -ed" (26-48 months)
             Examples:   "He pushed me."
  • "3rd Person Singular" (26-48 months)
             Examples:   "Mommy jumps."   "He smiles a lot."
  • "Contractible copula" (29-49 months)
             Examples:   "That's mine."   "He's big."
  • "Irregular 3rd person" (28-50 months)
             Examples:   does, has
  • "Contractible auxillary" (30-50 months)
             Examples:   "Daddy's drinking juice."   "Joey's my best friend."

 

Sentences Become More Complex With These Forms

  • gonna, have to, let's, let me
  • to + verb = want to jump
  • like to play
  • and, but, or
  • know, wonder, think, pretend, hope, show, forget

 

Receptive Language / What The Child Understands

  • Prepositions: beside, in, in-front-of, next-to, on, over, out, under
  • Understands hard/soft and hot/cold
  • Answers yes/no questions correctly
  • Answers basic "who", "what", "where", "whose", and "why" questions
  • Understands basic color words
  • Understands basic kinship terms (aunt/uncle, grandma/grandpa, brother/sister)
  • Understands basic shapes (circle, square, triangle)
  • Follows 2-step unrelated directions, in order (ability to follow more complex directions increases rapidly over the next year)
             Example:   Go get the ball and knock on the door.
  • Understands difference between single and plural words
             Examples:   You say, "Get the cup," and they get one cup.
                               You say, "Get the cups," and they get all of the cups.
  • Understands "Same/Different"
             Example: You say, "Get the socks that are different," and they will choose the             socks that don't match.
  • Understands "not"
             Example:    You say, "Get the crayon that is not red," and they choose a crayon             of a different color.
  • Understands "His/Hers"
             Example:   You say, "Get his shoes," and they will choose the boy shoes.
  • Answer "what" questions that require inference (using facts they already know or see to make their "best guess")
             Example: You ask, "What do you think happened to that boy's knee?", while looking at a picture of a boy with a hurt knee standing next to a bike. Child answers, "He fell off his bike."
  • Knows the functions of objects and can answer questions about the use of objects
             Examples:    Ask "What do we do with scissors?" They answer, "cut..."
  • Groups items by category
             Examples:   Puts all the "big" toys here and "small" toys there.

 

Narrative Development

  • Stories are mainly descriptions or they explain in order (sequence) how something happened. They label and describe events around a character/person but there is no plot.
             Example:   and then... and then... and then... and then...

 

Phonological Awareness

  • Rhyming increases
  • Alliteration begins (aware of words beginning with the same letter)
    Examples:
    "Mommy made magic marshmallows"
    "Daring daddy dove deep"
  • Segmentation, blending, and manipulating of words and syllables begins
    Examples:
    Put the words "butter" and "fly" together and you get..."butterfly"
    Take "room" off of "bedroom" and you get... "bed"
    Change "cat" to a new word by putting "p" in the front and it becomes... "pat"
    Take the "t" off the end of "cat" and you have... "ca"
    Put "s" on the end of "cat" and you have... "cats"
  • Letter sounds and written letter/symbol awareness begins (grapheme/phoneme awareness)
    Examples:
    "S" is the name of the letter, it makes the "ssssss"
    sound, and it looks like this...S.

 

Emergent Literacy Skills 

  • Looks at, listens to, and shows appreciation of books
  • Begins to develop an understanding of the following:
    Examples:
    Print Functions - entertainment, self-expression, obtaining information, carrying out daily affairs, communicating messages, problem solving
    Examples:
    Print Forms and Conventions - letter names/sounds, linear arrangement of letters, words separated by spaces, book handling skills (right-side-up or up-side-down, front/back), punctuation, difference between print and pictures, differences between letter, sound, word, and sentences
    Examples:
    Structure of books and stories - cover, title, beginning, middle, end, problem and what is going to happen

 

Social/Play

  • Plays with 2 or 3 children at a time
  • Seeks out a consistent friend and plays with them
  • Responds to peers requests
  • Participates during group activities with an adult leader
  • Gives and takes turns with other children
  • Gets another child's attention before commenting to them
  • Encourages or praises peers
  • Accepts reasonable compromise from adults
  • Uses toys to represent different things
    Example:
    Pretends a small square block is a cell phone, holds it to their ear, talks on it, and puts it back in pocket or purse.
  • Makes comments related to play theme
    Examples:
    "This soup is hot!" (while pretending to stir soup)
    "Quiet! Baby is sleeping." (to partner while rocking baby)
  • Makes requests of peers
    Examples:
    "Get me the blanket."
    "Come upstairs."
    "Put the truck in here."
  • Makes requests of others in more ways (Can you...?, Would you...?) and direct requests begin to be replaced by indirect requests

 

 

4 Years (48 Months)

 

 

Expressive Language / What the Child Says

  • Asks "WHEN?" (54 months)
  • Asks "HOW?"
  • Uses prepositions "on top, between"
  • MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/ Average Sentence Length)
    4 years = 4.4 words
    4.5 years = 5 words

 

Uses These Grammar Parts/ Brown's Morphemes:

  • "Regular Past Tense -ed" (26-48 months)
    Examples:
    "He pushed me."
    "She walked fast."
  • "3rd Person Singular" (26-48 months)
    Examples:
    "Mommy jumps."
    "He smiles a lot."
  • "Contractible copula" (29-49 months)
    Examples:
    "That's mine."
    "He's big."
  • "Irregular 3rd person" (28-50 months)
    Example:
    does, has
  • "Contractible auxillary" (30-50 months)
    Examples:
    "Daddys drinking juice."
    "Joey's my best friend."

 

Complex Grammar Development

  • Uses modifier nouns (which, who, that, what)
    Examples:
    "The girl who is smiling is nice."
    "The book that is red is mine."
  • Uses the words "if, so, because, when"
  • Uses words such as "let, make, watch, help"
  • Uses comparative clauses such as "is ___er than...", "as ____ as ____"
    Examples:
    "Your cookie is bigger than my cookie."
    That hill is as tall as my house."

 

Receptive Language / What the Child Understands

  • Follows 3 step directions and multi-step unrelated commands
  • Answers more complex "who", "what", "where", "why" questions and simple "when" and "how" questions

 

Narrative Development

  • Stories are primitive narratives (4 to 4 ½ years)
  • Mainly action sequences with an initiating event, action, attempt, and maybe a consequence but no resolution
  • Contain at least 3 story grammar elements (example: setting, characters, plot)
    Example:
    There was a big stick in the road. It was blocking my way so I tried to turn. But then I crashed my bike into it.

 

Phonological Awareness (4 years)

  • Breaking words into syllables begins (bu-tter-fly = 3 syllables, mo-mmy = 2 syllables)
  • Rhyming increases
  • Alliteration increases (aware of words beginning with the same letter)
    Examples:
    "Mommy made magic marshmallows"
    "Daring daddy dove deep"
  • Segmentation, blending, and manipulating of words and syllables increases
    Examples:
    Put the words "butter" and "fly" together and you get..."butterfly" 
    Take "room" off of "bedroom" and you get... "bed"
    Change "cat" to a new word by putting "p" in the front and it becomes... "pat"
    Take the "t" off the end of "cat" and you have... "ca"
    Put "s" on the end of "cat" and you have... "cats"
  • Letter sounds and symbol awareness increases (grapheme/phoneme awareness)
    Example:
    "S" is the name of the letter, it makes the "ssss" sound, and it looks like...S.

 

Social/Play

  • Gives and takes turns and maintains a conversation
  • Reports on past events
  • Reasons out loud with words
  • Predicts or makes guesses
  • Expresses empathy
  • Creates imaginary roles or props
  • Seeks out a consistent friend and plays with them
  • Plays with 2 or 3 children at a time
  • Accepts reasonable compromise from adults
  • Participates during group activities with an adult leader
  • Gets another child's attention before commenting to them
  • Encourages, praises, and makes requests of peers
  • Responds to peers requests
  • Begins to hint requests that do not mention the intention in the request "those smell good!")
  • Begins to address specific requests for clarification (when others say they don't understand, the child changes his/her words and tries to explain better what he/she meant)

 

5 Years (60 Months)

 

 

Expressive Language / What the Child Says

  • Asks "WHEN?" (54 months)
  • Uses prepositions "behind, below"
  • MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/ Average Sentence Length)
    5 years = 5.6 words
  • Uses a variety of words, not just the same ones over and over
    Total # of words in 100 utterance speech sample: 439-602
    Total # of different words in 100 utterance speech sample: 156-206

 

Uses These Grammar Parts/ Brown's Morphemes:

  • "Contractible copula" (29-49 months)
    Examples:
    "That's mine."
    "He's big."
  • "Irregular 3rd person" (28-50 months)
    Example:
    does, has
  • "Contractible auxillary" (30-50 months)
    Examples:
    "Daddys drinking juice."
    "Joey's my best friend."

 

Complex Grammar Development

  • Uses conjunction words (example: and, so, but, or)

 

Receptive Language / What the Child Understands

  • Follows 3 step directions and multi-step unrelated commands
  • Answers more complex "who", "what", "where", "when", "how" and "why" questions

 

Narrative Development

  • Stories are chain narratives (4 ½ to 5 years)
  • Complete basic episodes with cause/effect relationships and temporal relationships but the plot is still not strong
  • Contain at least 4 story grammar elements (example: setting, characters)

 

Phonological Awareness (5-7 years)

  • Rhyming solidifies, they know the onset (the beginning sound that changes) and the rime (the last part of the word that rhymes)
    Example:
    "prk" and "bark" rhyme ("p" and "b" are the onsets, "ark" is the rime)
    "witty" and "kitty" rhyme ("w" and "k" are the onsets, "itty" is the rime)
  • Alliteration solidifies, they can identify words beginning with the same letter.
    Example:
    "Mommy made magic marshmallows"
    "Daring daddy dove deep"
  • Segmentation, blending, and manipulating of words and syllables solidifies
    Example:
    Put the words "butter" and "fly" together and you get... "butterfly"
    Take "room" off of "bedroom" and you get... "bed"
    Change "cat" to a new word by putting "p" in the front and it becomes...  pat"
    Take the "t" off the end of "cat" and you have... "ca"
    Put "s" on the end of "cat" and you have... "cats"
  • Letter sounds and written letters/symbols that go with them solidifies (grapheme/phoneme correspondence)
    Example:
    They know "S" is the name of the letter, it makes the "ssssss" sound, and it looks like this... S.

 

Social/Play

  • Gives and takes turns and maintains a conversation
  • Reports on past events
  • Reasons out loud with words
  • Predicts or makes guesses
  • Expresses empathy
  • Creates imaginary roles or props
  • Seeks out a consistent friend and plays with them
  • Plays with 2 or 3 children at a time
  • Accepts reasonable compromise from adults
  • Participates during group activities with an adult leader
  • Gets another child's attention before commenting to them
  • Encourages, praises, and makes requests of peers
  • Responds to peers requests
  • Hints requests that do not mention the intention in the request ("those smell good!")
  • Ability to address specific requests for clarification increases (when others say they don't understand, the child is better at changing his/her words and explaining better what he/she meant)

 

 

Kindergarten (5-6 Years)

 

Expressive Language / What the Child Says

  • Uses preposition “above” (6 years, 6 months)
  • Asks factual and inferential questions
  • Uses all Brown’s Morphemes
  • Begins to master exceptions to grammatical rules (5-7 years)
  • Use and understanding of passive sentences begins (5-7 years)
    Examples:
    “The ball was kicked by John.”
    “The pie was made yesterday.”

 

Receptive Language / What the Child Understands

  • Follows 3 step directions and multi-step unrelated commands
  • Answers more complex "who", "what", "where", “when”, “how” and “why” questions
  • Answers factual and inferential questions
  • Listens to and understands grade level stories that are read aloud to them
  • Understand/follow a simple conversation

 

Narrative Development

  • Complete Episode / True Narrative (6 years)
  • Narratives have a theme, character, plot, logically sequenced, temporally ordered, initiating even, action, consequences, emotion, and resolution
  • Contain at least 5 story grammar elements (example: setting, characters)

 

Phonological Awareness (5-7 years)

  • Rhyming solidifies. They know the onset (the beginning sound that changes) and the rime (the last part of the word that rhymes)
    Examples:
    “park” and “bark” rhyme (“p” and “b” are the onsets, “ark” is the rime)
    “witty” and “kitty” rhyme (“w” and “k” are the onsets, “itty” is the rime)
  • Alliteration solidifies. They can identify words beginning with the same letter.
    Examples:
    "Mommy made magic marshmallows"
    "Daring daddy dove deep"
  • Segmentation, blending, and manipulating of words and syllables solidifies
    Examples:
    Put the words "butter" and "fly" together and you get..."butterfly"
    take "room" off of "bedroom" and you get... "bed"
    change "cat" to a new word by putting "p" in the front and it becomes..."pat"
    take the "t" off the end of "cat" and you have..."ca"
    put "s" on the end of "cat" and you have... "cats"
  • Letter sounds and written letters/symbols that go with them solidifies (grapheme/phoneme correspondence)
    Example:
    They know "S" is the name of the letter, it makes the "ssssss" sound, and it looks like this... S.

 

Reading

  • Understands reading is left to right, top to bottom, front to back
  • Understands spoken words have speech sounds in them
  • Recognizes words by sight (about 25 words)
  • “Reads” a few picture books from memory
  • Imitates reading by looking at pictures
  • Knows alphabet and numbers

 

Writing

  • Prints his/her own first and last name
  • Draws a picture that tells a story, labels and writes about a picture
  • Write upper and lower case letters legibly

 

Social/Play

  • Starts and maintains conversations
  • Uses many types of expression to express needs, wants, and ask questions or give information
  • Hints requests that do not mention the intention in the request (“those smell good!”)
  • Ability to address specific requests for clarification increases (when others say they don’t understand, the child is better at changing his/her words and explaining better what he/she meant)

 

 

4th Grade (9-10 Years)

 

Expressive Language / What the Child Says

  • Uses language effectively for a variety of purposes/situations
  • Participates in group discussions
  • Gives accurate directions to others
  • Summarizes and restates ideas
  • Organizes information for clarity
  • Uses subject area information and vocabulary for learning
  • Give effective oral presentations
  • Can explain relationships between meanings of multiple-meaning words (analogies) (9-12 years)
  • Uses more abstract and specific vocabulary and grammar, complex sentences in writing than in conversation (9-12 years)
  • Uses a variety of words, not just the same ones over and over
  • Gives synonyms and categories in word definitions
  • 4 out of 5 words have a prefix or suffix
  • Uses more figurative language in conversation
    Examples:
    "I am in hot water."
    "That math problem is a bear."
    Total # of words in 100 utterance speech sample: 496-687 (9 years)
    Total # of different words in 100 utterance speech sample: 183-235 (9 years)

 

Receptive Language / What the Child Understands

  • Listens to and understands information presented by peers
  • Form opinions based on evidence
  • Listens for specific purposes
  • Demonstrates understanding of grade level content material
  • Understands jokes and riddles based on sound similarities
    Examples:
    "What kind of shows to cows like to watch?" 
    "Moo-sicals"
  • Understands jokes and riddles based on word ambiguity (9-12 years)
    Examples:
    "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know." - Groucho Marx
  • Understands most common idioms
    Examples:
    "You're a couch potato."
    "Break a leg."
    "I'm tied up."

 

Narrative Development

  • Complex Episodes / Multiple Episodes
  • Stories include complex, embedded and interactive episodes

 

Reading

  • Reads for specific purposes
  • Reads grade level books fluently
  • Use previously learned information to understand new information
  • Follow written directions
  • Take brief notes
  • Link information learned to different subjects
  • Learn meanings of new words through knowledge of word origins, synonyms, and multiple meanings
  • Use reference materials
  • Explain the author's purpose and style
  • Read and understand a variety of literature
  • Compare and contrast in content areas
  • Make inferences from texts
  • Paraphrase content, include main idea and details
  • Read 120-150 words per minute (wpm)

 

Writing

  • Write effective narratives and explanations, and several paragraphs on the same topic
  • Develop a plan for writing, beginning, middle, end
  • Organize writing to convey a central idea
  • Edit final copies for grammar, punctuation, spelling

 

Social

  • Opens and closes conversations appropriately
  • Stays on topic, takes turns, and uses eye contact during conversation
  • Clarifies and explains words and ideas when conversation breaks down, gives background information or definitions of words
  • Uses language to inform, persuade, and entertain
  • Ability to take others' perspectives increases which also increases the ability to persuade (7-9 years)
  • Uses language to establish and maintain social status (7-9 years)

 

 

5th Grade (10-11 Years)

 

 

 

Expressive Language / What the Child Says

 

  • Uses language effectively for a variety of purposes/situations
  • Gives accurate directions to others
  • Summarizes main points
  • Reports about information gathered in group activities
  • Organizes information for clarity
  • Make planned oral presentations appropriate to audience
  • Can explain relationships between meanings of multiple-meaning words (analogies) (9-12 years)
  • Uses more abstract and specific vocabulary and grammar, complex sentences in writing than in conversation (9-12 years)
  • Uses a variety of words, not just the same ones over and over
  • Gives synonyms and categories in word definitions
  • 4 out of 5 words have a prefix or suffix
  • Uses more figurative language in conversation
    Examples:
    "I am in hot water."
    "That math problem is a bear."
    Total # of words in 100 utterance speech sample: 518-868 (11 years)
    Total # of different words in 100 utterance speech sample: 191-267 (11 years)

 

 

Receptive Language / What the Child Understands

 

  • Listens and draws conclusions in subject area
  • Form opinions based on evidence
  • Listens for specific purposes
  • Demonstrates understanding of grade level content material
  • Understands jokes and riddles based on word ambiguity (9-12 years)
    Examples:
    "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know." - Groucho Marx
    "He is an unbelievable man." (Either the man is a liar, or he an incredible/awesome man.)
  • Understands most common idioms
    Examples:
    "You're a couch potato."
    "Break a leg."
    "I'm all tied up."

 

Narrative Development

 

  • Complex Episodes / Multiple Episodes
  • Stories include complex, embedded and interactive episodes

 

 

Reading

 

  • Reads grade level books fluently
  • Prioritizes information according to the purpose of reading
  • Learn meanings of unfamiliar words through knowledge of root words, prefixes, and suffixes
  • Reads a variety of literacy forms
  • Describes development of character and plot
  • Describes characteristics of poetry
  • Analyzes author's language and style
  • Use reference materials to support opinions
  • Read 120-150 words per minute (wpm)

 

 

Writing

 

  • Writes for a variety of purposes
  • Uses effective vocabulary
  • Varies sentence structure
  • Revises writing for clarity
  • Edits final copies

 

Social

 

  • Maintains eye contact, uses gestures, facial expressions, and appropriate voice during group presentations
  • Participates in class discussions across subject areas
  • Opens and closes conversations appropriately
  • Stays on topic, takes turns, and uses eye contact during conversation
  • Clarifies and explains words and ideas when conversation breaks down, gives background information or definitions of words

 

 

 

 source: 

 https://www.home-speech-home.com/language-development-in-toddlers-30-36-months.html

 https://www.home-speech-home.com/language-development-in-children-4-5-years.html

 https://www.home-speech-home.com/language-development-in-children-5-6-years.html

 https://www.home-speech-home.com/language-development-in-children-9-10-years.html

 https://www.home-speech-home.com/language-development-in-children-10-11-years.html