one to two step instructions) and their name and understand gestures like waving goodbye. Your child will begin to respond to familiar requests (i.e. This is also that fun time when your baby loves playing games like peek-a-boo, imitates various speech sounds and takes turns vocalising with others.
They may recognise facial expressions and tones of voice, and will begin to recognise the names of certain objects like their favourite toy. Your baby may begin to utilise speech to gain attention and babbling will start to evolve into recognisable words ie. Your baby will begin to make different ‘babbling’ sounds, vocalise excitement and displeasure, giggle during interactions and their eyes may start to follow the direction of sounds and voices. Your baby will generally be ‘cooing’, smiling at familiar faces, may have a different cry for different needs and may clam when spoken to by familiar people.
We know that each child’s language development occurs at their own rate, but referring to the basic language milestones can help you monitor your child’s progress and build an understanding of language delays: Language Milestones 0 – 3 months During typical development, a child will generally begin to understand language before they start using it. Think of it like this, if expressive language is the ‘output’, receptive language is the ‘input’ and how your child can comprehend this information through verbal and nonverbal language. Often, receptive language involves listening to and following instructions. Receptive language refers to the way your child ‘receives’, understands and processes information delivered through sounds, words, signs, gestures or symbols. Much of this can be reliant on your child’s ability to formulate their thoughts into words and sentences that are grammatically correct and easy to understand. It can be as simple as your child pointing to a toy they may like, and as they grow, they may start to use more complex signs, gestures, words, symbols or drawings to communicate with you.Įxpressive language is also important when it comes to your child developing positive interactions and relationships with others. What is Expressive Language?Įxpressive language refers to the way your child may ‘express’ or use language (both verbal and nonverbal) to convey their thoughts and feelings. To help build an understanding of expressive and receptive language delays, we will take a look at the difference between expressive and receptive language, language development milestones, signs of language delays, and strategies to help build your child’s language skills. This could indicate an expressive and / or receptive language delay, which can impact their ability to convey their needs and wants clearly, attend various activities and engage in meaningful interactions with others. They may also have difficulties with understanding language and words and find it hard to follow instructions at home or within an educational setting. Some children may have difficulty using words, sentences and gestures to convey meaning and messages to others. But what if your child experiences difficulties with their expressive and receptive language skill development? From these early stages it is clear to see how expressive and receptive language helps us form an understanding of our world while allowing us to share our thoughts, feelings, wants and needs. Similarly, they are also receiving information from their parents and respond to this information by laughing, looking and even repeating sounds and words. Through their first words, gestures and babbling, they are starting to express their needs and wants. Assist a child in discovering their hidden talents and create opportunities for them to demonstrate these strengths and be successful.Children begin to develop their language skills at an early age. Make effective use of text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology, use recording devices and computer based learning programs. Use hand-outs that help a child plan out what they want to say and organize their responses beforehand, suggest vocabulary words they can work with to prompt spoken responses, provide opportunities to engage with language in a multi-sensory way.