Language development progresses rapidly in the first years of life. By your child’s sixth birthday, it is usually largely complete. What happens during these six years? How does your baby go from the first incomprehensible sounds to articulating complete sentences? In this article, we’ll introduce you to the most important milestones in language development. We’ll also share tips on how you can easily support your child’s language acquisition in everyday life.

Milestones of language development

The exact age at which children start to speak varies greatly. Some say their first words as early as 9 to 12 months, while others not until they are 2 years old. Just as one child begins to walk earlier and another later, there are significant differences in language development as well. Nevertheless, there are certain milestones that children typically reach at a specific age. But you don’t need to worry if your child deviates from these, as they are only guidelines. Your little explorer will soon be almost unstoppable when it comes to speaking. :)

Before the birth

The foundations of language development are laid even before birth. Your child’s hearing begins to develop in the womb. There, they are exposed to a variety of sounds, such as the gurgling of your digestion and the flowing sounds of your blood. Sounds from outside also reach your baby. Your baby perceives them and can already recognize your voice.

Immediately after birth

Your baby’s first form of expression occurs immediately after birth: crying. This crying is the beginning of sound development. Your baby expresses their needs (for example, hunger, tiredness, or discomfort). When you respond, speak to your child, and soothe them, they learn that their needs are met when they communicate. From an early age, your little explorer can distinguish different vocal sounds. Usually, they respond to a calm, friendly tone with a content facial expression, while arguments or crying have the opposite effect. Your baby can also already tell where a sound is coming from and turn their head in that direction.

In the 1st year of life

At around 2 to 3 months, your baby begins to pay attention to your mouth and lip movements when you speak to them. They learn that certain expressions belong to specific situations. This is how their language comprehension develops. Your baby starts to experiment with different tongue and lip movements. At around 6 to 9 months, they produce more and more syllable sequences ( bababa, mememem ). Sometimes your baby practices this babbling all by themselves while playing. Sometimes they also mimic your expressions, so you can have a little dialogue.

In the 2nd year of life

Your child’s babbling gradually increases until the first real word finally emerges. For many children, this is Mama or Papa . Don’t worry: which word comes first doesn’t indicate your baby’s preferred parent. ;) This special moment often happens around the first birthday. However, some babies take a bit more time and start speaking at 1.5 or 2 years old. Don’t be discouraged if other children are faster than your little explorer. Every child learns at their own pace! Your child already understands much more than they can say. They probably respond to their own name and understand commands like give me, wink wink or nein .

We believe the first word is a moment that should be captured forever! :) That’s why we have a milestone card set for you, with which you can photographically capture this and 12 other firsts of your little explorer: simply download, print, take a photo, and enjoy!

Initially, vocabulary increases only slowly. On average, children aged 18 to 20 months know about 50 words. Each clearly used expression counts as a word, including wauwau for dog or hamham for food. Once your child knows about 50 words, the so-called vocabulary spurt begins. Now they learn about ten new words a day at a rapid pace.

From 3 to 6 years of age

After approximately 20 to 24 months, the first two-word sentences appear ( Dad sleeping ). This is the beginning of sentence development. By about 2.5 to 3 years old, your child will form three- and multi-word sentences. By around 4 years old, your child masters most sounds. Individual sound substitutions ( I can do it myself. ) are still completely normal at this age. They usually resolve on their own. The questioning age reaches its peak: your child wants to know everything, learn everything, and understand everything. They ask you with who?, where? and, above all, why? until you feel like you have a hole in your stomach. Even if it may sometimes be a little exhausting, it shows that your little explorer’s language development is in full swing.

How can you support your child in learning to speak?

Learning is easier for children when it’s fun! The more cheerful, carefree, and creative you and your child are with language, the more confidently they will learn it. Psychologist Wolfgang Wendlandt has developed a beautiful image for children’s language development. He compares language acquisition to a tree. Just as a tree only grows when it receives enough light, water, and warmth, language also needs certain “nutrients”: warmth, love, and acceptance help it thrive in your child. With the following activities, you can further support language acquisition:

Mouth Acrobatics

Regular movement strengthens muscles. This applies not only to trained upper arms or a firm stomach, but also to the muscles of the mouth. These muscles are used when eating, drinking, and speaking. For speaking, they need not only strength, but also dexterity and good perception. Even before your child speaks, important foundations for language development are laid: every movement of the mouth trains the muscles, and the more movement experiences your child gains, the more precisely they will be able to perform fine-tuned articulation movements later on. Children gain such movement experiences, among other ways, by putting everything in their mouth and exploring it with their lips. You can easily incorporate oral motor exercises into your daily routine. Regularly offer your child firmer foods to chew (of course, this only applies to children who no longer eat only pureed food). For example, don’t cut off the crust from bread, or offer raw carrots to gnaw on—a great workout for their mouth muscles. Sucking while drinking through a straw also strengthens the oral muscles. Or you can make funny faces together in front of the mirror while brushing teeth. This not only trains the muscles, but will definitely make your little explorer laugh!

Finger plays

Finger plays are suitable even for young children. They provide early experiences with rhythm and rhyme. Younger children may not yet be able to recite the verses, but they can already join in with their voice, facial expressions, and gestures.

Appropriate manner of speaking

We adults instinctively switch to a child-friendly way of speaking when we talk with children. We speak in a higher pitch, with a gentle tone, in short sentences, and with lots of sounds—the so-called Baby Talk . This adapted way of speaking is important and helpful for children as they acquire language. However, make sure you still speak correctly (so it’s better not to use Muttu heia machen ), so your child doesn’t learn incorrect expressions and structures. With older children, baby talk can quickly seem artificial. They may then feel they aren’t being taken seriously. So, use an age-appropriate, slightly simplified, but still correct way of speaking.

Picture books

Picture books offer countless conversation starters and are therefore important helpers in language development—even before your child says their first words. Just five minutes a day gives your baby valuable stimuli. Talk to your child about the pictures in the book instead of focusing only on the text. Fun should be the main focus. Make reading aloud a special time for just the two of you, and enjoy it.

What can you do about language irregularities?

Almost all children go through phases of language development when progress suddenly seems to slow down. Understandably, as a parent, you may worry. However, much of this resolves on its own over time. You can contact your pediatrician if your child

• does not babble, babbles only a little after the first few months, or suddenly stops

• speaks noticeably less or is less understandable than other children of the same age

• suddenly stops learning new words after two years.

If necessary, the pediatrician will refer you to a speech therapy practice. If you suspect a hearing impairment, you should also consult your doctor, as speech delays can also be caused by impaired hearing.

Your baby’s language development sometimes progresses faster and sometimes more slowly. However, if you “water” their language tree enough, it will grow quickly—and before you know it, complete sentences will emerge from that first word. We wish you and your little explorer many wonderful conversations!