Early Developmental Stages

babbling

repeated speech-like sounds that precede recognisable words

age:

• approximately 4 - 12 months

characteristics:

• infants typically begin with cooing (around 6–8 weeks) before progressing to babbling

• progresses from simple vowel sounds to repeated consonant-vowel combinations

• includes reduplication (repeated syllables)

• helps develop the speech organs and prepares infants for later speech

examples:

• ‘bababa’

• ‘dadada’

holophrastic stage

the child uses a single word (a holophrase) to communicate the meaning of an entire sentence

age:

• approximately 12 - 24 months

characteristics:

• first recognisable words appear

• meaning depends heavily on context, gesture and intonation

• vocabulary grows rapidly

• words mainly refer to familiar people, objects, actions and needs

examples:

• ‘milk’ = ‘I want some milk’

• ‘mummy’ = ‘Mummy, come here’

telegraphic stage

the child combines short strings of content words while omitting many grammatical words

age:

• approximately 2 - 3 years

characteristics:

• usually two- or three-word utterances

• function words (e.g. articles, auxiliary verbs and prepositions) are often omitted

• meaning remains clear despite simplified grammar

• sentence structure becomes increasingly organised

examples:

• ‘Daddy go work’

• ‘Want biscuit’

post-telegraphic stage

the child begins producing longer, more grammatically accurate and increasingly complex sentences

age:

• approximately 3+ years

characteristics:

• function words are used more consistently

• grammatical inflections become more frequent

• vocabulary expands rapidly

• increasing use of more varied sentence structures

• speech progressively resembles adult language

example:

• ‘I want to go outside because it’s sunny’