Section 3.2 Postnatal development

Language learning is one of the most important and exciting parts of a child’s early development. Babies begin to communicate from birth, and they can understand language even before they are able to speak. During infancy, language development is divided into two main periods.

1.Prelinguistic Period (birth to 12 months)

• Undifferentiated crying (0–1 month): Babies cry to express needs, but the cries sound the same.
• Differentiated crying (from 2 months): Parents start recognizing different cries for hunger, pain, or discomfort.
• Cooing and happy sounds (by 3 months): Babies make various sounds when they are content and begin repeating these sounds (called the “bird stage”).
• Babbling (around 5 months): Babies repeat sounds like “da-da” or “ma-ma.”
• Lallation (7–10 months): Babies repeat sounds they hear. At first, it happens by accident, then more purposefully and correctly.
• Single-Word Sentences (around 1 year): Babies start using one word to express full ideas. For example, saying “milk” to mean “I want milk.”

2. Linguistic Period (1–2 years)

• Holophrastic stage (12–18 months): Children use one word and gestures or tone to express a full message.
• By 18 months: They start putting words together in simple ways, using short phrases like “mom gone” to mean “Where is mom?” (called telegraphic speech).
• By 2 years: Most children can say around 300 words and begin forming basic sentences.