Toddlers use language in more sophisticated ways during this phase of their life. This occurs as a toddler has a better grasp of the rules of the language, through increased vocabulary and learning new skills. They are becoming increasingly familiar with the concept of conversation and through play and social interactions it strengthens and improves their verbal skills.
Language Development Milestones
- uses two or three words together, e.g. “go potty now”
- explosion’ of vocabulary and use of correct grammatical forms of language
- refers to self by name and often says ‘mine’
- asks lots of questions
- uses pronouns and prepositions
- uses simple sentences and phrases
- labels own gender
- copies words and actions
- makes music, sings and dance
- likes listening to stories and books
- ask questions beginning with, "Who, What and Where”
- able to say name, surname and how old they are
- use regular plurals and regular past tense correctly (may be a few errors while talking)
- begins to understand vocabulary indicating time, e.g. tomorrow, yesterday, later
- begins to understand and correctly use adjectives depicting size, e.g. small, smaller and smallest
- understands cause and effect relationships
- recognizes and identifies almost all common objects and pictures
- understands most sentences
- understands physical relationships
- can say name, age, and sex
- uses pronouns
- strangers can understand most of words
During this stage, toddlers are interested in conversation. They have developed a better grasp of vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. Toddler's sentences become longer with more grammatical structure. In particular toddlers will enjoy mixing with other children their own age, even though at times they can't always understand each other.