Typical Speech Development: Vocabulary Milestones by Months

One of these words is “semantics,” which is merely technical jargon for “vocabulary.” But, what exactly is vocabulary? 

Vocabulary refers to the set of words found in language that your child knows. Vocabulary can be split into two types:

Vocabulary develops as your child grows, and serves as both a useful and basic tool for communication and building knowledge. 

Why is Vocabulary Important?

Simply put, vocabulary is the basis for learning a language. In fact, research has shown that a child’s vocabulary in the early grades is related to reading comprehension in the upper grades:

As they develop, children typically understand or recognize more words than they use when speaking. 

Vocabulary Developmental Milestones

0 – 6-Month-Old Baby

7 – 12-Month-Old Baby

13 – 18-Month-Old Toddler

19 – 24-Month-Old Toddler

3-Year-Old Toddler  

4-Year-Old Toddler

5-Year-Old Child

6-Year-Old Child

How to Encourage Vocabulary Development

Learning new words can be tricky, as there are lots of things that children have to be able to do to understand and say a new word and get it right. In fact, your child needs to:

Luckily, there are many things you can do with your child to help them build and develop their vocabulary.

The United States Reading Panel has the following suggestions when targeting your child’s vocabulary:

Bearing this in mind, here are some activities that you can do with your child to help their vocabulary development:

Play rhyming games. Children love nursery rhymes and sing-along songs

. . . and Some More Vocabulary Activities:

That’s It! Just about any activity can be used for speech therapy, and in combination with the Speech Blubs App, you and your child will be able to have fun while doing so.