During the first nine months of your baby’s life, you will have the experience of a lifetime watching and listening as he/she goes from simple cooing to actual words. While the words may not be perfect, they will be easily understood, especially to a trained mother or father’s ears. Around age 10 months to about 17 months, your baby will make another major change with communication, actually using various tones and inflections to make a point.
At this time, your child has understood that raising his or her voice or putting emphasis on a particular word evokes a different type of response from you. Therefore, your child has now started to understand the power of voice, not just words. Around age 18 months, most children have a vocabulary of 200 words. The majority of these words are nouns and the child has begun to use them effectively and clearly.
The fascinating thing about having a child around 18 months of age is the quickness of which he/she learns. For instance, it is quite common for a child this age to learn a minimum of 10 new words every day! In addition, around 20 months of age, your child will start to put two to three words together. As an example, instead of saying “potty”, you may hear “go potty” or “I need go potty”. Then by age 24 months, the maturity level of communication is amazing. However, the majority of children at this age will still struggle somewhat with pronouns but be patient.
Now, around age 25 months, you might notice your child actually screaming when “talking”. Usually up to about 36 months, the child is again experimenting, trying to find out what does and does not work. We recommend you not scold the child but redirect him/her that speaking so loudly is not necessary. Soon, your child will form sentences or verbs and nouns, almost carrying on a normal conversation with you. It is at this time you begin to realize just how fast your little baby has grown.