Language Development from children aged 0-7 years by Lilli Buck

0-3 months old

100236226 — 2025-09-30 18:29:48 UTC

crying is the main way which a new born can communicate and let you know something is wrong. They may start to have different cries for different things e.g if they are hungry or if they need a nappy change. Babies will also make cooing sounds and listen to you when you speak.

3-6 months old

100236226 — 2025-09-30 18:36:30 UTC

Infants start to develop their communication abilities they start to babble trying to form words like “mama” and “dada” and they will respond to you speaking to them with smiles or laughter. They also start to use gestures to communicate what they need and will respond by turning their heads to hearing their own name or a familiar voice

6-9 months old

100236226 — 2025-10-01 06:55:59 UTC

Babies cooing and babbling will start to sound more like real words and listen carefully when parents speak to them even replying back by babbling early signs of good communication skills. At this age range babies may also start to pair gestures with words like waving and “bye-bye”. The different sounds like make like grunts when they are frustrated and squeals if they are happy are how they express to you how they are feeling.

9-12 months old

100236226 — 2025-10-01 07:08:23 UTC

Babies in this age range are usually interested in picture books which should be encouraged as it helps to develop their language. They will start to use less of a variety of sounds to communicate with you as they are learning to communicate through more clear babbling sounding more and more like an actual sentence.They may start to recognise more words like “no” and gesture by shaking their head.

1-3 years old

100236226 — 2025-10-01 07:17:58 UTC

In this age range they may start to put two words together especially with the word more (which they now understand)And start to ask “why” and “how” questions. They will use language that is usually understood by family members to communicate what they want and follow instructions easily. They also may develop even further with language using “Ed” at the end of a word to show past tense and they will start to use descriptive words like “pretty” when speaking to you.

3-5 years old

100236226 — 2025-10-01 10:36:35 UTC

In this age range their language will develop at a very quick pace. They will communicate using sentences with a wider variety of vocabulary. They will start to be able to answer questions and ask things like “what” and “where” questions. Their speech will start to sound much clearer although they still may mispronounce some things.

5-7 years old

100236226 — 2025-10-01 10:52:42 UTC

In this age range children will be able to speak clearly enough for unfamiliar people to understand what they’re saying although they still may make mistakes in pronouncing trickier words. They will be able to talk smoothly when having a conversation with an adult or another child and rarely get stuck trying to get a word out. The conversations they are able to participate in will be longer than before and have a wider variety of vocabulary and tenses. They are now able to understand stories and more complex instructions.