Does My Child Have Enough Words?

When it comes to tracking your child's language development, it can be a challenging task to determine the appropriate number of words they should be saying at a certain age. Understanding your child's vocabulary and speech patterns is crucial in identifying any potential need for speech therapy intervention. By observing and documenting your child's speech milestones, you can gain valuable insights into their linguistic progress. Speech therapy can play a vital role in enhancing your child's vocabulary skills, improving their communication abilities, and boosting their overall confidence. It is essential for parents to stay informed and proactive in supporting their child's language development journey.

Let’s get started and learn more about your child’s speech

Why Are Communication Milestones Important?

How Many Words Should My Child Have?

How Do I Know If My Child Needs Speech Services?

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Why Are Communication Milestones Important?

As a parent, it can be difficult to know how your child’s communication is developing. It’s even more difficult when every child developes at a slightly different pace. How do you know if your child is progressing in their communication or if they need help from a speech therapist? That’s what we are here for. We want to help parents feel empowered and help you get rid of some of those fears. “Developmental milestones will help you be familiar with what to expect as a child grows (and) identify skills to work on with your child and when to get professional assistance.” (ASHA, 2023). Milestones are not screeners or evaluations. It is a great tool to add to your parent tool kit, but these are not the only factors to consider when dealing with your child’s communication.

How Many Words Should My Child Be Saying Based On Their Age?

Age	Milestone	"Average"
12 Months	1 word	5+ words
18 Months	10 words	50+ words
24 Months	50 words	300+ words (combining 2 words)
36 Months	250 words	1000+ words (combining 3 words)

What Counts as a word?

1. Sign Language: your child signs "more"

2. Animal Sounds: "moo" or "baa"

3. Exclamatory Words: "uh-oh"

4. Word Approximations: "ba"=ball, "mo"=more
   

How Do I Know If My Child Needs Speech Services?

You now have more information to help guide you to understand your child’s communication. If your child is not reaching these communication milestones you can reach out to your pediatrician or a speech therapist in your area to get more information.

If you are located in Colorado our practice can provide you with a free consultation or evaluation to provide you further insight into your child’s speech. You are not alone in this. We want to help your child succeed. Just go to peakviewspeechtherapy.com and schedule today.

References

Nicolosi, L., Harriman, E., & Kresheck, J. (2006). Terminology of communication disorders (4th ed.). Baltimore, MD:Williams & Wilkins. Owens, R. E. (1996). Language Developement: An Introduction. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Hustard, K.C., Maher, T. J., Natxke, P., & Rathaus, P.J. (2021). Speech development between 30 and 119 months in typical children I: Intelligibility growth curves for since-word and multi word productions. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2023). American Speech-Language-Hearing Website, accessed 2 November 2023. <https://www.asha.org/public/developmental-milestones/>

Crowe, K., & McLead, S. (2020). Children’s English Consonant Acquisition in the United States: A Review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.