Red Flag #7
Red Flag #7: If your two year old does not have at least a 25 word vocabulary and has not begun using short phrases (i.e. want juice), it’s time to go see a speech-language pathologist for an evaluation.
Your two year old should have at least 25 words that he or she uses regularly to communicate his or her needs to you. Again, it doesn’t mean they are perfectly pronounced at this age, but it does mean that have approximations of these words in their communicative repertoire.
Your two old should also have started combining at least two words to communicate in little phrases to you. For example, he or she may say “more milk” or “want up” at this point in their language development.
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I have a question about a 2 year old that is spoken to in both Italian and English. The mother, who spends the most amount of time with her, does not speak Italian. It’s the father’s parents that are speaking the Italian,they babysit “Emma” a fair amount of time and only speak Italian to her. Emma does not say alot verbally, but she will talk in gibberish, and the mother just listens and agrees with her. Emma appears to understand both languages,yet motions alot of time to get her point across if she wants something. Is this a good way to teach two languages to one so young? If you don’t know the answer to this, please advise who I can ask about this…thank you. A curious Aunt of Emma, Adele
Dear Adele,
Thank you for your patience in waiting for my response. I have been out of town!
The best time for a child to learn multiple languages is when they are very young! Children who are under 5 are in the best position to learn two languages because their brains are like a sponge. Their brains are literally being wired for language at this time in their young lives.
If a child is being taught two different languages, like Emma for example, it’s beneficial when the languages are spoken by different adults. This appears to be the case with Emma. Her Mother speaks to her in English, and her Grandparents speak to her in Italian. This allows the child to experience the language completely and separately and thus avoid any possible confusion. It’s a good sign that Emma appears to understand both languages.
It’s often not uncommon that children in bilingual homes or situations take just a little bit longer to acquire language, because they are doing double duty by having to process two different languages. And some children don’t need any extra time at all; they just pick up two languages without a beat!
With that being said, I would like to address Emma’s actual verbal expression. Does she have at least a 25 word vocabulary (in English)and is beginning to put two words together at this point? Are the words that she is using clear enough to be understood at least part of the time by an unfamiliar listener? If this is not the case, it may be time to seek out a local speech pathologist for an evaluation.
I’m not exactly sure how old Emma is, but she should definitely be using words more than gestures at this time to communicate her needs. Perhaps you could gently encourage her mother to encourage Emma to use her words more often! Children at this age will still use some gibberish or ‘jargon’ as we say in speech pathology, but the words should be outweighting the jargon by this time.
If this encouragement from Mom doesn’t produce any results with Emma, than I would certainly consider an evaluation.
I hope this answered your question, Adele. Thank you so much for visiting my site and stay tuned for more great information!