vital if a child is to progress easily through the many stages of early
speech development. In the first of a series on communication and
language, Professor Caroline Rowland and Dr Michelle Peter explain
why.
Children differ enormously in how quickly they learn to talk. Some children are faster than others, producing their first words before one year of age. In fact, some children speak before they can crawl. Some are adventurous at combining words, producing full sentences early in life, though these are often peppered with grammatical errors. Others seem more cautious, only combining words when they are absolutely sure they have the grammar right.
The fastest children not only start learning words earlier, they also learn more words per day than the slowest children 1. At 18 months of age, the fastest American children know more than 320 words on the MacArthur-Bates language checklist, yet the slowest only know four. The difference between fast and slow language learners is, therefore, not trivial. (Explore the data on the CLEX database at www.cdi-clex.org.)
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