Language Developmental Milestones
At three months, a child:
* Makes cooing and gurgling sounds
At six months, a child:
* Babbles and makes sing-song sounds
At twelve months, a child:
* Babbles, but with inflection, which sounds like talking
* Says first word
At eighteen months, a child:
* Says 8-10 words others can understand
* Has vocabulary of about 5 to 40 words, mostly nouns
* Repeats words heard in conversation
* Uses “hi,” “bye,” and “please” when reminded
At two years, a child:
* Has a vocabulary of 150 to 300 words
* Uses 2-3 word sentences, usually in noun-verb combinations, such as "Dog bark," but also using inflection with combinations like "More cookie?"
* Refers to self by name and uses “me” and “mine”
At three years, a child:
* Uses 3-5 word sentences
* Asks short questions, usually using "what" or "where."
* Has a vocabulary of about 900-1000 words
At four years, a child:
* Has a vocabulary of about 1,500 to 2,500 words
* Uses sentences of 5 or more words
At five years, a child:
* Identifies some letters of the alphabet
* Uses 6 words in a sentence
* Uses “and,” “but,” and “then” to make longer sentence
By age six, a child's language begins to sound like adult speech, including the use of complex sentences, with words like "when," for example. However, children tend not to use sentences with "although" and "even though" until about age 10.
Advanced Language Development
Early Talking
Gifted children tend to begin talking early. While most children say their first word at around one year of age, gifted children may begin speaking when they are nine months old. Some parents report that their children said their first word even earlier than that, as early as six months of age.
Some parents have even reported that their children tried very hard to form words at three months! However, most babies are simply not physically developed sufficiently to control their mouths, tongue, and lips well enough to make the speech sounds they need. They may purse their lips and nearly turn blue with the effort and then become quite frustrated when they can't make the sounds they want to make.
Teaching babies sign language is a good way to help these children express themselves without vocalization.
It's important to note that not all gifted children speak early. In fact, some gifted children are late talkers, not talking until they are two years old or even older. When they do speak, however, they sometimes skip over the stages of language development and may begin speaking in full sentences. While early talking is a sign of giftedness, not speaking early is not an indication that a child is not gifted.
Advanced Vocabulary
An advanced vocabulary can mean two different things. It can mean the number of words a child uses and it can mean the types of words a child uses.
While a non-gifted child may have a vocabulary of 150-300 words at age two, gifted children may have surpassed the 100 word mark by the time they are eighteen months old. At eighteen months, most children have a vocabulary of from five to twenty words, although some do reach the fifty-word milestone by the time they are two years old. In their second year, most children increase their vocabulary to up to 300 words. Gifted children, however, will have a larger working vocabulary, approaching that of a four year old or even older children.
The other type of advanced vocabulary refers to the types of words a child has in his or her vocabulary. Typically, the first words a child learns will be nouns: mama, daddy, dog, ball, bird, etc. After that, simple verbs are added, for example, want, go, see, give. Gifted children, however, will be adding connecting words, such as and or even because. By age three, gifted children might also have added transitional words, such as however or multisyllabic words like appropriate.
Sentence Structures
A typical two-year old can construct sentences of two or three words, often without a verb. For example, a child might say, "There cat" for "There is a cat." A gifted child, however, will often be able to speak in fuller sentences at age two and by age three, their language may already resemble adult speech. They are able to use time markers, like now, later, first, and then, which, along with their advanced vocabulary and more complete sentences, allow them to carry on full conversations with adults.
Although most gifted children have this kind of advanced language development, its absence does not mean a child is not gifted. The range of normal language development is also as widely variable in gifted children as it is in the non-gifted population. These descriptions of what might be typical in a gifted child are meant to help parents understand what advanced language ability looks like.
Speech - Milestones?
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I'm not sure if advocates distracting your child away from their strong skills or not- could be worth seeing what she says.
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