18-24 month language explosion

Around a child’s first birthday, parents are delighted when they hear a new word pop up occasionally, but around 18-24 months of age, something shifts.

Things ramp up, and the number of words your child uses will grow at a pretty rapid pace—it can feel like they’re adding a new word to their vocabulary almost every day between 18 and 24 months! We expect to hear quite the little language boom in toddlers at this age and it’s what is sometimes referred to as a toddler ⁣“language explosion” or “vocabulary spurt” by speech language pathologists and other professionals.

In this post, we’ll dive into what to expect when it comes to talking at 18 months and 24 months, why we don’t recommend taking the “wait and see” approach, and how to help your toddler’s vocabulary continue to grow.

language builds rapidly during 18-24 months

As you can see above, language builds pretty quickly during this time. It’s amazing to watch their vocabulary start to grow! Whereas before, you might be able to quickly list the words they have, it can become a much more daunting list to keep track of because new words are popping up every day!

The reason for this language burst at this age, seems to point to significant cognitive leaps, an increase in understanding of language, the ability to categorize words (which helps them build vocabulary more quickly and create schemas to understand new words) and conceptual understanding of objects.

what are the talking milestones for 18-24 months?

A quick note: Number of words is just one aspect of language development. If you’re curious about the other skills we consider, we recommend downloading our free toddler milestone checklist. You’ll learn more about your child’s strengths and current abilities. Plus, learn which skills are coming next!

18 months old

By 18 months, we look for toddlers to be saying at least 10-50 words. Their vocabulary at 18 months is starting to grow beyond just nouns (apple, dog, mama), as they also use different types of words like action words (go, eat), social words (hi, bye), location words (up, out), and adjectives (hot, big).

It’s important to know what counts as a word at this age. A lot of parents are surprised to find out that animal sounds, exclamatory words (yay!, uh oh!), part of a word (ex: do for dog), and sign language count as long as they are used:

• independently (meaning they said it on their own, not right after someone else said the word)

• consistently (it wasn’t a one-off thing)

• and in a context that makes sense

24 months old

At 24 months of age, speech language pathologists look for toddlers to be saying at least 50 words, but on average, they’ll typically be saying 200-300. *Remember, these words do not need to be pronounced perfectly to “count.”

The other big shift at this age is that they are frequently combining 2 words together. Examples of 2 word combinations might sound like:

• mama up

• more nana (banana)

• eat cracker

• blue car

• me do!

MILESTONES VS. AVERAGES

If you’re a little confused about the difference between milestones and averages, you’re not alone! A lot of parents find this clear as mud. But we can help!

Milestones: Milestones are skills or behaviors that 90% of children typically demonstrate within a specific age range. So if we look at the information we just shared above, at 24 months old, 90% of children are using at least 50 words.

Averages: Averages are different than milestones. Averages are skills or behaviors that 50% of kids typically demonstrate at a certain age. So, at 24 months old, nearly half of kids have 200-300 words.

We hope that clears things up!

wait and see: why we don’t love this sentiment

It’s really common between 18-24 months to hear your family and friends say things like, “Just wait until they’re two and then see,” or “Don’t worry, my brother didn’t start talking until he turned three.” Even some pediatricians will say, “Let’s talk about it at their 2 year well check.”

All of these sentiments suggest a “wait and see” approach. But here’s why we would replace “wait and see” with “support and see.”

support and see

• Because language builds sooooo rapidly at this age, the gap gets bigger and bigger, thus making it harder to “catch up” to peers. ⁣

• While it’s true that some kids do catch up on their own, we have no way of knowing who will and who won’t.

• Toddlers and their families deserve resources and support as soon as it’s impacting their child’s ability to communicate their wants, needs, and ideas. They should not have to wait until two.

• Language is so intertwined in other areas of development. A lot of times, these kids are super bright, but they’re not able to express themselves to “show” what they know. Sometimes this can make it appear like late talkers are behind their peers when it comes to cognitive skills, when in fact, they are not. They just don’t have the language to prove what they know.
  

Related: Late Talkers: What to do and When to Worry

HOW TO HELP YOUR toddler talk more

Meet them where they’re at

Don’t skip this part. It is critical to meet your child where they’re at. There’s no jumping ahead when it comes to talking. Skills build upon each other and it’s important to know which skills your child currently has and which ones might be coming next so that you can start there, rather than jumping ahead. Our free toddler milestone checklist will definitely help you know how to meet your child where they’re at.

REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT

Toddlers learn from hearing words repeatedly in meaningful contexts, so repeating what you say is a great way to encourage them to talk more. You may feel like a broken record at times, but repetition is key for language development. And, don’t worry, we don’t mean you should say the same word over and over again—Try to mix things up and make repetition feel as natural as possible.

This might sound like: Let’s go change your diaper! Diaper, where are you?! Oh, here’s the new diaper! Your diaper is wet, let’s get a dry diaper! That’s better. Put the diaper in the trash, please! Bye diaper!.” See what we mean? You can definitely make it sound more natural.

decrease your questions and increase your comments

We often think asking a question is the only way to get a conversation going with our toddler, but these questions can feel kind of like a test and can add a lot of pressure. It also stops the conversation quite a bit.

What do you have?
Child: Apple
End of conversation

Who’s that?
Child: grandpa
End of conversation

See what we mean?

If you comment, there’s more of a chance that you and your child can keep the back and forth going. Plus, this way they’ll hear more of a model for what they could say next time. It helps with building their understanding, too.

Of course, there are times that asking a question makes complete sense. You can think to yourself, “teach, don’t test”, if that helps.

slow down

If you want to encourage speech in your toddler, you may need to slowww your own communication down, and follow their lead. A few ways to do this:

• Notice what your toddler takes interest in, and talk about that. 

• Drop your own agenda. Toddlers learn more when they’re engaged and playing/talking about things they enjoy on their terms.

• Get face-to-face when possible. Toddlers learn so much by watching our gestures, facial expressions, and the way our mouth moves for speech sounds.
  
  

Get support if needed

We cover these strategies and several more in our TalkToddler course. Whether you’re proactive about giving your toddler a strong foundation for language development or you’re starting to get concerned that your toddler isn’t talking quite as much as other kids their age, our TalkToddler course can help!

Families never tell us that they regret seeking the support, and if anything, they wish they would have done it sooner 💛

You’ve got this!

about wee talkers

Carly Tulloch, M.A., CCC-SLP and Katie Sterbenz, M.S., CCC-SLP, are pediatric speech language therapists with over 25+ years of combined experience, but first and foremost, they’re parents–just like you. Between them, they have six kids and they all have unique and different needs.

Katie is licensed in Arizona and holds a Master’s degree from Arizona State University. With over 13 years of experience, she has worked in hospitals, clinics, schools, and private practice settings. Carly, licensed in British Columbia, has over 15 years of experience and holds a Master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach. She is certified in PROMPT (levels 1 and 2) and has completed Hanen’s It Takes Two To Talk and More Than Words training programs.

As moms and professionals, they understand the challenges parents face. They believe you should never have to navigate your child’s development alone. They’re here to show you how helping your child talk and communicate more can be both doable and fun. You can do this!

You can connect with Katie and Carly on instagram and in Wee Talkers’ programs and memberships.