DEVELOPMENT OF VOCABULARY IN CHILDREN UNDER 5
Understanding Vocabulary (Receptive vocabulary)
When we talk about receptive vocabulary, we are talking about the number of words the
child can understand. Children typically understand more words than they can say.
Age
6-12 months
Understands
12-18 months
18-24 months
2- 3 years
3 – 4 years
4 -5 years
Looks at you when their name is called
Start to understand words like 'bye-bye' and 'up' especially when a
gesture is used at the same time.
Recognise the names of familiar objects, things like ‘car’ and ‘daddy’.
Start to understand a few simple words, like ‘drink’, ‘shoe’ and ‘car’.
Point to things when asked, like familiar people and objects such as
‘book’ and ‘car’.
Understand between 200 and 500 words.
Understands simple action words as well as names for things.
Understand simple 'who', 'what' and 'where' questions
Understand and often use colour, number and time related words, for
example, 'red' car, 'three' fingers and 'yesterday / tomorrow'.
Understand more complicated language such as ‘first’, ‘last’, ‘might’,
‘may be’, ‘above’ and ‘in between’.
Understand words that describe sequences such as “first we are
going to the shop, next we will play in the park”.
Think more about the meanings of words, such as describing the
meaning of simple words or asking what a new word means.
www.talkingpoint.org.uk
Words Used by the child (Expressive Vocabulary)
All children develop at different rates, but most children will start to say their first
words around their first birthday. Their vocabulary then grows rapidly!
Age
Approximate Number of
Words in Expressive Vocabulary
12 months
15 months
18 months
2 to 6 words other than mama and dada
2 -10 words
10-50 words
Come to a drop in if your child is not using any
words at this age (but these words do not need to
be produced ‘properly’ to be considered words)
2 years
20-50 words
Come to a drop if your child has very few or no
words
2 ½ years
100 words or more
Come to a drop in if your child has fewer than 50
words
at around 5 years
2000-2500 words!
The Child Development Institute (www.childdevelopmentinfo.com);Nicolosi, Harryman, & Kresheck (2006),
Owens (1996), Linguisystems guide to Communication Milestones, 2009.
A child needs to have a range of nouns (naming words), verbs (action words), and
describing words in their vocabulary in order to produce sentences.
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At first, children learn the vocabulary that is most important in their world (e.g. names of
family members, toys, food). Children also learn basic action words, such as ‘eat’ ‘go’, but
these are harder to learn than the names of objects, which can be seen and touched.
Gradually they extend this knowledge into more abstract vocabulary, so by around 4 ½
they are using abstract words like concepts (such as in/on/under, hot/cold, fast/slow).
General concepts are learnt before specific concepts (e.g. big/little comes before tall/short,
wide/narrow, thick/thin).
Age
1-2 years
2-3 years
3 – 4 years
4 – 5 years
Concepts understood or used
Follows simple spatial directions, such as in and on
Uses simple directional terms, such as up and down
Uses two or three prepositions, such as on, in, or under
Distinguishes between in and under, one and many
Understands number concepts of one and two
Understands size differences, such as big/little
Understands in, off, on, under, out of, together, away from
Begins to understand time concepts of soon, later, wait
Begins to use adjectives for colour and size
Follows quantity directions empty, a lot
Follows directions with same, both, different
Understands next to, beside, between
Identifies colours
Uses position concepts behind, in front, around
Understands comparative and superlative adjectives, such as
big, bigger, biggest
Understands time concepts yesterday, today, tomorrow, first,
then, next, days of the week, last week, next week
Understands different, nearest, through, thin, whole
Identifies positional concepts first, middle, last
AutismInfo (www.autisminfo.com/milestones.htm#B); the Child Development Institute
(www.childdevelopmentinfo.com); Nicolosi, Harryman, & Kresheck (2006), Touhy, Brown, & Mercer-Moseley (2001),
Linguisystems guide to Communication Milestones, 2009.
Categorisation is very important for vocabulary development. Children learn to match
and sort objects by different categories (e.g. size, shape) between the ages of 2 ½ - 4
years. Children first learn to categorise words by class (e.g. kitchen utensil) and function
(e.g. we cut with a knife). Then they learn to categorise by size, shape, colour, quality and
composition. Categorising helps the child know how the word relates to the other words
they know (e.g. the how a cat and a dog are similar, and how they are different).
Further information can also be found on the ‘expressive language’ and ‘receptive
language’ information and development advice sheets.
Linguisystems guide to Communication Milestones, 2009.
The Child Development Institute (www.childdevelopmentinfo.com)
Nicolosi, Harryman, & Kresheck (2006); and Owens (1996)
AutismInfo (www.autisminfo.com/milestones.htm#B)
Nicolosi, Harryman, & Kresheck (2006)
Touhy, Brown, & Mercer-Moseley (2001)
Time to talk, Alison Schroeder 2001
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