Language Development Milestones for Bilingual and Monolingual Children

Abstract

Between September and December 2023, Babylonia collected questions from parents regarding their children's language development. This article aims to answer the following questions:

When should my child start talking?

What are the typical milestones in language development?

[Summary generated by Claude-3-Haiku-200k - we refer the reader to the article in PDF format for a complete answer]

This article examines the milestones of language development in bilingual and monolingual children, addressing parents' questions about when children should start talking and what the main typical milestones are.

The author explains that language professionals and parents often compare their children's development to established norms, known as "milestones." Although parents of young bilingual children sometimes expect their children to reach these milestones later, in reality, bilingual and monolingual children generally achieve them at the same ages.

The main milestones discussed include babbling (7-10 months), understanding words (9-12 months), producing first words (around 1 year), using 50 different words (around 2 years), and combining words into phrases (before 2 years). The article also highlights two milestones specific to bilingual children: understanding words in both languages (from 13 months) and using separate grammatical systems for each language (around 3 years).

An important point is that language development in bilingual children is not necessarily uniform. It is normal for one language to develop more quickly than the other in certain aspects. This does not mean that the child is experiencing a developmental delay. As long as the child reaches the expected milestones in at least one of their languages, their linguistic development is considered within the norm.

In conclusion, bilingual children reach the main language milestones at the same ages as monolingual children. Some milestones are specific to them, but their development in each language can be uneven without being problematic.