Toddler milestone: Talking

We do a lot of playful talking called vocal play in Kindermusik class to help children develop language, social and musical skills.

Here's what the Baby Center editorial staff at babycenter.com had to share about the milestones toddlers experience in the areas of talking:

"Talking is inextricably linked to understanding speech. By listening to others, your child learns what words sound like and how to put a sentence together. As a baby, he discovered first how to make sounds, then how to make those sounds into real words ("mama" and "dada" may have slipped out as early as 4 or 5 months). By the time he was a year old, he was diligently trying to imitate the sounds around him (though you probably heard him babbling away in a lingo that only he could understand). Now comes a period of extraordinary growth, as you watch your toddler go from speaking a few simple words to asking questions, giving directions, and even telling you stories he's made up."

And interestingly enough if you are teaching your child to be bilingual, " the number of words he can speak will be split between the two languages he's learning." Click here to read more about talking in a bilingual environment.

You can read the full article here: babycenter.com