Talking a Blue Streak: Language and Your Child

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By Suzanne Dixon M.D., M.P.H.

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"There is nothing so amazing as the development of a child," says Suzanne Dixon, M.D., a behavioral and developmental pediatrician who was one of the founding members of the Pampers Parenting Network. "Every day is a new adventure when you have a child around you. I never get tired of learning from the children who have been a part of my life, professionally and personally."Suzanne Dixon, M.D., M.P.H., was born and raised in Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota, School of Medicine. She did her pediatric training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and then completed a fellowship in Child Development at Boston's Children's Hospital. Dr. Dixon joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, and did patient care, teaching, and research for 20 years. She ran a large newborn service, performed research in early child development, and was involved in many community outreach activities in maternal child health. Throughout her entire professional life she has maintained an interest in cross-cultural activities, living and working in many parts of the world, including Mexico, India, Kenya, Indonesia, and several countries from the former U.S.S.R. Dr. Dixon is the author of numerous research articles, review articles, and textbook chapters in pediatrics, child and family development, and public health. Her textbook, written with Dr. Martin Stein, Encounters With Children: Pediatric Behavior and Development, has become a classic in child health education and is in its fourth edition. She is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, an international journal of high standing in the professional world. She also has served as an associate editor for Infant Mental Health and currently reviews for several major pediatric journals. Dr. Dixon is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and served in national positions in that organization. She is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the Society for Research in Child Development, the American Public Health Association, and the Executive Council of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. She serves as consultant to several national and international organizations and has received an award from Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies.Dr. Dixon continues to lecture and consult worldwide on aspects of maternal, child, and family health. She practices behavioral and developmental pediatrics in Montana and works with local advocacy groups on education and women''s health. Dr. Dixon has been married for over 30 years and has three sons. She and her husband travel frequently, are outdoor enthusiasts, and enjoy being amateur anthropologists.

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Between 30 and 36 months, your child will begin to construct sentences of four or five words. He'll also be able to tell stories and ask "what" and "where" questions. Of course, this ability comes amid a flurry of language development that started before his second birthday and will continue long after it. Your child is beginning to understand grammar and to use pronouns.

You Drive in Car

A 2- to 3-year-old may have a vocabulary of more than 300 hundred words, almost half the number of words adults use in everyday conversation. Children also understand more than they can say. This may cause mild frustration in your child and some verbal tumbling over words that won't come out fast enough to satisfy a preschooler's busy mind. This leads to what we call "developmental stuttering," a completely normal event unrelated to real stuttering that comes out in a small number of children close to school age. When this happens to your child, you can help her by trying to guess the word she's searching for and by not pressuring or embarrassing her.

Â Language Benchmarks

Â Language Delay Myths

Language Benchmarks

At this age, a child should be able to make herself mostly clear to a stranger about three-quarters of the time, unless she is tired or stressed. She's adding pronouns, using them in phrases such as "you go store" rather than saying "Mommy go store." And she has probably mastered the ability to follow simple two- or even three-part directions ("Go to your room and get your sweater and your teddy."). Asking and answering questions will happen regularly, and you may even hear words used to describe past or expected future events.

Language is so critical to learning that you'd hate to miss a delay. On the other hand, there is some variation in how and when children learn to express themselves.

Language Delay Myths

You might hear other parents, teachers, even some health care providers explain language delay using reasons that have no basis in science. Common ones are:

Birth order: "His brothers get him everything he wants so he doesn't have to talk." While younger children may show a slight delay in verbalizing, they are not delayed in understanding, and they are not delayed by a year. Small delays, not large ones, are explained by birth order.

Gender: "He's a boy, so what do you expect?" Girls often seem to be ahead of boys in speech, but the difference is subtle, a matter of weeks or months. Girls do talk more, but with only a small difference in the maturity of their language.

Bilingualism: "There are two languages being spoken at home, so of course she's delayed." After age 2, children are able to switch appropriately from one language to another in context, and they have a combined vocabulary that meets usual expectations. Bilingualism is not an explanation for expressive language delay after age 3.

Adapted from Encounters With Children: Pediatric Behavior and Development by Suzanne Dixon, M.D., and Martin T. Stein, M.D. (Mosby, 2000).

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Talking a Blue Streak: Language and Your Child

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