North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Language Development and Communication (LDC)

Subdomain: Learning to Communicate

Goal: Children speak audibly and express thoughts, and feelings, and ideas clearly.

Skill Progression: Language production

Age: 18-21 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 18-21 Months.

Produces two-word phrases or telegraphic speech (words imply a whole sentence)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child during face-to-face interaction with adult and during daily routines.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

The child uses phrases with meaning determined through intonation and gestures. “Mama go” can mean “Mommy are you going?” or “Mommy, go away!”

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

It is helpful for early childhood educators and parents to repeat what they think the child meant to convey. For example, “Yes. Mommy is going to the store.” This tells the child he was understood or allows the child to restate his meaning, “Mama no go!”

 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.