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

Subdomain: Learning to Communicate

Goal: Children ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

Skill Progression: Asks questions

Age: 15-18 Months

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Observe the infant during daily routines and play.

No elicitation needed.

The child uses single words with intonation to request an action (e.g., “Bath?” means “Can I take a bath?”)

As the child begins to use more words, the adult may not pay as much attention to subtle sounds, movements, and gestures. Help adults recognize gestures and intonation as questions. This is the “holophrastic” phrase level in which one word means a whole sentence. The adult can expand the child’s word to model a phrase. For example, the child says, “Juice?” The adult can say, “Want juice?” This models a longer phrase with the same questioning intonation.