Words index  Vivian Cook

Children’s Early Words

The timeline shows the point at which 50% of children say a particular word.

                  Months     Words

12        daddy, mommy

13        bye

14        dog, hi

15        baby, ball, no,

16        banana, eye, nose, bottle, juice, bird, duck, cookie, woof, moo, ouch, baabaaa, night night, book, balloon, boat

17        cracker, apple, cheese, ear, keys, bath, peekaboo, vroom, up, down

18        grandma, grandpa, sock, hat, truck, boat, thank you, cat

These words fall into a few categories such as :

-          people daddy

-          animals cat

-          toys ball

The timeline makes it very clear that most children’s vocabulary starts exploding around the age of 16 months (1 year 4 months) at the point when they say about 50 words, though the reasons for this are still unclear.

                                                                        Source Clark, 2003