It’s really exciting when children begin talking. If you have your own child or have had the opportunity to watch a young child develop, you may have noticed that a child’s first words are usually the names of people or things (nouns), such as Mama, Dada, ball, car, or bear. But by the age of two, young children should also be saying verbs. Verbs are words for actions like go, come, wash, eat, or words for states like want, like, love, see.
Why Are Verbs Important?
A recent study showed that 2-year-old children who use more verbs have more advanced grammatical skills six months later.
Verbs are very important for language development because they allow children to start building early sentences. Every sentence needs a verb. And the choice of verb determines many of the grammatical forms in a sentence. In fact, a recent study showed that 2-year-old children who use more verbs have more advanced grammatical skills six months later.
When Should Children Start Using Verbs?
There is a lot of variability when it comes to how many verbs children use when they are toddlers. But children should say at least a few verbs by 24 months. Many children can say at least 40 verbs by 24 months. A child with only three or four verbs at 24 months would be at the low end of the average range. This would not be cause for concern as long as the child continues to learn several new verbs every month for the next six months.
But children with no verbs at 24 months who don’t start to speed up in the rate at which they learn new verbs between 24 and 30 months may be at risk for problems with language development. These children will not be able to produce short sentences yet, as they can’t build sentences without verbs. If they have any other risk factors for a long-term language difficulty, it may be wise to seek advice from a speech language pathologist who can determine whether they need help building their vocabulary. See our article “How to Tell if Your Child is a Late Talker – And What to Do about It” for more information and a list of risk factors.
Chester Exchange 