As parents and caregivers, we eagerly await the moment when our little ones start to speak their first words. But did you know that there's a specific stage in language acquisition called the 'two-word stage' that marks a major milestone in a child's development? The two-word stage is the third major period in the language acquisition of children, following the one-word stage. Follow on to discover what age children are at this stage, and some examples of the phrases spoken by children at this stage.
Two-word stage: age range
The two-word stage typically occurs at the age of 18 to 24 months and consists of toddlers using two-word phrases in their speech. During this stage, toddlers begin to string together two words to create basic sentences, such as 'mommy up' or 'more juice.' This marks a significant leap in their language skills and allows them to communicate more effectively with others. The two-word stage is an important step on the path to full language proficiency and sets the stage for further language acquisition and development.
At this stage, toddlers continue to develop their vocabulary and the range of sounds that they can produce. They are able to use two-word phrases that are dense in content words (words that hold and convey meaning); however, function words (words that hold sentences together) are beyond the ability of toddlers at this age so are rarely used.
The sentences produced at this stage consist primarily of nouns and verbs and, despite the lack of function words, toddlers tend to use the correct grammatical sequence in their sentences. Toddlers will enter this period with around 50 words in their vocabulary, but by 24 months they may know over 600 words! ¹
Fig. 1 - By 24 months a child may know over 600 words!
The two-word stage in child language acquisition
It is undeniable that toddlers at the two-word stage can produce meaningful utterances that make sense grammatically, however, their speech is still clearly unlike adult speakers. They still have a limited vocabulary as they haven't developed the ability to use function words such as articles, auxiliary verbs and subject pronouns.
A toddler's development of syntax can be observed at this stage from the increasingly complex words that they put together to communicate with adults. They begin to learn how to express semantic relations with actions, objects, entities, and locations, and also start forming commands and questions.
Two-word stage: examples
Some examples of two-word phrases spoken by children are 'read book', 'daddy sleep', and 'cat shiny'.
| Two-word stage examples |
|---|
| Word type | Two-word phrase | Possible meaning | Semantic relation expressed |
| Verb + noun | "Read book." | Can you read the book? | Action + Object |
| Pronoun + verb | "He run." | He is running. | Agent + Action |
| Pronoun + noun | "My cookie." | That's my cookie. | Possessor + Object |
| Noun + adjective | "Mummy busy." | Mummy is busy. | Agent + Action |
| Noun + verb | "Daddy sleep." | Daddy is sleeping. | Agent + Action |
| Noun + Noun | "Toy floor." | The toy is on the floor. | Entity + Location |
| Noun + adjective | "Car shiny." | The car is shiny. | Entity + attributes |
A major component of language development comes from toddlers repeating words or phrases that they hear adults use. In this process, they will negate the function words that adults use and only use the keywords.
Adult: "Look, the dog just jumped!"
Toddler: "Dog jump!"
Fig. 2 - Children learn increasingly complex words at the two-word stage.
Example of pivot words in the two-word stage
Children follow simple rules to generate their two-word utterances. They tend to build phrases around a single stable word rather than choosing two terms of the same status.
Their phrases are built around 'pivot' words and open words. Pivot words are high-frequency words that are typically determiners or prepositions and are always in a fixed position (either the first or second word). They can be used in conjunction with a wide variety of words, making them a useful part of a child's vocabulary. ²
Open words make up the content of the two-word phrase and are often a noun or a verb. These words can be interchanged as the first or second word of a phrase and may also be used in isolation.
First-word pivot - All gone.
The example word 'all gone' represents a pivot that's used as a first word. A toddler may use the word in a variety of situations: 'all gone sweets', 'all gone bread' or 'all gone toy'. It is unlikely for the toddler to use the pivot word as the second word of a phrase, which is composed of an open word.
Second-word pivots are used less frequently than first-word pivots. The word 'off' can be used in a variety of ways: 'TV off', 'light off' or 'shoe off '. Similarly to first-word pivots, a child is unlikely to use a second-word pivot as the first word in a phrase.
Interpreting the meaning of two-word phrases
A toddler at this stage will find it difficult to express their thoughts clearly to adults since their vocabulary limits them. Toddlers can assign meaning to words in several ways, which is difficult to interpret with confidence because of the lack of syntactic markings in the language.³
A word referring to a whole object
A word that a child uses will refer to the entire object, not to any of the constituent parts.
A child may learn the word 'flower', and then use it to name any plant that it sees.
It could be that the toddler isn't able to perceive the difference between the plants and flowers, or the toddler may settle for using the word flower because there aren't any alternatives in their vocabulary.
Fig. 3 - A child may refer to any plant they see as a flower.
Considering the context
It can be difficult to figure out what a toddler is trying to say without considering the broader context. Adults must pay close attention to the child's body language when they are trying to speak as they may provide clues by looking or pointing to a relevant object.
The context is equally important for the toddler that is trying to understand what the adult is saying.
Common mistakes in the two-word stage
Toddlers haven't yet achieved full command over the pronunciation of words and they will display common errors in their speech.
Assimilation
The pronunciation of a word is affected by a particular sound in the word. A toddler will replace a difficult sound with a sound that is more familiar with.
Toddlers often struggle with bilabials, which are consonant sounds made by pressing the lips together, such as p, b, and m sounds. They find it much easier to produce the same sounds in a word so they tend to assimilate when they come across difficult words to pronounce. If there's a bilabial sound in a word, a toddler may use the same bilabial in another part of the word since it's easier to pronounce.
The word 'rubber' may be articulated as 'bubber'.
Gliding
Gliding is when liquid sounds (l and r) are replaced with glide sounds (w and y). It's a normal part of a child's language development process and usually disappears at 5 years old.
The word 'red' may be articulated as 'wed '.
Cluster reduction
A child may have difficulty pronouncing a cluster of consonants in a word and reduce it by one or more consonants.
The word 'spoon' may be articulated as 'poon'.
Weak syllable deletion
This is when an unstressed syllable in a word is not articulated.
The word 'banana' may be articulated as 'nana'.
Stops
Consonant sounds that have a long airflow are replaced by sounds that have a stopped airflow.
The word 'sun' may be articulated as 'tun'.
Two-Word Stage - Key Takeaways
The two-word stage is the third stage of language development and comes after the one-word stage.
Toddlers develop the ability to form two-word phrases.
The two-word stage usually takes place from 18 to 24 months of age.
Toddlers start to develop grammar and syntax.
Pivot and open words are used to form phrases to communicate ideas.
Toddlers still produce pronunciation errors in their speech.
- Oller. D., et al., Infant babbling and speech, Journal of Child Language. 1976
- JG de Villiers, PA de Villiers, Language Acquisition, Vol. 16. 1980.
- Lightfoot et al., The Development of Children. 2008.
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