A list of words and phrases, which cover toys, food, animals and, of course, include ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ and ‘bye bye’ has been designed to detect toddlers who could struggle with words in the years to come.

Advertisement

The 25 ‘must have’ words are part of a much larger list of 310 words that should be in a toddler’s vocabulary laid out by the Language Development Survey.

The average child will know 150 of the listed words, but between 75 to 225 is normal.

Alarm bells should only start ringing if a toddler uses just 50 of the word or less.

Professor Leslie Rescorla, who designed the test, said, “If children don’t use most of these words by 24 months, they may be late talkers.”

Many late-talkers are simply late bloomers so there’s no need to panic. But if a child is still struggling for words by 2-and-a-half, parents should consider seeking help such as speech therapy.

A small vocabulary at the age of 2 can also be a sign of other problems, from deafness to autism and dyslexia.

So, what’s on the list?

  1. Mummy
  2. Daddy
  3. Baby
  4. Milk
  5. Juice
  6. Hello
  7. Ball
  8. Yes
  9. No
  10. Dog
  11. Cat
  12. Nose
  13. Eye
  14. Banana
  15. Biscuit
  16. Car
  17. Hot
  18. Thank you
  19. Bath
  20. Show
  21. Hat
  22. Book
  23. All gone
  24. More
  25. Bye bye

Read more...

Advertisement

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement