Individual Differences
Children tend to produce their first words around their first birthday. But this is an event that can greatly vary from 8 - 18 months, this is because of the genetic makeup of each individual is different.
Boys vs. Girls
The differences from boys to girls is because girls mature at a faster rate so it is believed that their left cerebral hemisphere develops sooner.
Temperament of an Individual
If a toddler is shy then they tend to learn more words before they begin to speak them. They tend to remain slightly behind their age groups even after their vocabularies increase rapidly once they begin to speak. On the other hand, a child that is negative will also be behind those his age because he is more likely to react emotionally which diverts them from linguistic information.
Environmental Differences
The more that a mother speaks to her child the more that that child is going to learn. The parents that do not talk to their children as much tend to have a child that is shy and socially awkward. Socio-econmic status also plays a role into a child's language development. Children that come from low-SES households and are talked to less by their parents have smaller vocabularies. A study shows that a child in a middle-SES household is read to for 1,000 hours in their first 5 years of life, while a child from a low-SES background is only read to for 25 hours. This is a great divider between two different children's vocabularies.
Boys vs. Girls
The differences from boys to girls is because girls mature at a faster rate so it is believed that their left cerebral hemisphere develops sooner.
Temperament of an Individual
If a toddler is shy then they tend to learn more words before they begin to speak them. They tend to remain slightly behind their age groups even after their vocabularies increase rapidly once they begin to speak. On the other hand, a child that is negative will also be behind those his age because he is more likely to react emotionally which diverts them from linguistic information.
Environmental Differences
The more that a mother speaks to her child the more that that child is going to learn. The parents that do not talk to their children as much tend to have a child that is shy and socially awkward. Socio-econmic status also plays a role into a child's language development. Children that come from low-SES households and are talked to less by their parents have smaller vocabularies. A study shows that a child in a middle-SES household is read to for 1,000 hours in their first 5 years of life, while a child from a low-SES background is only read to for 25 hours. This is a great divider between two different children's vocabularies.
Language Styles
Referential Style - is when a child's vocabulary consists mainly of words that refer to objects.
Expressive Style - is when they produce many more social formulas and pronouns.
Children that develop referential style think that words are used to label objects and the other group of children that develop expressive style use words to talk about people's feelings and needs. Referential style toddlers grow faster vocabularies because language contains more object labels than social terms. Referential children tend to be more explorers and take an active interest in objects. Expressive children tend to be more sociable because their parents use more verbal routines.
Expressive Style - is when they produce many more social formulas and pronouns.
Children that develop referential style think that words are used to label objects and the other group of children that develop expressive style use words to talk about people's feelings and needs. Referential style toddlers grow faster vocabularies because language contains more object labels than social terms. Referential children tend to be more explorers and take an active interest in objects. Expressive children tend to be more sociable because their parents use more verbal routines.
Cultural Differences
Objects words tend to be more prevalent in English-speaking toddlers and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean babies use more words for actions and social routines. It is the mothers speech that was researched and it reflected why there are these differences between the two cultures. American mothers are more likely to label objects when conversing with their child. Asian mothers put a greater emphasis on the importance of group membership, emphasis on actions and social routines when their infants begin to speak.
Berk, L. E. (2012). Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood. Boston: Pearson.