English Language Milestones 

for Children Adopted Between 19-24 months of Age

Data reprinted from Glennen, S. & Masters, M. G. (2002). Typical and atypical language development in infants and toddlers adopted from Eastern Europe.  American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, ??,  pp-pp.   

24 - 27 Months

8

       20.75

   0.00 -   41.01

       0 -   57

         .75

  0.29 -  1.21

 0.00 –   1.00

       0.00

 0.00 -  0.00

28 - 30 Months

3

     132.33

n/a

     51 - 243

       2.17

n/a

 1.00 –   3.33

       1.00

n/a

31 - 33 Months

5

     173.40

  86.10- 209.40

   123 - 220

       3.22

  3.03 -  3.41

 3.00 –   3.33

         .40

 0.00 -  1.29

34 - 36 Months

7

     209.00

122.89 -295.11

     59 - 299

       5.50

  5.31 -  5.69

 3.33 –   5.66

       2.29

 0.79 -  3.79

37 - 40 Months

4

     251.25

184.44 -310*

   153 - 302

       5.91

  5.17 -  6.65

 5.00 –   6.66

       3.25

 2.29 -  4.00*

What to Expect and When to Get Concerned

Children adopted after 19 months of age begin using English words as soon as the ink dries on their adoption papers.  By 24-27 months of age, which was the earliest age sampled, children were averaging 20 words.  Two months later, the number of words explodes to 132.  In summary, any child adopted at this age who is not using any English words by 24 months or not using 50 words by 28 months should be considered delayed and referred for treatment.  In addition to vocabulary growth, by 28-30 months the children began to put words together into 2-3 word sentences.  Children who are not using 2-3 word sentences by 30 months of age should also be considered language delayed and referred for treatment. 

Vocabulary skills of children adopted between 19-24 months catch up quickly to children adopted at younger ages.  By 34-36 months, vocabulary skills were similar to the skills of children adopted between 13-18 months of age (see other charts).  Although vocabulary skills catch up quickly, sentence complexity lags behind.  By 37-40 months of age, the children's longest sentences were only 5-6 words in length.  In comparison, children adopted before 18 months are using 8-9 word sentences at the same age.  At this time it is unclear when or if this gap closes.  Similar to other skills, language comprehension also catches up quickly.  By 40 months of age, children were only 2-4 months behind on English language developmental checklists.  When children do not meet these milestones, parents should contact the early intervention program in their school district or seek services from a private speech language pathologist who specializes in working with infants and toddlers.  More information on these services is available on the Infant Toddler web page. 

If a language delay or disorder is suspected, children adopted between 19 to 24 months of age cannot be validly assessed using English language tests until they are 3 years of age or older.  By age 3, English language tests can be used but should be interpreted cautiously, especially if the scores are in the borderline average to mildly delayed range.  Although most language skills are caught up by age 3, the children's sentence complexity and use of grammar will continue to be delayed.  Assessment results from tests that tap into those skills should not be used as the only method of evaluation.   As the children near age 4, English language tests become more reliable measures of language abilities.