How to Keep Track of Your Toddler's Vocabulary

A toddler̵7;s development ̵1; physically, emotionally and cognitively ̵1; explodes during the second year of his life. As you begin hearing words emerge from his lips, communicating with him becomes more interesting, and you might wish to track his vocabulary as he learns new words. Because vocabulary can literally change from day to day, recording new words as your toddler adds them can help you track his speech progress.

Instructions

    • 1

      Pay close attention throughout each day as your toddler processes information and observes the world around her. Listen as she tries to communicate. With observation and acute listening, you will probably begin to hear your toddler repeating sounds that she designates as specific words. For example, ̶0;ba̶1; might mean ̶0;ball̶1; and ̶0;guh̶1; might mean ̶0;go.̶1;

    • 2

      Ascertain that your toddler is saying words by listening for a repeating pattern. Point to an object and ask, ̶0;What̵7;s that?̶1; If your toddler answers with the expected word, it̵7;s likely that he has chosen this sound to represent the corresponding word.

    • 3

      Notice voice inflections occurring with your toddler, suggests the Scholastic website. A toddler might make her voice rise on the end of a word to turn it into a question or a request. She might give a word added emphasis to create a command. These variations in tone and inflection can effectively expand a toddler's vocabulary.

    • 4

      Assess your toddler's vocabulary to determine whether he is meeting milestones. Between the ages of 12 and 18 months, a toddler generally has a vocabulary of 20 words, according to speech language pathologist Susie Loraine, with the Handy Handouts website. By age 2, a toddler should have between 200 and 300 words, with some toddlers adding one word each day by about 22 months of age, states WebMD. By approximately 24 months of age, toddlers generally begin putting more than one word together in short sentences, with roughly 65 percent of speech being understandable, according to the First Steps of North Central Indiana website. It's also common for a toddler to use "no" as a frequent response.

    • 5

      Record each new word as part of your toddler̵7;s vocabulary after confirming its meaning. Keep a list of the new words in a notebook or on a computer. Or write the new word on the appropriate day of a paper or electronic calendar as a day-by-day record of her growing vocabulary.

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