The table below outlines the typical times that language skills develop:

1. 2 months - Cooing - producing vowel sounds ("Oooh")
2. 4 months - Babbling - consonant-vowel combinations ("Ba ma")
3. 7 months - Babbling - with sounds of native language
4. 10 months - Sound and intonation of native language ("Ba ma ba ba")
5. 1 year - First words ("Mama," "Papa," "No," "Shoe")
6. 2 years - Vocabulary of 200 words, two-word utterances, thelegraphic speech ("Want juice," "Mommy up!")
7. 3 years - Sentences
8. 4 years - Grammatical sentences often with mistakes ("I holded the bunny")
9. 6 years - Vocabulary of 10.000 words

Around age two, the toddler starts to use personal pronouns. They refer to themselves as "I" or "me" and they refer to anything they possess (or wish to possess) as "mine."

Prior to using personal pronouns, toddlers might refer to themselves as "baby" or by their own name. Alternatively, they would use only verbs and nouns to express their desires ("want juice"), rahter than identifying themselves as the source of the desire, as the one who desires.

The concepts of self and of personal property are young and fragile to a toddler and they often defend their newly recognized territory with great emotion. Consequently, they can become very possessive.

At this point, caregivers must introduce the concept of sharing. Toddlers must begin to learn about self-control and social expectations. It is very difficult, however, for a toddler to accept the idea of deliberate self-sacrifice and parents must not have unrealistic expectations of generous behavior in their newly assertive toddler.