How many words should my child have?

This is one of the most common questions we get asked—and while it might seem like a straightforward one, it can be tough for parents to find a simple answer. Speech and language is a complex area of early childhood development, and it’s notoriously difficult to find clarity. Even the guidelines don’t always agree on milestones and red flags. So if you’re a bit confused, you’re definitely not alone.

The good news is that tracking the number of words your little one has is one of the most concrete ways of measuring their speech development. Once you have clarity on the definition of a word, it gets easier to track your child’s growing vocabulary. In this post, we’ll take a look at what counts as a “word”—and then explore a simple way to determine how many words your child has. Once you have a number, you have a key piece of information that can help you better understand their progress on their speech and language development journey.

What counts as a word for babies and toddlers?

When it comes to early childhood speech and language, the definition of a word is actually quite broad. If you’re especially curious, we have an entire post dedicated to this topic, but a quick recap will be useful here. Along with full, properly pronounced words, here’s what else counts as a word for your little one:

• Signs and gestures: If your child waves hello and bye-bye or shakes their head for yes and no, that’s amazing! These gestures and signs should be included in their word count.

• Intentional sounds: If your child says “meow” when they see a cat or exclaims “uh oh” when something spills, those count as words too. When they make a sound with the intention of communication, that should be included in their word count.

• Word approximations: If your child says “baa” for ball or “nana” for banana, that’s great—those also count as words. Include these approximations in their word count.

• Words in any language: If your child understands and speaks more than one language, that’s fantastic. Count all the intentional sounds, word approximations and words in both languages.

How do you count a child’s vocabulary?

When you’re counting your child’s vocabulary, think of it like a formula:

Signs and gestures + intentional sounds + word approximations + words in any language = total number of words.

Let’s take a look at an example for a 14-month-old living in a bilingual household with the following communication:

Signs and gestures:

• Waves for “hi”

• Signs for “more”

English:

• Says “dada” for dad

Spanish:

• Says “bola” for ball

Word approximations:

• Says “muh” for milk

Our 14-month-old has a vocabulary of five words! After determining how many words your little one has, it’s only natural to wonder how that compares with norms for their age. Babbly has a tool that can help shed light on this. When you enter your child’s age and the number of words they have, you’ll see what percentile they fall in.

This can be a helpful piece of information for tracking their speech development—but it’s important to remember that it’s only one aspect of their overall journey. If you find the percentile isn’t what you expected, it’s not necessarily a cause for concern. Speech and language development is complex, and every child progresses at their own pace.

There are also lots of ways you can support your child, including activities in the Babbly app or personalized coaching sessions with our in-house experts. And, if you’re feeling concerned about your child’s progress, reach out to your pediatrician or an expert like a Speech-Language Pathologist who can do a thorough assessment of your little one.