You are here: Home > Developmental Timeline > Can utter a grammatically correct declarative sentence
About this Post
- Age range: 24 to 31 months
- Developmental pillar:
- Physical and Brain Development
- Social and Emotional Development
- Learning and Cognitive Development
- Communication and Language Development
- Physical and Brain Development: How children develop
- Social and Emotional Development: How children feel and connect
- Learning and Cognitive Development: How children think and learn
- Communication and Language Development: How children communicate
As children learn to speak in sentences, they also begin to use basic forms of correct grammar. Although children may not get every part of a sentence correct, they are usually following grammatical rules. This includes learning to change a simple statement ("mommy shoe") into a negative statement ("not mommy shoe"). Between 2 and 2½ years, most children begin to speak in increasingly complex sentences that are grammatically correct (or very close). For example, children learn to ask questions ("Where birdie go?") and as they get closer to age 3 many will create proper negative sentences ("I won't wear a mitten").
References
- De Villiers, P. A., & de Villiers, J. G. (1992). Language development. In Bornstein, M. H., & Lamb, M. E. (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

