Q.Project Idea: Observe children of 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years old over a period of one week. Record the speech and note how the child is learning words and how many words the child has learnt over this period.

Based on the developmental stages in the chapter, a 1-year-old would likely be entering the one-word stage, a 2-year-old the two-word/telegraphic stage, and a 3-year-old would show speech increasingly organised around grammatical rules. …

This project asks a student to check the chapter's stages of language development against real children. Based on what the chapter describes, a child of around 1 year would most likely be near the one-word stage, producing single-syllable first words such as 'ma' or 'da' and understanding a small number of words without yet combining them; the number of new words picked up over a single week at this age would typically be small and gradual.

A child of around 2 years would likely be past the one-word stage and into holophrases and the two-word (telegraphic) stage, combining words into short, noun-and-verb-heavy phrases ('want milk', 'go park') while dropping smaller connecting words, the way a telegram would. Vocabulary growth at this age is usually much faster and more noticeable over a week than at 1 year. …