It is at that stage that your toddler will most likely understand more spoken words, be able to comprehend simple stories and follow simple commands. They will discover that learning new language can be enjoyable, and that it can introduce them to a fun, interactive world. Now that your toddler can not only understand language, but use it too, they will be increasingly interested in communicating in a variety of situations.[1]
Verbs are used to describe an action, state or occurrence. A verb can be the ways things move i.e run, jump, wave, clap, sit. Now that your toddler is beginning to understand more verbs, this is a very exciting part of their development.
Verbs are thought to be more difficult to learn as there isn’t a physical object to pick out from the world to describe the action. Toddlers need to see the word in action to be able to figure out what the word means. They hear many verbs during the day, and it is not always apparent what the verb is being linked to. They use their environment to try and make sense of the verb, however there may be many things happening around them and they need to link the right action to what the adult is talking about. [2]
Toddlers generally use verbs that they have heard adults say frequently and in context. They usually do not make up a word or say a wrong word, they use their own experience of listening to adults use the verb in sentences[2]. It is thought to be much easier for toddlers to understand a word when the morpheme, ‘ing’ is put after them. [3] A morpheme is the smallest single unit of language, such as ‘ing’ or ‘ed’ so can change a word such as walk to walking or walked.
The brain is organising information from books, hearing language, and listening to songs and rhymes at this stage of your toddler's life.[4] The information that they have seen and heard is reinforcing the brains’ neural pathways and this will support them in gaining a better understanding of verbs and their meaning.[5] Visual resources, such as books, will support your toddler with not only understanding but also visualising what verbs mean. The more verbs your toddler hears and sees in familiar contexts, the better their understanding and learning will be.
Your toddler will continue to make links between actions and words. When you look at books together, they will be able to identify and name images of actions such as jumping, walking and running.
[6] E. Hoff. ( 2017) Language Development. Fifth Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
[4] G. Westermann, N. Mani (2018). Early Word Learning. Routledge.
[5] M. Saxton (2017). Child Language Acquisition and Development 2nd Edition. Sage Publications Ltd.
[7] E. Shiver. (2001). IDRA newsletter: Brain Development and Mastery of Language in the Early Childhood Years. April 2001. Available online at: Brain Development and Mastery of Language in the Early Childhood Years - IDRA
[8] L. Eliot (2002). What’s Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life. Bantam Books.