Stages of spoken acquisition: phonological development and simplification processes, the lexical stages (holophrastic, two-word, telegraphic, post-telegraphic) and grammatical development, and identifying a stage from data (AO1, AO2, AO3 in H470/02 Section A).

What this dot point is asking

OCR Component 02, Section A, asks you to read child language data and account for what it shows, and a recurring demand is to identify the child's stage of development from the features. Acquisition proceeds through broadly predictable stages, phonological, lexical and grammatical, and the marks come from inferring the stage from the transcript, not guessing an age. This dot point covers the stages of spoken acquisition and how to argue a stage from the evidence (AO1, AO2 and AO3).

The answer

A stages answer succeeds when it infers the child's stage from precisely analysed features (AO1) using the developmental framework (AO2) and reading the interaction (AO3). The unifying idea is that development is systematic: children's "errors" are patterned and stage-appropriate, so the features in a transcript are evidence of where the child is, and your task is to read that evidence rather than assert an age.

Phonological development

Children's pronunciation develops through simplification before adult forms are mastered. The processes are systematic:

• Deletion. Dropping sounds, especially final consonants ("do" for "dog") or unstressed syllables ("nana" for "banana").
• Substitution. Replacing a hard sound with an easier one: fronting (a back sound becomes a front one), stopping (a fricative becomes a plosive, "tat" for "cat"), gliding ("wabbit" for "rabbit").
• Cluster reduction. Simplifying consonant clusters ("poon" for "spoon").
• Reduplication. Repeating a syllable ("wawa" for "water").

Lexical and grammatical stages

Vocabulary and grammar develop together through recognised stages, and naming them precisely is the AO2 foundation.

• Holophrastic (one-word) stage (around 12 to 18 months). Single words carry whole meanings ("milk" means "I want milk"). Overextension is common (calling all animals "dog").
• Two-word stage (around 18 to 24 months). Two words combine with emerging, meaningful word order ("daddy car", "more juice").
• Telegraphic stage (around 24 to 36 months). Multi-word utterances keep the content words but omit function words and inflections ("mummy go shop"), like a telegram.
• Post-telegraphic stage (from around 36 months). Function words, inflections (plural -s, past -ed, progressive -ing) and more complex structures appear, along with the virtuous errors that reveal rule-learning.

Infer the stage from the data

The skill is inference, not labelling. Read the features across phonology, lexis and grammar, and argue which stage they place the child in, noting that a child may show features of more than one stage at a transition. Avoid guessing a precise age; the data shows a stage, and approximate ages are a guide, not the answer.

Examples in context

The data in the exam is unseen, so the moves below are illustrative.

A model stages paragraph. "The child's utterances ('daddy work', 'more milk', 'no go bed') are consistently two or three words long and retain only content words, omitting articles, auxiliaries and inflections, which places the child firmly in the telegraphic stage. The phonology supports an early profile too, with cluster reduction ('poon') and final-consonant deletion ('ca' for 'cat'). Together the grammatical and phonological evidence locates the child around the telegraphic stage, with no post-telegraphic function words yet present." This argues the stage from cross-level features.

A model development paragraph. "The appearance of the plural inflection in 'two foots' is more revealing than a correct plural would be: the child has acquired the -s rule and over-applied it to an irregular noun, a virtuous error that marks the move into the post-telegraphic stage, where grammatical rules are being internalised and tested rather than items memorised." This reads a virtuous error as developmental evidence.

Try this

Q1. What characterises telegraphic speech? [2 marks]

• Cue. Multi-word utterances that keep content words (nouns, verbs) but omit function words (articles, auxiliaries) and inflections, like a telegram.

Q2. Why should you not guess a child's exact age from a transcript? [2 marks]

• Cue. The data shows a stage of development, inferred from features; ages vary between children, so the stage, not a precise age, is what the evidence supports.

Q3. Using a transcript, analyse the features of the child's language and what they suggest about their stage of development. [16 marks]

• What the marker wants. Cross-level analysis (phonology, lexis, grammar) with precise terminology (AO1), placed in the staged developmental framework (AO2) and read with the interaction (AO3), arguing the stage from evidence.

A note on the stages

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The stages and approximate ages are a standard framework; confirm the expected coverage against the current OCR H470 specification and your centre's materials. The approximate ages are a guide, and real children vary, so always argue the stage from the data.