2.4 Communication Development (Functional Area 6)

Functional Area 6 (Communication) measures how well you communicate with children and give them rich opportunities to develop language. Language is the tool children use to think, connect, and eventually read and write, so the CDA treats it as central. You will need the vocabulary of language development, the typical sequence, and concrete strategies — including for children learning more than one language.

Receptive vs. Expressive Language

The single most-tested distinction here is between two channels:

Receptive language develops first and stays ahead. A 14-month-old who says only 'mama' may understand dozens of words and follow simple requests. This matters for practice: a quiet child is not necessarily 'behind' in comprehension, and you should keep talking richly even before a child talks back.

Other components the exam may name: phonological awareness (hearing and playing with sounds — rhyme, syllables), vocabulary (word knowledge), and pragmatics (the social use of language — turn-taking, greetings, adjusting to context).

The Sequence: From Babbling to Sentences

Language emerges in a predictable order, even as exact ages vary:

1. Cooing (~2-3 months): vowel-like sounds.
2. Babbling (~6-8 months): repeated consonant-vowel strings ('bababa').
3. First words (~12 months): true words with meaning; understands 'no' and own name.
4. Word combinations (~18-24 months): a vocabulary spurt, then two-word 'telegraphic' speech ('more juice,' 'mommy go').
5. Simple sentences (by ~3 years): 3-4 word sentences, questions, past tense (often over-regularized, e.g., 'goed').
6. Complex language (4-5 years): full sentences, storytelling, understood by strangers most of the time, vocabulary in the thousands.

2022 CDC note: the milestone for a roughly 50-word vocabulary moved from 24 months to 30 months under the new 75% threshold. Don't flag a typically developing 2-year-old as delayed for not yet hitting 50 words.

Emergent Literacy

Emergent literacy is the set of skills that develop before conventional reading and writing — the runway to literacy.

Strategies to Support Communication

The most powerful tool is rich, responsive talk. Two research-backed techniques are tested:

• Expansion: repeat and enlarge what the child says. Child: 'Dog!' Adult: 'Yes, a big brown dog is running fast!'
• Recasting / modeling: restate a grammatical error correctly without criticizing. Child: 'She runned away.' Adult: 'Yes, she ran away!' — never 'No, say ran.'

Also: narrate your actions ('I'm pouring the water'), ask open-ended questions, and read aloud daily using dialogic (interactive) reading — pausing to ask questions, point to words and pictures, and link the story to children's lives.

Supporting Dual-Language Learners

Many children are dual-language learners (DLLs), developing two or more languages at once. Two facts to anchor your answers: (1) learning two languages is a cognitive and cultural asset, and (2) bilingualism does not cause language delay.

Best practices: validate and use the home language (learn key words, label items in both languages), use visuals and gestures, partner closely with families, and allow code-switching (mixing languages in one utterance) as a normal part of bilingual development. Pressuring families to 'speak only English at home' is the wrong answer — it can weaken the home language and the parent-child bond without helping English.

Worked Example: Two-and-a-half-year-old Sofia, who hears Spanish at home and English at school, mostly listens and uses single words and gestures in class. A teacher unfamiliar with DLL development might worry she is 'behind.' Instead, the CDA-trained teacher recognizes that (1) receptive language leads expressive — Sofia clearly understands routines and directions; (2) a quiet period is normal when a child is absorbing a second language; and (3) the home language must be honored. She learns a few Spanish words, labels the room in both languages, reads dialogically, and uses expansion when Sofia speaks ('Agua! Yes, you want water'). She partners with the family rather than telling them to drop Spanish. This response reflects exactly what Functional Area 6 expects.