Telegraphic Speech

Telegraphic speech is an early stage of child language development, typically appearing around eighteen months to two years of age, in which children combine words into short phrases that omit smaller grammatical words such as articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs, producing utterances like want cookie or daddy go car. The term draws an analogy to the clipped wording once used in telegrams, where every word cost money and only the most essential content words were kept. The content words retained in telegraphic speech, mainly nouns and verbs, usually carry the bulk of the intended meaning, and the stage is considered a normal step on the way to more grammatically complete sentences.