Telegraphic speech refers to a stage of early language development, typically occurring between 18 months and 2 years of age, in which children produce short two- or three-word utterances that convey meaning using only the most essential words. Like a telegram, these utterances omit grammatical function words such as articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs, focusing instead on content words. Developmental psychologists study telegraphic speech as an important milestone in language acquisition, reflecting growing cognitive and communicative abilities. For example, a toddler saying “want milk” or “daddy go” instead of full sentences is demonstrating telegraphic speech.
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