What stage of language development directly follows the pre-verbal stage?

The holophrastic stage directly follows the pre-verbal stage in language development. During the holophrastic stage, which typically occurs around the age of one year, children begin to produce single words that convey entire ideas or sentences. For example, saying "milk" might mean "I want milk" or "There’s milk." This stage demonstrates the child’s emerging understanding of how language can be used symbolically to express desires or observations, marking the transition from non-verbal communication to verbal language.

In contrast, stages such as the two-word stage, which typically follows the holophrastic stage, involve the combination of two words to form more complex meanings (like "more juice" or "mommy go"). This indicates further development in sentence structure and syntax. The telegraphic stage comes even later, where children start forming short sentences by using basic grammar, often omitting less critical words. Finally, the post-telegraphic stage is characterized by more sophisticated use of language, including the use of grammatical rules and a larger vocabulary.