Why "I Runned" is Actually a Good Sign: Decoding Your Toddler’s Grammar

Picture this: You are at the playground, and your little one slides down the big slide for the first time. They scramble to their feet, beam at you, and shout, “Mom! I runned so fast!”

Your first instinct might be to correct their grammar. But as speech-language pathologists, we actually love hearing mistakes like “I runned,” “I goed,” or “two mouses.” While it sounds incorrect to adult ears, it is actually a fantastic sign of cognitive growth.

This phenomenon is a developmental milestone called overgeneralization. It typically appears between 29 and 38 months of age. When a child says “runned,” it proves they aren’t just mimicking sounds they hear like a parrot. Instead, they have learned a grammatical rule—specifically, that adding “-ed” makes a word past tense—and they are applying that logic universally. They are figuring out the hidden structure of our language.

Morphology is the study of how meaningful units of language are put together. Seeing your child grapple with these rules is exciting! You will likely see other grammar milestones pop up during the toddler years. Between 27 and 30 months, children typically begin using “in” and “on” correctly. By 31 to 34 months, they usually start asking “wh-” questions (like who, what, where) and using auxiliaries in sentences. As they approach age 4, specifically between 35 and 40 months, their sentences become more complex, involving embedded questions or object-noun-phrase complements.

So, how should you handle the “cute” mistakes? You don’t need to explicitly correct them or make them say it again. Instead, just model the correct version back to them naturally. If they say, “I eated the cookie,” you can simply reply, “Yes, you ate the cookie! Was it good?”

If you are curious about other milestones or worried about your child’s language development, we are here to help. You can read more about our team and how we support growing minds on our website.