After three years as manager of the England soccer team, Fabio Capello, an Italian, says he needs no more than 100 English words to communicate with his players. Parentingliteracy.com estimates that the average vocabulary in an English-speaking country is:

• 40 words at 18months
• 200 words at two years
• 15,000 words at six years, and
• 100,000 words at adulthood