Developmental Milestones

Age

Speech Sounds

Hearing and Understanding

Talking

Birth to 6 months
  • Makes pleasure and displeasure sounds (coos, fusses, laughs, cries)

 

  • Begins to repeat sounds (like ooh, aah and dad a)

 
  • Reacts to loud sounds

 

  • Turns head to you when you speak

 

  • Enjoys rattles and other toys that make sounds
  • Smiles when sees you and/or in response to your voice

 

  • Cries differently for different needs

 

  • Makes noise when talked to

6 months to 12 months

 

  • Begins to babble (ba,ba,ba), even when alone

 

  • Says ma-ma, da-da without meaning

 

 

  • Responds to his/her own name

 

  • Understands “no-no”

 

  • Begins to understand words for familiar and favorite things (shoe, ball, bye-bye)

 

  • Points to or looks at objects or pictures of objects when asked to

 

 

  • Tries to communicate with actions and gestures
  • Imitates simple sounds and words
  • Enjoys games like pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo

12 months to 18 months

 

 

  • Follow simple directions such as “come here,” “give me”

 

  • Points to some body parts

 

  • Says first word around 1st birthday

 

  • Uses a few single words meaningfully, number of words varies from child to child

 

18 months to 24 months

 

  • About 25-50% intelligible

 

  • Understands simple “yes/no” questions

 

  • Understands simple phrases (in the box, on the table)

 

  • Enjoys being read to

 

  • Makes animal sounds

 

  • Vocabulary size of about 50 words

 

  • Begins to combine 2-3 words to talk about and ask for things

 

  • Begins to use pronouns: I, it

 

2 to 3 years

 

  • May be easier to understand but still leaves off ending sounds

 

  • 50-80% intelligible

 

  • Understands “not now” and “no more”

 

  • Understands concept of under

 

  • Chooses things by size (big/little)

 

  • Follows two-step directions like “get your coat and come here”

 

  • Understands action words like jump and run

 

  • Understanding questions: what?, who? where? And questions about basic events such as “What X doing? Or Where X going?”

 

  • Awareness of rhyme emerges

 

 

 

  • Vocabulary size 250+ words

 

  • Uses three word sentences

 

  • Begins to use pronouns: my, me, mine, you
  • Uses question inflection to ask a question such as “my ball?”

 

  • Uses verbs that end with “-ing” such as “eating,” “running”

 

  • Answers simple questions

 

3 to 4 years

 

  • Uses most speech sounds

 

  • 75-100% intelligible

 

  • Groups objects together such as foods, clothes, toys, etc.

 

  • Identifies colors

 

  • Understands basic shapes (circle, square, triangle)

 

  • Understands complex questions: when? and how?

 

  • Understands spatial concepts such as: next to, behind, in front, before, after

 

 

  • Begins to use plurals such as “balls” and regular past tense verbs such as “walked”

 

  • Able to describe the use of objects such as “fork,” “towel”

 

  • Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just the world around him/her

 

  • Repeats sentences

 

  • Use of conjunctions and, because to express early emerging complex sentences

 

  • Answers why questions

 

  • Explains how to do things, such as make a sandwich

 

  • Can tell a story

 

  • Sentence length of 4-5 word

 

4 to 5 years

 

  • Speech is 100% intelligible by age 5
  • Errors on /s/, /r/, /l/, th may persist

 

  • Knowledge of letter names and sounds emerges

 

  • Knowledge of numbers and counting emerges

 

  • Uses simple and complex sentences

 

  • Uses some irregular past tense verbs such as “ran,” “fell”

 

  • Defines what words mean

 

  • Lists items that belong to a category