Developmental Speech and Language Milestones

Speech and Language Of The One Year Old

At age one your child should:

  • Recognize his or her name.
  • Understand no.
  • Understand simple instructions.
  • Imitate familiar words.
  • Wave good bye and play pat-a-cake.
  • Use mama and dada and several other words, usually nouns.
  • likes to make the sounds of familiar animals, and things.
  • Give a toy on request.
  • Laugh a great deal.
  • Hear well and discriminate between many sounds.
  • Show a great deal of affection, make noises and pats parents affectionately.
  • Place a cube in a cup on command.
  • Scribble imitatively with a crayon.

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Speech and Language Of The Eighteen Month Old

At age eighteen months, your child should:

  • Use 10 to 20 words, including names.
  • Hear well and discriminates among many sounds.
  • Recognize pictures of familiar persons and objects.
  • Combine two words such as all gone, Daddy bye-bye.
  • Use words to make wants known such as more, up.
  • Imitate words and sounds more precisely.
  • Point and gesture to call attention to an event or to show wants.
  • Point to his or her toes, eyes, and nose.
  • Bring familiar object from another room when asked.
  • Turn pages of a book a few at a time.
  • Follow simple commands.
  • Wave bye-bye.
  • Imitate housework, such as wiping up spills, setting table.
  • Make a tower of 3 to 4 cubes.
  • Know and say the names of 5 objects.
  • Hum and sing simple tunes.

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Speech and Language of the 2-Year-Old

At age 2 years, your child should:

  • Understand simple questions and commands.
  • Identify body parts.
  • Use the names of things, actions, persons, and situations in his or her language.
  • Carry on conversation with self and dolls.
  • Ask what's this? what's that? and where's my&?.
  • Use sentence length of 2 to 3 words.
  • Refer to self by name.
  • Name pictures and actions.
  • Use 2-word negative phrases such as not go, not right, no want.
  • Form some plurals, by adding s (such as book, books).
  • Have around 200 words in speaking vocabulary.
  • Ask for drink, toilet; food.
  • Listen to stories and point to pictures when asked.
  • Stay with one activity for 6 to 7 minutes.

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Speech and Language Of The 2 Ω Year Old

At age 2 Ω your child should:

  • Have a 450 word vocabulary.
  • Give his or her first name.
  • Use past tense and plurals and combined nouns and verbs.
  • Understand simple time concepts, such as last night, and tomorrow.
  • Refer to self as me rather than by name.
  • Try to get adult attention, such as watch me.
  • Like to hear same story repeated.
  • Use no or not in speech and may say no when meaning yes..
  • Build a tower of 8 blocks.
  • Talk to other children as well as adults.
  • Begin to control behavior verbally rather than just physically.
  • Answers where questions.
  • Be able to name common pictures and things he or she comes in contact with regularly.
  • Use short sentences to announce what he or she has done or will do like, Me do it, or Me want to jump.
  • Match 34 colors.
  • Know big and little.
  • Hold up fingers to tell age.

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Speech and Language of the 3-Year-Old

At age 3 years, your child should:

  • Match primary colors, names one color.
  • Know the words night and day.
  • Use contractions, such as it's or there's.
  • Begin to obey instructions with prepositional phrases, such as put the block under the chair.
  • Use words to relate observations, concepts, ideas, and relationships.
  • Practice new words by talking to self.
  • Know his or her name, gender, and street name, and several nursery rhymes.
  • Tell simple stories and convey ideas.
  • Use sentences of 3 to 4 words.
  • Have a vocabulary of nearly 1,000 words.
  • Produce consistently the following sounds: m, n, p, f, h, b, and w.
  • May repeat sounds, words, and phrases.
  • Be able to draw a circle and a vertical line.
  • Be able to sing songs.
  • Express fatigue verbally.
  • Be able to stay with one activity for 8 or 9 minutes.
  • Ask what questions frequently.

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Speech and Language of the 4-Year-Old

At age 4 years, your child should:

  • Point to colors red, blue, yellow, and green.
  • Identify crosses, triangles, circles, and squares.
  • Follow commands even though objects are not present.
  • Be able to speak of imaginary conditions such as suppose that& or I hope&.
  • Ask many questions but is more interested in how answers fit his or her own thoughts than in the explanation.
  • Use sentences of 4 to 5 words.
  • Ask who and why questions .
  • Begin to combine sentences with ‚Äúand‚Äù.
  • Use past tense correctly.
  • Be able to copy a line and a circle.
  • Use the following sounds correctly: m, n, ng, p, f, h, w, y (as in yes), k, b, d, g, t.
  • Be able to stay with one activity for 11 to 12 minutes.

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Speech and Language of the 5-Year-Old

At age 5 years, your child should:

  • Define objects by their use (you eat with a fork), and be able to tell what objects are made of.
  • Know words for spatial relations such as on top, behind, far, near, over, and under.
  • Know his or her address.
  • Identify a penny, nickel, and dime.
  • Use sentences of 5 to 6 words.
  • Use all speech sounds correctly with the possible exceptions of v, l, th, ch, j, s, z, zh (as in measure), and r.
  • Know common opposites such as big and little, and hard and soft.
  • Understand the words ‚Äúsame‚Äù and ‚Äúdifferent‚Äù.
  • Be able to count 10 objects.
  • Tell a story with a simple plot (problem, action to solve problem; and outcome).
  • Use future, present, and past tenses.
  • Be able to stay with one activity for 12-to 13 minutes.
  • Ask questions to get information.
  • Distinguish own but not other people's left and right hands.
  • Use all types of sentences, some of which will be complex (for example, I can go in the house after I take off my muddy shoes.).

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Speech and Language of the 6-Year-Old

At age 6 years, your child should:

  • Have correct articulation of most speech sounds, (but may still have difficulties with clusters such as spl or tr).
  • Use adult-like grammar in sentences and conversations.
  • Understand the meanings of most sentences.
  • Name days of week in order and count to 30.
  • Predict the next sequence of events and tells a 4- to 5-part story.
  • Tell month and day of birthday, name, and address.
  • Distinguish left and right.
  • Know most opposites and the meaning of through, away, toward, and from.
  • Know the meaning of today, yesterday, and tomorrow.
  • Ask lots of why, what, and how questions.
  • Be beginning to read simple words like cat, the, and ball.
  • Be starting to recognize that individual letters in words represent.
  • Different sounds that form words when put together (for example, c-a-t for cat).

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