Milestones

Communication Nation

Theresa A. Gabler, M.S. CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathology

& Accent Modification Services

COMMUNICATION MILESTONES

0-6 months
1. Reacts to loud sounds
2. Turns head toward a sound source
3. Watches your face when you speak
4. Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)
5. Makes noise when talked to
6. Repeats the same sound
7. Uses a different cry to indicate different needs
8. Uses the phonemes: /b/, /p/ and /m/ in babbling
7-12 months
1. Understands "no-no"
2. Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba" or "ma-ma-ma")
3. Tries to communicate by actions or gestures
4. Uses speech sounds rather than only crying to get attention
5. Responds to simple requests
6. Responds to own name
7. Recognizes words for common items
8. Uses a large variety of sounds when babbling
9. Uses sound approximations
10. Imitates some adult speech and intonation patterns
11. Uses nouns almost exclusively
12. Has an expressive vocabulary of 3-5 words
13. Understands simple commands
13-18 months
1. Attends to a book or toy for about two minutes
2. Follows simple directions accompanied by gestures
3. Answers simple directions accompanied by gestures
4. Answers simple questions nonverbally
5. Points to objects, pictures, and family members
6. Makes request for more of desired item
7. Omits some initial consonants and almost all final consonants
8. Produces mostly unintelligible speech
9. Receptively identifies 1-3 body parts
10. Follows simple commands
11. Has an expressive vocabulary of 5-20 words or more (mostly nouns)
12. Combines gesture and vocalization
19-24 months
1. Follows simple commands without gestures
2. Points to simple body parts such as "nose"
3. Understands simple verbs such as "eat", "sleep"
4. Correctly pronounces most vowels and /n/, /m/, /p/, /h/, especially in the beginning of syllables and short words. Also begins to use other speech sounds.
5. Asks for common foods by name
6. Makes animal sounds such as "moo".
7. Starting to combine words such as "more milk".
8. Has an expressive vocabulary of 50-100 or more words
9. Has a receptive vocabulary of 300 or more words
10. Starts to combine nouns and verbs
11. Begins to use pronouns
12. Maintains unstable voice control
13. Answers "What's that?" questions
14. Enjoys listening to stories
15. Is approximately 25-50% intelligible to strangers
2-3 years
1. Knows about 50 words at 24 months
2. Knows some spatial concepts such as "in" and "on"
3. Knows pronouns such as "you", "me", and "her"
4. Knows descriptive words such as "big" and "happy"
5. Speech is 80% intelligible by 3 years
6. Understands one and all
7. Verbalizes toilet needs
8. Requests items by name
9. Identifies several body parts
10. Asks 1 to 2 word questions
11. Uses 4 to 5 word phrases
12. Has an expressive vocabulary of 500 or more words
13. Has a receptive vocabulary of 500-900 or more words
14. Uses approximately 27 phonemes
15. Mastered the following sounds: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /m/, /ng/, /n/, /w/, /h/
16. Answers simple questions
17. Begins to use more pronouns such as "you" and "I"
18. Speaks in two to three word phrases
19. Uses question inflection to ask for something (e.g., "My ball?")
20. Begins to use plurals such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs such as "jumped"
3-4 years
1. Groups objects such as foods, clothes, etc...
2. Identifies colors
3. Uses most speech sounds but may distort some of the more difficult sounds such as /I/, /r/, /s/, /sh/, /ch/, /y/, /v/, /z/, /th/. These sounds may not be mastered until age 7 or 8.
4. Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and end of words. Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them.
5. Able to describe the use of objects such as "fork", "car", etcâÄ¦
6. Has fun with language. Enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities such as, "Is that an elephant on your head?"
7. Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her
8. Uses verbs that end in "ing", such as "walking", "talking"
9. Answers simple questions such as "What do you do when you are hungry?"
10. Repeats sentences
11. Follows 2 and 3 step commands
12. Asks and answers simple questions
13. Uses 5-7 words in sentences
14. Has 1800-2000 word receptive vocabulary
15. Uses 1200-1500 or more spoken words by 4 years
16. Speech is 90% intelligible
17. Masters 50% of consonants and blends
18. Appropriately uses "is", "are", and "am" in sentences
19. Tells 2 events in chronological order
20. Uses some contractions irregular plurals, future tense verbs and, conjunctions
4-5 years
1. Understands spatial concepts such as "behind" and "next to"
2. Understands complex questions
3. Speech is understandable but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words such as "hippopotamus"
4. Describes how to do things such as painting a picture
5. Defines words
6. Lists items that belong in a category such as animals, vehicles, etc...
7. Answers "why" questions
8. Understands concept of numbers up to 3
9. Recognizes 3-4 colors
10. Counts to 10 by rote
11. Has receptive vocabulary of 2500-3500 words
12. Listens to short, simple stories
13. Uses sentences of 6-8 words
14. Has an expressive vocabulary of 2000 or more words
15. Enjoys rhymes
5-6 years
1. Understands time sequences (what happened first, second, third, etc...)
2. Carries out a series of three directions
3. Understands rhyming
4. Engages in conversation
5. Sentences can be 8 or more words in length
6. Uses compound and complex sentences
7. Describes objects
8. Uses imagination to create stories
9. Uses past tense and future tense appropriately
10. Names opposites
11. Has a receptive vocabulary of 13,000 words
12. Counts to 30 by rote
13. Uses conjunctions
14. Sequentially names days of the weeks