Speech and Language Developmental Milestones
Children acquire speech and language skills at different rates. However, most follow a natural progression for mastering speech and language skills. Here are general speech and language stages:
Birth-1 Year
Language Milestones
- Follows sounds with his or her eyes
- Responds to “no”
- Cries differently for wants and needs
- Responds to questions and requests (“Want more?” “Come here”)
- Recognizes own name and family members names
- Uses gestures to communicate (waving good bye, reaching arms up to be carried)
- Understands common words, such as, mama, dada, juice
- Begins to say a couple words like “mama” or “dada”
Speech Milestones
- Coos at 3 months
- Begins to babble at 6 months
- Produces vowel sounds and consonants (p, b, m, k, g)
- Produces repetitive long and short sounds (dada, bibi)
- Babbles non-repetitively (e.g., Ga-do-ba-di)
1-2 Years
Language Milestones
- Begins to say first words (10-15 months)
- Uses more than 50 words and understands more than 300
- Produces common phrases (uh-oh, all gone, bye-bye)
- Adds new words constantly
- Produces 2 word phrases (“Where ball?” “no daddy”)
- Knows common body parts
- Follows simple directions (“Get your shoes” “throw the ball”)
- Can point to pictures in a book when asked, “Where’s the cookie?”
Speech Milestones
- At 2 years, child begins to use different consonant and vowel combinations
- Speech is mostly understood by family and friends
- Most words contain only a consonant and vowel (“ca” for “cat”)
2-3 Years
Language Milestones
- Produces 3 word phrases (“I want cookie”)
- Uses 250-400 words and understands about 900 words
- Names familiar objects in his environment
- Asks yes/no questions (“Is he playing”)
- Repeats sentences of 6-7 syllables accurately
- Begins to understand differences between opposites (big/little, stop/go)
- Answers and asks simple “wh”-questions (e.g., “where’s mommy”)
- Follows 2 simple directions (“Get your shoes and put it on”)
- Identifies actions in pictures
Speech Milestones
- Produces consonant sounds: p, b, m, n, w, h, t, d, k, g, ng, y.
- Speech is 50-75% understood by an unfamiliar listener
- Often shortens words or leaves out the middle sounds
- Some substitutions and distortions of consonants
3-4 Years
Language Milestones
- Produces 4-5 word sentences
- Uses 1,000-1,500 words and understands 1,500-2,000 words
- Can say name, age, gender
- Can tell stories and have long conversations
- Asks “how,” “why,” and “when” questions
- Answers, “how much” and “how long” questions
- Describes the function of objects
- Answers simple questions
- Follows 2-3 step commands
- Understands simple special concepts (front/behind, in/on)
- Recognizes almost all common objects
- Groups objects, such as food and clothes
- Knows pronouns (you, me, her) and descriptive words (small, happy)
Speech Milestones
- Speech is more accurate, but may still distort some difficult sounds
- Speech is 75-90% understood by an unfamiliar listener
- Strangers are able to understand much of what is said
- Most phonological processes are disappearing.
- The ones continuing after 4 include: Stopping (“tock” for “sock”), Gliding (“wight” for “light”) and cluster reduction (“poon” for “spoon”)
4-5 Years
Language Milestones
- Uses 1,500 + words and understands between 1,500-2,800 words
- Produces 5-6 words sentences
- Recalls parts of a story
- Shows understanding of sequence (first/middle/last)
- Knows prepositions (between, above, top bottom)
- Asks “what do/did/” questions
- Follows 3 step commands
- Understands same and different
- Classifies according to form, color, use
- Asks and defines meanings of words
- Lists items that belong in a category
Speech Milestones
- Uses most consonant sounds consistently and accurately
- Speech is 90% understood by an unfamiliar listener
- All phonological processes should stop by 5 years
- May still have errors with (r, l, s, and th)
5-6 Years
Language Milestones
- Understands 13,000 words (by age 6)
- Speaks 5 + word sentences
- Grammar is nearly normal
- Uses simple and complex sentences
- Tells longer stories
- Knows the label, category and function of common objects
- Follows 3 step directions
- Understands opposites (“The opposite of cold is…”)
Speech Milestones
- Speech is almost 100%intelligible
- May still have errors for sounds (s, r, z, th), but should be decreasing
6-7 Years
Language Milestones
- Understands 20,000-26,000 words
- Says alphabet in order
- Sight reads 10 printed words
- Can tell whole address
- Identify and match upper and lower case letters
- Prints full name
Speech Milestones
- Speech is 100% intelligible
- Sounds mastered by age 7: r, j, sh, ch, voiceless th (by age 8: voiced th, s, z, v)
- Blends mastered by age 7: dr, cl, bl, gl, tr, st, sl, sw, sp
- Consonants mastered by age 7: sh