Speech and Language Development Milestones for Ages 0 to 3 Months
- Will react to loud sounds
- Recognizes your voice
- Coos and/or smiles when he or she sees you
- Develops different cries to meet various needs
- Produces vowel like sounds
- Makes pleasure sounds
Speech and Language Development Milestones for Ages 4 to 6 Months
- Follows sounds with his or her eyes
- Laughs and/or Notices toys that make sounds and music
- Produce a few back sound consonants (g or k)
- Recognizes changes of tone of your voice
- Babbles using more vowel sounds and more consonants (p,b or m)
- Begins to copy sounds while babbling
- Smiles when he or she sees you
- Develops different cries to meet various needs
- Yells, squeals and growls with some pitch changes
Speech and Language Development Milestones for Ages 7 to 12 Months
- Repetitive long and short sounds (dada, tata, bibi)
- Consistent pitch changes with meaning
- Turns and looks in the direction of sounds
- Listens more attentively
- Understands common words like: momma, dadda, cup, and juice
- Responds to commands or questions: (i.e. “Come here”, “want more?)
- Knows a couple of words and exclamations (i.e. Ooh, Ahh, hi, baba, mamma, dadda, dog).
- Communicates with hand gestures (i.e. waves, lifts arms to be picked up)
- Develops different cries to meet various needs
- Yells, squeals, growls and gurgles with some pitch changes
- Non-repetitive babbling begins (i.e. Ba-ga-de, go-do-da-di)
Speech and Language Development Milestones for Ages 12 to 24 Months
- First words (10-15 months)
- Holophrastic speech (A single word expresses a complex idea – “Ball” means “I want the ball” or “Where is the ball?”) Phases (uh-oh, all gone, no no, bye-bye)
- Uses many consonant sounds at the beginning of words
- Knows a few body parts
- Follows simple commands or questions (Roll the ball, walk to me, where’s your nose?)
- Enjoys hearing simple songs, stories and rhymes
- Can point to pictures in a book when asked (Where’s the ball?)
- Adds new words constantly
- Uses one or two word sentences (Where dada? Go bye, bye, want up, no cookie, no juice)
- Non-repetitive babbling begins (Ba-ga-de, go-d0-da-di)
- Knows a couple of words and exclamations (Ooh, Ahh, hi, baba, mamma, dadda, dog)
Speech and Language Development Milestones for Ages 3 to 4 Years
- Answers simple questions (Who?, What?, Where? and Why?)
- Talks about daily activities
- Uses sentences with four or more words
- Speaks easily without having to repeat syllables or words
- Follows simple commands or questions (Roll the ball, walk to me, where’s your nose?)
- Enjoys hearing simple songs, stories and rhymes
- Can point to pictures in a book when asked (Where’s the ball?)
- Adds new words constantly
- Uses one or two word sentences (Where dada? Go bye, bye, want up, no cookie, no juice)
- Non-repetitive babbling begins (Ba-ga-de, go-d0-da-di)
- Knows a couple of words and exclamations (Ooh, Ahh, hi, baba, mamma, dadda, dog)
Speech and Language Development Milestones for Ages 4 to 10 Years
- (4 years old) Can say the following sounds correctly (b, d, f, g ,h, k, m, n, p, t, y).
- (4 years old) Might still make errors with (l, r, s and th)
- (4 years old) Can be understood by family members and non-family.
- (4 years old) Most phonological processes should stop.
- (5 years old) All phonological processes should stop.
- (6 years old) Correctly produce the following sounds (l, j, v, ch, sh).
- (6 years old) Errors can still occur commonly for sounds like (s,r,z,th) but should be decreasing.
- (7 years old) 100% understandable.
- (8 years old) Errors can still occur commonly for sounds like (s,r,z,th) but should be decreasing.
- (9 and 10 years old) Says all sounds now including (s,r,z and th)
- (9 and 10 years old) Might have some trouble with difficult words like (Aluminum, whistle, adjective, scissors, spaghetti)
- (10 and 11 years old) There should be no speech problems by this age with the exception of the r sound which can be a lingering issue.
