Milestones

Reacts to loud sounds

Turns head toward a sound source

Watches your face when you speak

Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)

Makes noise when talked to

Repeats the same sound

Uses a different cry to indicate different needs

Uses the phonemes: “b“, “p” and “m” in babbling

Understands “no-no”

Babbles (says “ba-ba-ba” or “ma-ma-ma”)

Tries to communicate by actions or gestures

Uses speech sounds rather than only crying to get attention

Responds to simple requests

Responds to own name

Recognizes words for common items

Uses a large variety of sounds when babbling

Uses sound approximations

Imitates some adult speech and intonation patterns

Uses nouns almost exclusively

Has an expressive vocabulary of 3-5 words

Understands simple commands

Attends to a book or toy for about two minutes

Follows simple directions accompanied by gestures

Answers simple directions accompanied by gestures

Answers simple questions nonverbally

Points to objects, pictures, and family members

Makes request for more of desired item

Omits some initial consonants and almost all final consonants

Produces mostly unintelligible speech

Receptively identifies 1-3 body parts

Follows simple commands

Has an expressive vocabulary of 5-20 words or more (mostly nouns)

Combines gesture and vocalization

Follows simple commands without gestures

Points to simple body parts such as “nose”

Understands simple verbs such as “eat”, “sleep”

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.

Asks for common foods by name

Makes animal sounds such as “moo”.

Starting to combine words such as “more milk”.

Has an expressive vocabulary of 50-100 or more words

Has a receptive vocabulary of 300 or more words

Starts to combine nouns and verbs

Begins to use pronouns

Maintains unstable voice control

Answers “What’s that?” questions

Enjoys listening to stories

Is approximately 25-50% intelligible to strangers

Knows about 50 words at 24 months

Knows some spatial concepts such as “in” and “on”

Knows pronouns such as “you”, “me”, and “her”

Knows descriptive words such as “big” and “happy”

Speech is 80% intelligible by 3 years

Understands one and all

Verbalizes toilet needs

Requests items by name

Identifies several body parts

Asks 1 to 2 word questions

Uses 4 to 5 word phrases

Has an expressive vocabulary of 500 or more words

Has a receptive vocabulary of 500-900 or more words

Uses approximately 27 phonemes

Mastered the following sounds: p, b, t, d, k, g, f, m, ng, n, w, h

Answers simple questions

Begins to use more pronouns such as “you” and “I”

Speaks in two to three word phrases

Uses question inflection to ask for something (e.g., “My ball?”)

Begins to use plurals such as “shoes” or “socks” and regular past tense verbs such as “jumped”

Groups objects such as foods, clothes, etc.

Identifies colors

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.

Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and end of words. Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them.

Able to describe the use of objects such as “fork”, “car”, etc.

Has fun with language. Enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities such as, “Is that an elephant on your head?”

Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her

Uses verbs that end in “ing”, such as “walking”, “talking”

Answers simple questions such as “What do you do when you are hungry?”

Repeats sentences

Follows 2 and 3 step commands

Asks and answers simple questions

Uses 5-7 words in sentences

Has 1800-2000 word receptive vocabulary

Uses 1200-1500 or more spoken words by 4 years

Speech is 90% intelligible

Masters 50% of consonants and blends

Appropriately uses “is”, “are”, and “am” in sentences

Tells 2 events in chronological order

Uses some contractions irregular plurals, future tense verbs and, conjunctions

Understands spatial concepts such as “behind” and “next to”

Understands complex questions

Speech is understandable but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words such as “hippopotamus”

Describes how to do things such as painting a picture

Defines words

Lists items that belong in a category such as animals, vehicles, etc.

Answers “why” questions

Understands concept of numbers up to 3

Recognizes 3-4 colors

Counts to 10 by rote

Has receptive vocabulary of 2500-3500 words

Listens to short, simple stories

Uses sentences of 6-8 words

Has an expressive vocabulary of 2000 or more words

Enjoys rhymes

Understands time sequences (what happened first, second, third, etc…)

Carries out a series of three directions

Understands rhyming

Engages in conversation

Sentences can be 8 or more words in length

Uses compound and complex sentences

Describes objects

Uses imagination to create stories

Uses past tense and future tense appropriately

Names opposites

Has a receptive vocabulary of 13,000 words

Counts to 30 by rote

Uses conjunctions

Sequentially names days of the weeks