Detailed Speech Milestones
What is normal?
While every child is different, to give parents some general parameters, we have compiled a detailed list below of behaviours that could be displayed at the various age intervals. This is not an exhaustive or prescriptive list, but it is designed to educate on some general signs we look for.”
9-12 Months
- Responds when you call their name
- Respond when you say “no”
- Turn their head and look for a sound when they can’t see what is making it (e.g. a noise coming from inside the cupboard or something behind them)
- Anticipate what will happen next (e.g. giggle before you take your hands away in a game of peek-a-boo)
- Look at objects or people when attention is given to them (e.g. pointing to a picture/person or an object such as a plane up in the sky
- Take your hand when you hold it out and say “let’s go!”
- Understand common phrases/sayings used in the family
- Respond to someone by smiling or shying away
- Use gestures, such as pointing, pulling or poking things to communicate what they want or need
- Copy actions and sounds (e.g. clapping hands)
- Vocalises some vowel like sounds (e.g. ee, oo)
- Vocalise one or two consonant sounds (e.g. m, d, p)
- Combine sounds to form a syllable (e.g. da, pa)
- Seek attention from others around them
- Play simple turn-taking games like peek-a-boo
12-24 Months
- Identifies common objects and pictures (e.g. points to common pictures in books or picks them up from a group of obects on the floor)
- Identifies common body parts
- Responds to “NO”, “wait”, “stop” (even if only briefly!)
- Understands common simple directions which involve words such as: “Give it to me”, “Show it to me”, “Point to it”, “Where is it?”, “Put it down”, “Pick it up”
- Understand simple “What’s that?” questions
- Play with toys and use objects appropriately in play
- Copies and imitates a lot of actions (like jumping, hand actions in nursery rhymes)
- Copies and imitates lots of common words
- Holds out toys or other objects to show people
- Uses vocalisations to ask for things
- Babble short strings which sounds almost like real words and sentences
- Uses 50-200 words by 2 years
- Combining 2 or more words together (e.g. “more ball”, “no mum”, “give me”, “put down truck”)
- Label photos of objects
- By 2yrs of age using words more often then gestures
- Non-family members can understand 50-75% of the child’s speech by 2yrs of age
2-3 Years
- Understand describing words:
Open/close (car doors, doors, cupboards and toys), Wet/dry, Big/little, Same/different - Understand place position words: In/out, On/off, Up/down, Under/over, Top/bottom,
- Understand quantity words: More/gone, One/lots, Empty/full, Under/over, Top/bottom
- Understands common simple directions which involve words such as: “Give it to me”, “Put it here”, “Pick up the teddy”.
- Understand “wh” questions: What’s this?, Yes/no questions (e.g. “Is this your drink?”), What is the boy/girl doing?
- Understand the function of an object (e.g. “What do we do with a spoon?”)
- Have a large noun and verb vocabulary where they can point to a range of pictures
- Understand gender (e.g. “Is this a boy or a girl?”)
- Asks lots of questions (e.g. “What is that?”, “Where is it?”)
- Label a large range of pictures and actions
- Combines 2-4 word sentences often when talking
- Answer simple “What’s this?”, “What is the boy doing?” and “Where is it?” questions
- Answer “yes” and “no” questions
- Uses “-ing” at the end of action words where appropriate (e.g. running)
- Uses little words like “the”, “a”
- People other than family members can understand 75-100% of the child’s speech by 3yrs of age
3-4 Years
- Understand describing words: hard/soft
- Understand quantity words: one/some/all
- Understand questions such as, “who is that?”, “who is jumping/running/eating?”
- Understand “where” questions (e.g. “Where is the ball?”)
- Identifies 2-3 colours. Can point to 2-3 different colours when a selection of different coloured balls are placed in front of them
- Understand negatives (e.g. “Point to the box with no toys”)
- Uses 3-5 word sentences (e.g. “the boy is jumping”)
- Uses 800 words
- Can answer simple questions (e.g. “who is that?”)
- Understand describing words (e.g. “tall/short”, “long/short”)
- Understand place words such as “front/back”, “next to”, “inside/outside”
- Beginning to understand “why?” questions
- Uses 1000-1500 words
- Uses little words “is/are” and “he/she”, “I”, “me”, “mine” correctly
- Beginning to respond correctly to “why?” questions (e.g. “Why do you brush your teeth?”)
- Uses joining words such as “because”, “then”, “and” (e.g. “The boy is big and mean!”)
- Can tell a story of 2 events in sequence (e.g. “I went to the shops then to McDonalds”)
- Begins to use language for jokes and teasing
- Might correct others
- Asks a lot of “how”, “why” and “when” questions and expects detailed answers
- Becoming very intelligble to others in conversation
4-5 Years
- Understand time concepts: “morning/afternoon”, “yesterday/tomorrow”, “before/after”, “now/later”
- Understands and responds to “when” questions
- By 6yrs of age knows “right” from “left
- Using all pronouns correctly (“he/she”, “his/her”, “himself/herself”, “me”, “mine”, “I” etc)
- Names days of the week in order
- Tells a long story maintaining theme and sequence
- Grammar is mostly correct
- By 6yrs of age able to identify and label a number of alphabet letters