Speech & Language Skills

1-2 Months

Fix gaze on the person for at least 2 seconds 1-2 months
Produce soft, throaty, gurgling sounds
Move in response to a voice, vocalize to caregiver's smile and voice

3 Months

Calm when spoken to
Produce soft, throaty, gurgling sounds
Coo and cry to get attention; crying decreases with adult eye contact.
Vocalize to express displeasure

4 -5 Months

Produce vocalizations that express at least one mood
Clearly respond to the person’s voice
Clearly react to the sound presented
Turn head toward a voice.
Vocalize, laugh and babble.
Purposely turn head toward source of the sound

6 Months

Produce vocalizations that vary weekly and daily
Begin doing some experimenting with putting a consonant and vowel
String vowels together when babbling and taking turns with parent
Say consonant sounds (jabbering with “m,” “b”)

7-8 Months

Respond to own name
Respond to “no”
Distinguish emotions by tone of voice
Respond to sound by making sounds
Use voice to express joy and displeasure
Babble chains of consonant

9-10 Months

Clearly respond to sound of the rattle
Produce nasal vocalization
Vocalize at least two different, distinct vowel sounds
Vocalize or laugh in response to speaker’s attention
Shout or vocalize to gain attention
Respond to "No" most of time.
Use fingers to point at things

11-13 Months

Use at least one gesture to make wants known
Interact with objects for at least 60 seconds
Try to get attention from you or others
Say repetitive consonant sounds like : Mama, Dada
Give objects upon verbal request
Point to 3 body parts; Imitate name of familiar object
Vocalize with intent; uses a word to call a person
Understand simple commands
Identify two body parts
Try imitating speech sounds

14-16 Months

Use 2-3 words (other than ‘mama’ and ‘dada’)
Recognize simple words such as ‘cup’, ‘shoe’, ‘juice’
Use a combination of sounds and actions (pointing)

17-19 Months

Recognize names of familiar people, objects and body parts
Follow simple directions accompanied by gestures
Say 15 meaningful words

20-23 Months

Know up to 50 words, although they won’t enunciate them perfectly.
Repeat words spoken by other people.
Sing familiar songs, although usually garbling the words.
Count two or three separate objects.
Speak in short, simple sentences (“I want book,” “me have dinner")

2 Years

Identify pictures when named
Understand multiword utterances; uses multiword utterance
Have vocabulary of about 50-200 words
Take turns when playing with a partner
Answer the question “what’s this?”
Use toys for pretend play
Enjoy listening to stories

2 1/2 Years

Understand a lot more than he can say
Attempt to use over 100 words
Talk while playing
Rely more heavily on words, rather than gestures, to communicate

3 Years

Talk about something that happened yesterday or last week.
Follow a two-part instruction (eg “Go to the kitchen")
Produce all sounds except: l, y, f, v, k, g, sh, j, z, s, th, r
Ask ‘why’ questions
Put three or more words together in a sentence
Participate in short conversations
Use basic grammar
Not stutter
Distinguish graphics as writing versus picture
Understand words like “in,” “on,” and “under”
Name a friend
Say words like “I,” “me,” “we,” and “you” and some plurals (cars, dogs)

3 1/2 Years

Reread favorite storybooks using picture-governed strategies.
Talk clearly enough that even strangers can usually understand
Use 250 to 500 words
Speak in sentences of five to six words
Tell stories

4 Years

Ask a lot of questions
Use language to create imaginative pretend play with others
Tell stories that you can easily follow
Answer ‘who’, ‘how’, ‘how many’ questions
Use adult-like grammar
Talk in whole sentences
Produce all sounds except: sh, s, z, j, dj, th, r
Not stutter
Use pronouns correctly (I, me, you, he, she)
Create negative sentences using correct word arrangement.
Sing a song or says a poem from memory ex “Itsy Bitsy Spider”
Say first and last name
Understand beside, between, and back

5 Years

Produce all sounds except: th, r
Understand things communicates well with no frustration
Answer questions in the classroom
Participate in detailed conversations
Use language to talk about past and future events
Answer ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions
Explain how an object can be used
Not stutter
Appreciate past, present and future (Uses future tense)
Count to 20

6 Years

Participate in detailed conversations
Use grammar properly in sentences
Have appropriate vocabulary compared to same-aged peers
Ask or answer questions (who, what, how, why, when, where)
Answer questions in the classroom
Not stutter
Use grammar properly in sentences
Not have trouble with auditory comprehension tasks
Produce all sounds except: th, r
Appreciate jokes and riddles based on phonological ambiguity

7 Years

Answer questions in the classroom
Able to complete auditory comprehension tasks
Participate in detailed conversations
Not have difficulty asking or answering questions (who, what, how)
Have good vocabulary compared to same-aged peers
Not have difficulty with grammar
Produce all sounds in speech correctly.
Not stutter
Appreciate jokes and riddles based on lexical ambiguity.
Read

8 Years

Sort out more complex syntactic difficulties such as "ask" and "tell"

9-10 Years

Interpret "ask" and "tell" correctly

11-12 Years

Appreciate jokes and riddles based on syntactic ambiguity

Teenaged

Speak in longer sentences
Have a good amount of vocabulary words
Have good reading comprehension abilities
Write long and complex sentences

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