Milestones

Developmental Milestones (ASHA’s “How Does Your Child Hear and Talk” )

By age 1:

• Moves their eyes in the direction of sounds.
• Responds to changes in your tone of voice.
• Coos and babbles when playing alone or with you.
• Makes speech-like babbling sounds, like pa, ba, and mi.
• Giggles and laughs.
• Makes sounds when happy or upset.
• Turns when you call their name.
• Understands words for common items and people—words like cup, truck, juice, and daddy.
• Starts to respond to simple words and phrases, like “No,” “Come here,” and “Want more?”
• Plays games with you, like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake.
• Listens to songs and stories for a short time.
• Babbles long strings of sounds, like mimi upup babababa.
• Uses sounds and gestures to get and keep attention.
• Points to objects and shows them to others.
• Uses gestures like waving bye, reaching for “up,” and shaking his head no.
• Imitates different speech sounds.
• Says 1 or 2 words, like hi, dog, dada, mama, or uh-oh. This will happen around their first birthday, but sounds may not be clear.

By age 2

• Points to a few body parts when you ask.
• Follows 1-part directions.
• Responds to simple questions.
• Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes.
• Points to pictures in a book when you name them.
• Uses a lot of new words.
• Uses p, b, m, h, and w in words.
• Starts to name pictures in books.
• Asks questions, like “What’s that?”, “Who’s that?”, and “Where’s kitty?”
• Puts 2 words together, like “more apple,” “no bed,” and “mommy book.”

By age 3

• Understands opposites, like go–stop, big–little, and up–down.
• Follows 2-part directions, like “Get the spoon and put it on the table.”
• Understands new words quickly.
• Talks about things that are not in the room.
• Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n in words.
• Uses words like in, on, and under.
• Uses two- or three- words to talk about and ask for things.
• People who know your child can understand them.
• Asks “Why?”
• Puts 3 words together to talk about things. May repeat some words and sounds.

By age 4

• • Responds when you call from another room.
  • Understands words for some colors, like red, blue, and green.
  • Understands words for some shapes, like circle and square.
  • Understands words for family, like brother, grandmother, and aunt.
  • Answers simple who, what, and where questions.
  • Says rhyming words, like hat–cat.
  • Uses pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they.
  • Uses some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses.
  • Most people understand what your child says.
  • Asks when and how questions.
  • Puts 4 words together. May make some mistakes, like “I goed to school.”
  • Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.

By age 5

• Understands words for order, like first, next, and last.
• Understands words for time, like yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
• Follows longer directions, like “Put your pajamas on, brush your teeth, and then pick out a book.”
• Follows classroom directions, like “Draw a circle on your paper around something you eat.”
• Hears and understands most of what they hear at home and in school.
• Says all speech sounds in words. May make mistakes on sounds that are harder to say, like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, and th.
• Responds to “What did you say?”
• Talks without repeating sounds or words most of the time.
• Names letters and numbers.
• Uses sentences that have more than 1 action word, like jump, play, and get. May make some mistakes, like “Zach gots 2 video games, but I got one.”
• Tells a short story.
• Keeps a conversation going.
• Talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place. Your child may use short sentences with younger children. They may talk louder outside than inside.