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At Speech within Reach, we firmly believe that knowledge empowers us. Over the years, many people have come to us with questions similar to those you may have. For that reason, we welcome you to review our blog and/or list of frequently asked questions page for answers on the tab below.
Speech Developmental Milestones
Birth - 3 Months:
4-6 Months:
7- 9 Months:
10- 12 Months:
13- 18 Months:
19- 24 Months:
2- 3 Years:
3-4 Years:
4-5 Years:
5-6 Years:
6-8 Years:
Birth - 3 Months:
Birth – 3 Months: Speaking
- Produces sounds such as cooing (one syllable – “ah”), fussing, crying, burping, and gurgling (at back of throat).
- Sustain “cooing” sounds for 15-20 seconds
- Cry differently for different needs including pain or hunger
- Vocalizes and/or smiles in reaction to caregiver’s smile and voice
- Infants are unable to control motor movements; therefore, most actions are reflexes. The most important reflex for speech development is the rhythmic suck-swallow pattern, established 3 months prior to birth.
Understanding
- By the end of the 3rd month, an infant recognizes his mother’s voice (e.g., stops crying to listen)
- Startles upon hearing loud sounds called the “Moro Reflex”
- Responds to and imitates facial expressions of others
- Is quiet or smiles when spoken to or when you appear
- Attends to speaker’s mouth or eyes
- Recognizes bottle or breast
- Briefly looks at objects
4-6 Months:
4-6 Months: Speaking
- Uses voice to express pleasure (e.g., excitement) and displeasure (e.g., upset)
- Experiments/plays with sounds with you or when left alone (yells, gurgles, blows bubbles)
- Coos to music
- Babbling begins and starts to sound more speech like with many different sounds such as “p”, “b”, and “m”
- Tries to repeat sounds heard
- Laughs and chuckles
- Says “mama/dada” without meaning
Understanding
- Responds to changes in the tone of your voice
- Pays attention to music (e.g., moves eyes to sound)
- Smiles at speaker
- Experiments with cause-effect (e.g., shakes rattle)
- Reaches for objects
- Smiles/vocalizes to mirror image
7- 9 Months:
7- 9 Months: Speaking/ Communicating
- Imitates sounds, cough, tongue clicking, and some onomatopoeias (e.g., animal noises such as oink, meow, roar)
- Uses gestures to communicate (e.g., waving, holding arms to be picked up)
- Sings along to a familiar song
Understanding
- Recognizes names of family members
- Responds to “no” most of the time
- Searches for a partially hidden object
- Struggles to get objects that are out of reach
- Plays games like “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake”
- Imitates simple acts (e.g. clapping, nodding)
- Gives, points and shows
10- 12 Months:
10- 12 Months: Speaking
- Uses 1 to 2 words around 12 months (e.g., hi, dog, dada, mama)
- Tries imitating words
- Vocalizes with intent frequently
- Uses onomatopoeias (e.g., animal sounds such as oink, roar) to refer to objects
Understanding
- Identifies two body parts on self
- Gives objects upon verbal request
- Understands simple instructions, such as “come here” or “want more”
- Responds to “no”
- Uses social gestures (e.g., waving “bye-bye”)
- Recognizes familiar persons or common objects when named (e.g., “cup”, “shoe”)
- Tries to accomplish simple goals (e.g., seeing and then crawling to a toy)
- Looks for and finds objects that are out of sight (e.g., spoon that falls under the table)
13- 18 Months:
13- 18 Months: Speaking
- Names objects on request
- Repeats sounds and words you say, as well as uses jargon (e.g., made up speech)
- Combines a gesture with vocalization to obtain a desired object
- Vocabulary: uses approximately 8-10 words by 18 months
Understanding
- Points to a clothing item, a toy and pictures when it is named
- Laughs at silly actions (e.g., wearing a bowl as a hat)
- Begins to use objects correctly such as drinking from cup, brushing hair, dialing phone, and/or listening to receiver.
- Solves problems by trial and error (e.g. obtains toy with stick)
19- 24 Months:
19- 24 Months: Speaking
- Puts 2 words together (e.g., “more milk,” “no juice,” “mommy book”)
- Uses some one or two word questions (e.g., “Go bye-bye?” and “Where kitty?”)
- Names most common objects
- Begins using pronouns “my,” “me,” “mine”; refers to self by name
- Uses many different consonant sounds at the beginning of words
- Correctly pronounces most vowels
- Vocabulary: uses approximately 50 words by 24 months
Understanding
- Follows simple 1 step directions without a gesture or verbal help (e.g., “Roll the ball.”, “Kiss the baby.”)
- Points to a few body parts when asked (on self or a doll)
- Understands questions such as “where is the ball?” and “what’s that?”
- Finds objects even when hidden under two or three covers
- Likes to take things apart
- Stacks rings on peg in order of size; builds higher towers
- Pretend plays about familiar situations (e.g., cooking)
2- 3 Years:
2- 3 Years: Speaking
- Uses 2-3 word sentences to about and ask for things
- Uses 2-3 word negative phrases (e.g., “no want that”)
- Uses “k”, “g”, “f”, “t”, “d”, and “n” sounds
- Speech is understood by a familiar listener most of the time
- Answers questions with “yes” or “no”
- Begins the “why” question stage and asks “wh”- questions (e.g., “What’s that?” and “Where ball?”)
- Shares simple imaginative tales and/or describes actions in book
- Vocabulary: uses approximately 50-200 words increasing to around 500 words or more by 3 years old
Understanding
- Follows 2-step related requests without visual help (e.g., Get the book and put it on the table)
- Matches an object in the room to a picture in a book
- Completes 5+ piece puzzle
- Listens to and enjoys hearing stories for longer periods of time
- Holds up fingers to tell age
- States first & last name
- Understands the difference in meaning such as with “go-stop”, “in-on” and “big-little”
- Remembers what happened yesterday
- Knows where things usually belong
- Laughs at silly ideas such milking a dog
- Avoids some dangers such as a hot stove or a moving car
3-4 Years:
3-4 Years: Speaking
- Uses sentences that have 4 or more words
- Uses about 4 sentences at a time such as when talking about what happened during the day
- Speaks clearly enough that people outside of the family will understand his or her speech
- Answers simple “who?”, “what?” and “where?” questions
- Asks “when” and “how” questions
- Says rhyming words such as “hat-cat”
- Uses a variety of grammatical forms including past tense (e.g., some irregular verbs “drank” for “drink”), plurals (“toys” “buses”), prepositions (e.g., under) and negatives (e.g., “can’t”, “not”, “didn’t”)
- Uses pronouns such as “we”, “she/he”, “his/hers” and “they”
- Uses present progressive (e.g., “is”, “are”, “am”) and uses verbs with “ing” at the end
- Uses 3rd person singular (e.g. “s” ending on “waits”)
- Expresses ideas and feelings
- Describes the use of objects such as “fork” and “car”
Understanding
- Understands simple “who”, “what”, “where” and “why” questions
- Identifies and names primary colors
- Counts to ten
- Understands words for family such as brother, grandmother, and aunt
- Understands some shapes such as circle and square
- Takes turns without being reminded
- Distinguishes day activity (e.g., playing) from night activity (e.g., sleeping)
- Sequences familiar routines
- Matches object to occupation (e.g.. fishing rod to fisherman)
4-5 Years:
4-5 Years: Speaking
- Says all speech sounds in words
- Names letters and numbers
- Tells a short story while staying on topic
- By 5 years: 98% – 100% speech is understood by most listeners unfamiliar
- Uses “has”, “does” and “had”
- Uses “because”, “when”, “if” and “so” in sentences
- Uses “before” and “after”
- Uses comparative adjectives such as “small vs. smaller”
- Answers “why” and “how” questions
Understanding
- Follows 3 part directions (e.g., “Put your pajamas on, brush your teeth and then pick out a book)
- Attends to a short story and answers simple questions relating to it
- Names penny, nickel and dime
- Knows days of the week
- Knows own street and city
- Identifies a problem, lists possible solutions verbally and chooses which one(s) are appropriate
- Tells color of unseen object such as “What color is an apple?
- Categorizes without visual clues (e.g. animals, food, toys)
5-6 Years:
5-6 Years: Speaking
- Uses correct irregular plurals (e.g., “deer”) and past tense/irregular verbs (e.g., “did”)
- Uses prepositions (e.g., “under”, “on”) and articles (e.g., “the”, “a”)
- Uses superlative –est (e.g., “bravest”)
- Uses –er to form nouns (e.g., “teach” to “teacher”)
- Uses future progressive: “will be” + verb + “ing” (e.g., “will be helping”)
- Uses compound and complex sentences
Understanding
- Says letters of alphabet
- Counts to 30+
- Plays games by the rules
- Understands seasons of the year
- Begins to read and write, distinguishing capitals and lowercase
- Arranges objects in order, according to size
- Adds, subtracts /li>
6-8 Years:
6-8 Years: Speaking
- Uses irregular comparative/superlative (e.g., “better, best” and “worse, worst”)
- Uses past perfect tense (e.g., “She had read the book.”)
- Uses past perfect progressive (e.g., “had been camping”)
- Asks “have” questions with present perfect tense (“Have you been there before?”)
- Uses well formed narratives when explaining a story
Understanding
- Can develop a plan to meet a goal
- Counts to 100+
- Understand and uses riddles and idioms (e.g., “Hold your horses.”)
- Tells jokes
- Tells own address, phone number
- Names months of the year
- Names month for a given holiday
- Can tell time