Milestone Age Ranges
Make sure to check out the free Milestone Tracker App as well to track your child’s Milestones. It’s completely FREE!
By 9 To 12 Months Of Age
Receptive Language
- 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
Expressive Language
- 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
By 12mths To 24mths
Receptive Language
- Identifies common objects and pictures (e.g. points to common pictures in books or picks them up from a group of objects 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
Expressive Language
- 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 vocalizations 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 than gestures
- Non-family members can understand 50-75% of the child’s speech by 2yrs of age
By 2yrs To 3yrs
Receptive Language
- Understand describing words
- Open/close (car doors, doors, cupboards and toys)
- Wet/dry
- Big/little
- Same/different
- Understand place words
- In/out
- On/off
- Up/down
- Under/over
- Top/bottom
- Understand quantity words
- More/gone
- One/lots
- Empty/full
- 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?”)
- Understand negatives (e.g. “Point to the box with no toys”)
Expressive Language
- 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
By 3yrs To 3.5yrs
Receptive Language
- Understand describing words (hard/soft)
- Understand quantity words such as (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 colors. Can point to 2-3 different colors when a selection of different colored balls are placed in front of them
- Understand negatives (e.g. “Point to the box with no toys”)
Expressive Language
- Uses 3-5 word sentences (e.g. “the boy is jumping”)
- Uses 800 words
- Can answer simple questions (e.g. “who is that?”)
By 3.5yrs To 4yrs
Receptive Language
- 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
Expressive Language
- 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 intelligible to others in conversation
By 4yrs To 5yrs
Receptive Language
- Comprehend between 2000-2800 words
- Understand place words (e.g. “between”, “above/below”, “middle”, “first/next/last”)
- Beginning to understand comparatives (e.g. “this one is big, and this one is bigger”)
- Understand difference between day and night
- Beginning to understand “when” questions
Expressive Language
- Uses 1500-2000 words
- Uses joining words such as “if”, “so”, “but”
- Uses possessive pronouns such as “his”, “her”
- Use words such as “could” and “would”
- Combines five to eight words in a sentence
- Repeats days of the week in sequence
- Identify the odd one out from a group of three items
- Tells a long story in sequence, but may not stick to the same idea throughout the story
By 5yrs To 6yrs
Receptive Language
- Understand time concepts such as “morning/afternoon”, “yesterday/tomorrow”, “before/after”, “now/later”
- Understands and responds to “when” questions
- By 6yrs of age knows “right” from “left”
Expressive Language
- 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
- Can Identify similarities and differences in objects
References:
Bowen, C. (1998). Speech-language-therapy dot com. Retrieved from www.speech-language-therapy.com on (10/01/2011)
Gard, A. Gilman, L. Gorman, J. (1993). Speech and Language Development Chart (2nd ed.).
Austin, Texas: Pro-edOwens, R.E. (2001)Language Development: An Introduction (5th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Paul, R. (2001). Language Disorders from Infancy through Adolescence: Assessment and Intervention(2nd Ed.). St Louis, Missouri: Mosby, Inc.
Reynell, J. & Gruber, C. (1990). Reynell Development Language Scales. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
Zimmeramn, I.L. Steiner, V.G. & Pond, R.E. (2002). Preschool Language Scale – Fourth Edition – Australian Language Adaptation (PLS-4). San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.
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If you have concerns regarding your child’s communication skills, contact Chatterbox Pediatric Therapy to schedule an evaluation.