Every child learns to communicate and interact at different rates. These milestones are a guideline for the achievement of speech and language related milestones. If you have concerns about your child and their achievement of these developmental milestones, don't "wait and see". We are here to help!
At 12 months, children can usually...
understand about 10 words
respond to their name
recognise greetings and gestures, such as "hi" and "bye-bye"
recognise a few familiar people and objects (e.g., mummy, blankie, teddy)
make eye contact
start to use sounds, gestures and say a few words
continue to babble
copy different sounds and noises
Around this age, parents and carers should focus on waiting for their child to respond before saying more to them.
At 18 months, children can usually...
understand up to 50 words and some short phrases
follow simple instructions (e.g., 'throw the ball')
point to familiar objects when names
point to some pictures in familiar books
say 6 to 20 single words (some will be easier to understand than others, but becoming more consistent)
copy lots of words and noises
name a few body parts
use objects in pretend play (e.g., hold toy phone to their ear and say "hello")
Around this age, parents and carers should focus on getting face-to-face with their child when communicating.
At 2 years, children can usually...
follow simple two part instructions (e.g., give me the ball and the car)
respond to simple wh- questions, such as 'what' and 'where'
point to several body parts and pictures in books when named
understand when an object is 'in' and 'on something
say more than 50 single words
put two words together (e.g., "bye teddy", "no ball")
use their tone of voice to ask a question (e.g., "teddy go?")
say 'no' when they do not want something
use most vowel sounds and a variety of consonants (m, n, p, b, k, g, h, w, t, d)
start to use 'mine' and 'my'
Around this age, parents and carers should focus on figuring out what their child wants to say and put it into words for them.
At 3 years, children can usually...
follow more complex two part instructions (e.g., give me the teddy and throw the ball)
understand simple wh- questions, such as 'what', 'where' and 'who'
understand the concepts of 'same' and 'different'
sort items into groups when asked (e.g., toys vs food)
recognise some basic colours
say four to five words in a sentence
use a variety of words for names, actions, locations and descriptions
ask questions using 'what', 'where' and 'who'
talk about something in the past, but may use '-ed' a lot (e.g., "he goed there")
have a conversation, but may not take turns or stay on topic
Around this age, parents and carers should read books with their child! There is no need to always read the whole book. You can talk about the pictures that interest your child.
At 4 years, children can usually...
answer most questions about daily tasks
understand most wh- questions, including those about a story they have recently heard
understand some numbers
show an awareness that some words start or finish with the same sounds
use words, such as 'and', 'but' and 'because', to make longer sentences
describe recent events, such as morning routines
ask a lot of questions
use personal pronouns (e.g., he/she, me/you) and negations (e.g., don't, can't)
count to five and name a few colours
Around this age, parents and carers should use stories, rhymes and songs with their child to highlight different features of speech, such as rhyming words (e.g., "The cat is on the mat... that rhymes!") and alliteration (e.g., "Ben is a big boy... thats a lot of 'b' sounds!")
At 5 years, children can usually...
follow three part instructions (e.g., put on your shoes, get your backpack and line up outside)
understand time related words (e.g., 'before', 'after', 'now' and 'later')
start thinking about the meaning of words when learning
understand instructions without stopping to listen
begin to recognise some letters, sounds and numbers
use well formed sentences understood by most people
take turns in increasingly longer conversations
tell simple, short stories with a beginning, middle and end
use past and future verbs correctly (e.g., 'went', 'will go')
use most speech sounds, but still may have difficulties with 's', 'r', 'l' and 'th'
A child's communication development is everyones responsibility. Speech Pathologists support children (and those who care for them) to build communication and make sure children are developing 'between the flags'. At Discover Speech Pathology, we work together with families to find out if children are understanding and speaking 'between the flags', create communication-supporting learning and help children with a range of learning needs. Don't "wait and see" in regards to your child's communication development. If you have concerns, request an appointment with us!
If you have any questions about the information in this blog post, please leave your question as a comment. Give this post a like if you found it helpful!
Thanks for reading!
The Discover Speech Team
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