Is my child on track developmentally? With so many areas of growth occurring in the first few years of life, it can get overwhelming trying to keep track of it all. I try to keep it simple with the families I work with.
0-2 Months:
Vegetative sounds (crys, burps, sneezes)
2-4 Months:
Laughing, Cooing & Gooing (vowels, consonant-vowel, vowel-consonant)
4-6 months:
Vocal play, Exploration (squeals, growls, yells, raspberries)
6-8 Months:
Canonical, reduplicated babbling (CVCV combinations)
8-12 Months:
Variegated Babbling (different CV combinations appear), jargon babble with intonation begins
12 Months:
Produces first word
Understands approximately 50 words
Responds to no
18 Months:
Produces around 50 words
Two word combinations begin (mainly noun + verb)
Omits final consonants
Follows simple commands
Identifies up to 3 body parts
24 Months:
CVC words combinations and two-syllable words appear
Speech is 50% intelligible
Produces approximately 250 words
Requests information, Answers questions
Begins to use pronouns
30 Months:
Grammatical markers appear (-ing, plural /s/, in/on)
Understanding and use of basic questions (what, who, what doing, where going)
‘Please’ used for polite requests
Uses approximately 450-500 words
36 Months:
Use and understanding of “why”
Understanding and use of basic spatial concepts (in, on, under, over)
Speech is 75% intelligible
Follows two-step commands
Understands one and all
Uses around 1,000 words
42 Months:
Early complex sentences appear
Irregular past tense, articles (a/the), possessive (‘s) acquired
Indirect requests emerge (can you, would you)
48 Months:
Understanding and use of “when” and “how”
Understanding and use of basic size vocabulary (big, small)
Use of conjunctions (and, because)
Understands object functions
Uses 4-5 words in sentences
60 Months:
Use of conjunctions when, so, if
Regular past tense, third person /s/, “to be” verbs acquired
Speech is 100% intelligible with some errors on /l/, /r/, /th/, /s/
Of course, there’s many more communication milestones children hit during their first five years of life. If you’re concerned with your child’s language development consult your pediatrician and discuss a speech-language evaluation. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions!
Talk soon, Kim
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