Written by team-admin

SLP Milestones

What should my child be able to do?

Hearing and Understanding Talking
Birth-3 Months

  • Startles to loud sounds.
  • Quiets or smiles when spoken to.
  • Seems to recognize your voice and quiets if crying.
  • Increases or decreases sucking behavior in response to sound.
Birth-3 Months

  • Makes pleasure sounds (cooing, gooing).
  • Cries differently for different needs.
  • Smiles when sees you.
4-6 Months

  • Moves eyes in direction of sounds.
  • Responds to changes in tone of your voice.
  • Notices toys that make sounds.
  • Pays attention to music.
4-6 Months

  • Babbling sounds more speech-like with many different sounds, including p, b, and m.
  • Chuckles and laughs.
  • Vocalizes excitement and displeasure.
  • Makes gurgling sounds when left alone and when playing with you.
7 Months-1 Year

  • Enjoys games like peek-o-boo and pat-a-cake.
  • Turns and looks in direction of sounds.
  • Listens when spoken to.
  • Recognizes words for common items like “cup”, “shoe”, “book”, or “juice”.
  • Begins to respond to requests (e.g. “Come here” or “Want more?”).
7 Months-1 Year
• Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds such as “tata upup
bibibibi.”

  • Uses speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep attention.
  • Uses gestures to communication (waving, holding arms to be picked up).
  • Imitates different speech sounds.
  • Has one or two words (hi, dog, dada, mama) around first birthday, although sounds may not be clear.
One to Two Years

  • Points to a few body parts when asked.
  • Follows simple commands and understands simple questions (“Roll the ball”, “Kiss the baby”, “Where’s your shoe?”).
  • Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes.
  • Points to pictures in a book when named.
One to Two Years

  • Says more words every month.
  • Uses some one- or two- word questions (“Where kitty?”, “Go bye-bye?”, “What’s that?”).
  • Puts two words together (“more cookie”, “no juice”, “mommy book”).
  • Uses many different consonant sounds of the beginning of words.
Two to Three Years

  • Understands differences in meaning (“go-stop”, “in-on”, “big-little”, “up-down”).
  • Follows two requests (“Get the book and put it on the table”).
  • Listens to and enjoys hearing stories for longer periods of time.
Two to Three Years

  • Has a word for almost everything.
  • Uses two- or three- words to talk about and ask for things.
  • Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n sounds.
  • Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time.
  • Often asks for or directs attention to objects by naming them.
  • Asks why?
  • May stutter on words or sounds.
Three to Four Years

  • Hears you when call from another room.
  • Hears television or radio at the same loudness level as other family members.
  • 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.
Three to Four Years

  • Talks about activities at school or at friends’ homes.
  • Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.
  • People outside of the family usually understand child’s speech.
  • Answers simple, “who?”, “what?”, “where?”, and “why?” questions.
  • Asks when and how 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.
  • Uses a lot of sentences that have 4 or more words.
  • Usually talks easily without repeating syllables or words.
Four to Five Years

  • 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 is said at home and in school.
Four to Five Years

  • Says all speech sounds in words. May make mistakes on sounds that are harder to say, like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, 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 got 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. May use short sentences with younger children or talk louder outside than inside.

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