Milestones show developmental skills most children have by a certain age. Communication milestones will help you
- Know what to expect as your child develops
- Determine if your child is on-track or requires extra help
If your child is not meeting communication milestones contact:
- Quiets or smiles in response to sounds or familiar voices
- Looks toward sounds and watches your face while you talk
- Makes pleasure sounds – coos, gurgles, squeals (ah, oooo)
- Makes different cries for different needs (hungry, tired)
- Communicates back to you with smiles, gazes, sounds, and crying
- Makes eye contact, gazes at faces
- Turns to where sound is coming from; gets excited hearing your voice as you approach
- Reacts to changes in tone of voice and facial expressions
- Makes noises using voice to get attention
- Babbles different consonant and vowel sounds (baba, dee, ummm, puh)
- Laughs out loud with pleasure and excitement - enjoys social games (peek-a-boo) and when you sing
- Makes sounds when talked to (beginning conversation-like turns), starts imitating
- Responds to name and turns to look to someone talking across the room
- Looks at familiar people and common objects when named (“Auntie”, “shoe”, “ball”, “doggie”)
- Imitates speech and non-speech sounds
- Says several sounds all in one breath, as if talking (uhbuh-apa-aboo, da-didi-dada, mamam-baba)
- Gets your attention by looking at your eyes while using gestures, sounds and pointing to communicate
- Points and pays attention to where you are looking and pointing
- Begins to follow simple requests like "Come here", “Sit down”, "Find the ball"
- Clearly repeats a variety of consonant-vowel speech-like sounds (uhbuh abee dadoo, dada gaga mamoo)
- Uses three to five words, although they may not be clear
- Gets you to repeat favourite songs and actions/games
- Produces long strings of “gibberish” with intonation/rhythms, as if conversing, takes turns talking with you
- Consistently follows simple directions and understands routines ("Want more?", “Give it to Mommy”, “Show Grandma”)
- Looks for things when asked (“Where’s Teddy?”)
- Uses 10 or more words
- Tries to imitate simple words
- Makes many different consonant sounds (early consonants - b, m, n, p, d, g, w ,h)
- Uses more gestures such as clapping, blowing a kiss, and using a “shhh” finger to mouth
- Pretends with toys and “talks” to them (e.g., asks teddy if he wants juice, and gives a cup to drink)
- Understands at least 50 words or more, and many phrases
- Responds to questions
- Using many words (30 or more), may start to put words together
- Asks for common foods by name
- Word-like gestures such as a nod, thumbs up, hand or finger up for “wait/one second”, high five, waving or pinching the nose for “stinky”, and “I dunno” shrug
- Enjoys being read to and looking at books
- Between two and three years of age there is a language explosion
- Asks questions (what, where, who)
- Creates longer sentences of 5-8 words
- Follows two requests ("Get the book and put your mittens on the table")
- Understands some space and time concepts (e.g., here/there, later/before)
- Listens to stories and answers simple questions
- Talks about past events
- Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time
- Begins taking turns with other children using toys and words
- Between 3 – 4 years of age children are using adult-like sentences in conversations and are easily understood by others (some sounds may not be pronounced clearly yet)
This is not an exhaustive list of resources. BC Early Hearing Program does not endorse any particular resource.
