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)
- LEAD-K Family Services
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Pathways
- Speech-Language & Audiology Canada
This is not an exhaustive list of resources. BC Early Hearing Program does not endorse any particular resource.
