Developmental Age Norms

In infancy:

• your child should respond to his or her name and sounds in the environment

• your child should make noises to express pleasure or displeasure, may have different cries for hunger, pain

• your child should be interested in faces and display first smiles between 6 and 12 weeks of age

• your child should babble, coo and experiment with making noises between the ages of 6 to 9 months

Speech and language development begins in infancy and continues throughout childhood. Many non-verbal skills such as eye contact, gestures, pointing and vocalizations need to be in place before first words even emerge.

By age one:

• your child should recognize his or her name

• your child has 2 to 3 words, says mama or dada

• your child is able to point to familiar objects, "where's the car?"

• your child should make eye contact and show interest in playing and engaging with you

By 18 months:

• your child should have first words or a vocabulary of 10 to 20 words

• your child should understand "no"

• your child should have beginning sounds of most words such as the b "ball" and m in "more." If initial sounds are consistently omitted, it is cause for concern.

• your child should have a wide repertoire of vowel and consonant sounds. If your child uses mostly vowel sounds when speaking "I uh oo ee" for "I want cookie," evaluation is appropriate

• your child should be able to follow simple one step directions such as "bring me your cup"

By 2 years:

• your child should have about 50 words in their vocabulary

• your child is putting two words together to make a phrase such as "more juice?' or "go car"

• your child is able to follow two step directions such as "bring me your socks and shoes"

• your child should know a few body parts

• your child should use words, paired with gestures to communicate needs and wants. If your child uses "uh' and is dependent on gestures/pulling you toward what is wanted to make requests, talk to your pediatrician about assessment.

By 3-4 years:

• your child's speech should be understood by non-family members at least 75% of the time

• your child should be able to appropriately respond to what, where, who, when questions

• your child should be using pronouns correctly

• your child should be able to sequence and retell a short, simple story

• your child should be able to answer questions about a story that's been read to them

• your child should understand spatial concepts in, out, on, off, over, under, front, back, behind, next to, between

By 5 years:

• your child has a very large vocabulary, is able to use 6 to 10 word sentences that give detail

• your child is able to understand and sequence time concepts (what happens first, second, third?)

• your child uses adult grammatical forms, such as "we went to the store" instead of "we goed to the store"

• your child use imagination in play

• your child is able to maintain a conversation

Untreated communication issues can create long-term problems. It is important to seek an evaluation if your child is not meeting given milestones. Call to discuss if you have concerns!

Glossary of terms:

• Articulation disorder: trouble saying the sounds of speech correctly "wabbit for rabbit"

• AAC or Alternative and Augmentative Communication. Some children and adults are dependent on speech generated devices to help them communicate

• Phonological disorder: type of rule-based sound disorder where sound error patterns are evident; child consistently substitutes /t/ for a /k/, /d/ for a /g/

• Resonance/voice disorder: when a child's voice quality is altered so that it is perceived as abnormal by the listener. Child may have hoarse, raspy voice quality from excessive screaming or yelling

• Language Disorder: difficulty understanding language such as following directions, especially with increased complexity and abstraction, difficulty expressing one's thoughts -retelling, explaining, organizing thoughts

• Fluency Disorder: repeating, blocking, stuttering on sounds, words or phrases

• Childhood Apraxia of Speech: a motor-based type of articulation disorder in which the child has difficulty coordinating the motor movements necessary for speech

• Pragmatic language disorder: difficulty using language for social purposes; may not understand non-verbal rules of language such taking turns in conversation, giving eye contact, responding to communication attempts