Speech and Language Milestones

Children develop their speech, language and communication skills at different rates however there are specific ranges in which we would expect a child to have mastered specific skills. This is a guide on what typical speech, language and communication development might look like for children who are following a path of analytic language development, this is the most common form of language development in neurotypical children. For more information on the two types of language development, click here.

0-6 Months

Sounds

• Begins cooing sounds (e.g., "oo," "ah") around 2 months.
• Starts playing with sounds (e.g., "ba” "da") around 4-6 months.

Listening and Attention:

• Shows interest in and watches faces while listening to voices by 2-3 months.
• Focuses on and follows sounds and movements with eyes.

Hearing and Responding to Sounds

• Turns head towards sounds and voices by 3 months.
• Shows excitement or quiets down in response to familiar voices.

Social Interaction:

• Makes eye contact and smiles in response to interaction by 2-3 months.
• Recognises the difference between happy and sad faces and starts to copy facial expressions.
• Uses facial expressions and vocalisations to communicate feelings including laughing, smiling, fussing and crying.
• Smiles in response to people by 2-3 months.
• Begins to laugh and show joy in people play by 4-6 months.
• Can track eye gaze of an adult towards an object and share attention over this object e.g if you look intently at an object whilst holding it your baby may look at it too.

Words

• Begins to copy some sounds and facial expressions around 4-6 months.
• Shows interest in repeating sounds made by familiar people.
• May use babble which has similar pitch and tone to adult speech.

6-12 Months

Sounds

• Stats babbling with sounds (e.g., "ba-ba” "da-da") around 6-9 months.
• Starts to play around with speech volume and pitch.

Listening and Attention:

• Listens to speech and tries to imitate sounds around 6-9 months.
• Shows interest in music, rhymes, and stories by 9-12 months.

Understanding Language:

• Turns when their name is called by 6-9 months.
• Understands and responds to simple words and phrases like "no," "come here," and "bye-bye" around 9-12 months.

Social Interaction:

• Enjoys games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake around 6-12 months.
• Starts to take turns in conversations, responding with sounds or gestures.
• Looks at something when someone points at it.
• Uses gestures like waving, pointing, and showing objects to communicate around 9-12 months.
• Enjoys action songs and nursery rhymes.
• Uses facial expressions and body language to convey needs and emotions.

Words

• Imitates simple sounds and words spoken by caregivers around 9-12 months.
• Enjoys copying sounds, actions, and gestures during play.

12-18 Months

Sounds:  

• Continues to babble using a variety of sounds.
• Babble may start to sound like adult speech with different volume and pitch patterns.

Listening and Attention:

• Shows a short attention span when listening to stories or nursery rhymes.
• May turn to new or unfamiliar voices.
• Enjoys listening to music and may dance along to the music.

Understanding Language:

• Starts to understand and follow simple one-step directions (e.g., "come here," "give me the ball").
• Shows understanding of "no" and may stop something when told “no.”
• Children will understand around 50 words by 18 months.

Social Interaction:

• Enjoys copying actions, gestures, and sounds of others.
• Uses gestures and sounds to initiate social interactions.
• Enjoys looking at simple picture books with an adult.

Words:

• Says their first word(s), usually family or pet names or a favourite toy.
• By 18 months most children will say about 20 words.
• May use sounds to represent animals such as ‘moo’ for ‘cow.’
• Will use the same sounds or words to represent different items or people e.g might call every dog ‘Honey’ if that is their dogs name.

18-24 Months

Sounds: 

• Continues to use a variety of consonant and vowel sounds.
• Starts to use a wider range of syllable structures e.g 2-3 syllable words like ba-na-na.

Listening and Attention:

• Shows recognition and enjoyment of familiar songs, rhymes, and stories.
• Will focus on something of their own choosing for a short period of time, finds it difficult to redirect their attention to an adult.
• May sit and listen to short stories.

Understanding Language:

• Understands around 200 words.
• Understands and follows simple two-step directions (e.g., "pick up the toy and give it to me").
• Understands simple verbs (action words) such as ‘cuddle teddy’ and ‘dolly sleep’.
• Can point to pictures in a book when named and identify objects by their use.

Social Interaction:

• May start to enjoy simple turn taking games such as click clack cars.
• Shows empathy by reacting to the emotions of others (e.g., comforting a crying peer).
• Enjoys pretend play such as feeding their toys pretend food.
• Can get frustrated when people don’t understand them.

Words and Sentences:

• Uses around 50 words or more by 24 months but many of these are not clear e.g may say ‘du’ for ‘duck’.
• May start to put two words together e.g ‘more milk’ ‘big car.’
• Starts to ask questions such as ‘what’s that?’ and ‘where going?’.

2-3 Years

Sounds: 

• Speech becomes clearer, and more sounds are pronounced correctly.
• Most children can produce sounds like p, b, m, h, and w correctly at the beginning of words.

Listening and Attention:

• Can focus on activities like reading books, singing songs, and playing games for short periods of time (up to 5 minutes).
• Enjoys listening to short stories.

Understanding Language:

• Understands around 200-500 words.
• Understands and follows two-step directions such as "Get your coat and come here".
• Understands simple questions about familiar objects and events such as "Where is the ball?" and "What/Who is this?".
• Responds to these questions by pointing, gesturing, or using words.
• Starts to understand words like big/little, up/down, and in/out.
• Can understand simple prepositions (e.g., "in," "on," "under").

Social Interaction:

• Has simple conversations and takes turns in speaking.
• Uses language to express emotions, needs, and desires more clearly such as "I want juice" and "I'm sad".
• Starts to use social language like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ where culturally relevant.
• Is interested in other children’s play and may want to join in.

Words and Sentences:

• Says between 200-1000 words by age 3.
• Asks ‘what’s that?’ to learn new words.
• Puts 4 to 5 words together to form short sentences such as ‘me want more juice’ ‘he got my teddy’.
• Starts to combine a noun (person, place or thing) and a verb (action word) (e.g., ‘dog run’ ‘Mummy drink’).
• Use the words ‘no’ and ‘not’ in phrases.
• Talks about past and future events.
• Asks questions e.g ‘what’s that?’.
• Can find objects by their function e.g ‘what do we drink from?’.
• Uses the words ‘I’ ‘me’ and ‘you’.
• Starts to put ‘-s’ on the ends of words when there is more than one such as ‘dogs’ and ‘biscuits’.
• Uses the words ‘big’ and ‘little’.
• May stammer or stutter as their language develops, this is typical at this age but if it lasts more than a few months you should seek advice from a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT).

3-4 Years

Sounds:

• Speech becomes more understandable, even to unfamiliar listeners.
• Is able to say the sounds p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ(ng), f, v, s, z, h, w, l, ʧ (ch), and j (y).
• May have difficulty saying the sounds θ (thing), ð (the), ʃ (sh), ʒ (treasure) ʤ (jelly), and r.

Listening and Attention:

• Can listen to short stories and starts to recall some details
• Can listen to longer conversations and stories.

Understanding Language:

• Understands and follows instructions with 3-4 information carrying words by 4 years e.g, “put the cake on the blue plate and give it to Nanny”, when given a choice of multiple options for the words in bold.
• Understands and answers simple "who," "what," "where," and "why" questions.
• Understands colours, shapes, and sizes.
• Understands and answers simple problem solving questions such as ‘what do you do when you are hungry?’.
• Starts to understand time-related words like "before," "after," "soon," and "later."

Social Interaction:

• Uses language to pretend and engage in imaginative play.
• Participates in group activities and starts to understand rules in simple games.
• Uses language to express emotions, needs, and desires more clearly (e.g., "I want to play," "I'm feeling sad").
• Enjoys make-believe play and plays with their peers.
• Starts conversations with others.

Words and Sentences:

• Says between 900-1000 words by age 4.
• Often asks the meaning of words.
• Uses sentences with 4-5 words such as “Can I have a snack?” “let’s go on the swings”.
• Starts to use the words ‘and’ ‘because’ and ‘but’ to join sentences together.
• Uses pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘they’.
• Starts to ask ‘why?’.
• Starts to use past-tense such as ‘I played’ and ‘I went’.
• Puts sentences together to tell you about something that has happened such as ‘I went to the park and played on the swings’.

4-5 Years

Sounds: 

• Is able to say the sounds p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ(ng), f, v, s, z, h, w, l, ʧ (ch), ʒ (treasure), ʤ (jelly), and j (yellow).
• May have difficulty saying the sounds θ (thing), ð (the), ʃ (sh), and r.
• Can identify and produce rhyming words.
• Can clap out syllables in multi-syllabic words e.g ‘ba-na-na’.

Listening and Attention:

• Can continue what they are doing whilst still listening to others talk.
• Listens to longer stories and conversations, showing understanding by answering questions.

Understanding Language:

• Understands a sequence sequencing, e.g. ‘first we will get dressed and then we will eat our breakfast’
• Understands past, present, and future tense, for example they understand the difference between ‘I went to work ‘I am going to work’ and ‘I will go to work’.
• Understands and follows complex multi-step instructions (e.g., "Put your book away, get your shoes, and wait by the door").
• Understands and answers a variety of "who," "what," "where," "when," and "why" questions.
• Understands time-related words including "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow".
• Understands the words ‘above’ ‘below’ and ‘between’.

Social Interaction:

• Start to choose who they want to play with and plays make-believe games such as pretending to be a fairy.
• Can take longer turns in conversations with their peers.
• Engages in detailed conversations, taking turns and staying on topic.
• Uses language to express a wide range of emotions, needs, and desires (e.g., "I feel excited because we are going to the zoo").

Words and Sentences:

• Says between 1,500-2,000 words by age 5.
• Asks what new words mean.
• Uses complex sentences with five or more words (e.g., "I want to go to the park after lunch").
• Uses past, present, and future tense.
• Uses plurals (cats), possessives (Mummy’s cat), and prepositions (the cat is under the table).
• Uses words to make comparisons such as ‘bigger’.
• Can tell simple stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

5-7 Years

Sounds: 

• By 7 years will be able to pronounce all the speech sounds correctly in all word positions.
• Can generate rhyming words and tell when words rhyme.

Listening and Attention:

• Can focus on academic tasks and activities for longer periods, showing sustained attention and concentration.

Understanding Language:

• Understands and follows complex multi-step directions (e.g., "First put your homework in your bag, then put on your shoes, and finally wait by the door").
• Understands and answers a wide range of "who," "what," "where," "when," "why," and "how" questions.
• Can follow and remember a story that is told over several days.
• Learns that the same word can mean two things for example ‘orange’ can be a fruit and the name of the colour.
• Learns that different words can mean the same things such as ‘add’ and ‘plus’.
• Understands descriptive words such as ‘carefully’ and ‘slowly’.
• Understands words to describe a wider range of emotions such as ‘worried’ ‘surprised’ and ‘excited’.

Social Interaction:

• Can take turns in conversations with one person or a group of people.
• Shows interest in the experiences and feelings of others, asking relevant questions and showing empathy.

Words and Sentences:

• Begins to understand and use more complex vocabulary related to school subjects and interests.
• Uses words including ‘so’ and ‘because’ to join sentences together.

7-11 Years

Sounds: 

• Can pronounce all the speech sounds correctly in all word positions.
• Demonstrates strong sound awareness skills, such as identifying and generating rhymes, blending and segmenting sounds, and manipulating sounds within words.

Listening and Attention:

• Listens attentively to lengthy instructions, stories, and explanations, showing understanding by summarising and asking relevant questions.
• Maintains focus on school tasks and group discussions for extended periods, demonstrating sustained attention and concentration.

Understanding Language:

• Understands and answers a wide range of "who," "what," "where," "when," "why," and "how" questions,
• Understands questions involving inferential thinking and reasoning such as ‘how do you know that story was set in the past?’.
• Understands non-literal language such as idioms (e.g that was a piece of cake).

Social Interaction:

• Engages in detailed, multi-turn conversations, taking turns, staying on topic, and showing sensitivity to the conversational partner’s needs and interests.
• Participates in group discussions and starts to understand others’ points of view and can agree or disagree.
• Can keep a conversation going by giving reasons and explaining choices.
• Adapts language use to different social situations,

Words and Sentences:

• Uses figurative language including idioms (e.g., ‘that was a piece of cake’), simile (e.g., ‘the puppy is as soft as a cloud’), and metaphor (e.g., ‘my brother is a monkey’).
• Can tell complex stories with a clear beginning, middle and end using complex vocabulary.
• Is able to use their knowledge of word endings to change the meaning of words.
• Uses complex grammar in their talking and writing.

References:

The American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA, 2024). Communication Milestones: Age Ranges. Retrieved from: Communication Milestones: Age Ranges (asha.org)

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2024). Milestone Moments Checklist. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/LTSAE-Checklist_COMPLIANT_30MCorrection_508.pdf

Dodd, B., Holm, A., Hua, Z., and Crosbie, S., 2003, Phonological development: a normative study of British English‐speaking children. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 17, 617–643. https://doi.org/10.1080/0269920031000111348.

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD, 2022). Speech and Language Developmental Milestones. Retrieved from:  https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/speech-and-language

Public Health England (2020). Best Start in Speech, Language and Communication: Supporting Evidence. Retrieved from:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f9be9c48fa8f57f3b4cb075/BSSLC_Supporting-evidence.pdf#:~:text=The%20quality%20and%20the%20quantity%20of%20spoken,measured%20the%20language%20environments%20of%20typically%20developing

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT, 2024). Speech Sound Disorders – Guidance. Retrieved from: https://www.rcslt.org/members/clinical-guidance/speech-sound-disorders/speech-sound-disorders-guidance/

Speech and Language UK (2024). Ages and Stages. Retrieved from:  https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/help-for-families/ages-and-stages/

Stanford Medicine Children’s Health (2024). Age Appropriate Speech and Language Milestones. Retrieved from: https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=age-appropriate-speech-and-language-milestones-90-P02170