Speech and Language Milestones

Speech and Language Achievements

From birth to three months

Perception of speech: categorical perception

Language discrimination of sound contrasts

Reflexive vocalizations are used to produce speech (cries, burps, sucking sounds)

Cooing/ babbling

4 to 6 months

Vocal play in speech production (shouts, squeals, growls, whispers, raspberries, sustained vowels, simple syllables)

From 7 months to 1 year

Speech creation:

Babbling that has been copied (repetition of consonant-vowel sequence)

Various babbling (syllable strings of various consonants and vowels)

First words, First words are words that are used to name or refer to objects.

Using Idiomorphs (own words to refer to objects or events)

2-3 years

Simple multi-word creations of speech

In response to inquiries, simple syntactic constructs are used.

Cognition:

Mastering of the lexicon for the surrounding world and basic syntactic structures

4-5 years

Speech production:

Vocal play (shouts, squeals, growls, whispers, raspberries, sustained vowels, simple syllables)

7 months to 1 year

Speech production:

Reduplicated babbling (repetition of consonant-vowel sequence)

Variegated babbling (syllable strings of various consonants and vowels)

First words, recognizes words are used to name or refer to objects

Use of idiomorphs (own words to refer to objects or events)

2-3 years

Speech production:

Simple multi-word productions

Simple syntactic structures in response to questions

Cognition:

Mastering of the lexicon for the surrounding world and basic syntactic structures

4-5 years

Speech production:

Construction of longer and more complex sentences

Ability to tell stories

Vocabulary between 1000-2000 words

Cognition:

Developing understanding of complex questions

Ability to identify imaginary or hypothetical conditions

Understands spatial concepts

References

Age-Appropriate Speech and Language Milestones. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/pediatrics/age-appropriate_speech_and_language_milestones_90,P02170/

Carroll, D. W. (2008). Psychology of language. Southbank: Thompson/Wadsworth

Owens, R. (2001). Language development: an introduction. 5th ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Speech and Language Milestone Chart, (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6313