Stages of Speech And Language Development
Children with Normal Hearing
Ages birth through five years old
0-6
• Attends to facial expressions.
• Makes sucking sounds.
• Cries with varying pitch, length and duration.
• Coos.
• Responds to speech sounds by vocalizing.
• Vocalizes to express joy and anger.
• Responds and vocalizes to name.
• Verbalizes "dada" and "mama" non-meaningfully.
• Babbles "ba."
7-12
• Produces consonants when babbling.
• Babbles with inflection.
• Displays understanding of specific words with gestures.
• Babbles in response to human voice.
• Says "dada" and "mama" meaningfully.
• Babbles with definite inflection.
• Begins single-word sentences.
• Emerging expressive
vocabulary 1-3 words.
1 3 - 1 8
• Says "no" meaningfully.
• Labels 1-2 familiar objects.
• Combines voice with gestures.
• Spontaneous use of 10-15 words.
• Vocalizes demands, names needed items.
• Jabbers with rhythm during play.
• Uses own name in reference to self.
• Imitates two word phrases.
• Begins singing songs with words.
19-24
• Labels pictures.
• Two-word sentences.
• Uses nouns, verbs.
• Shares experiences with jargon and words.
• 65% of speech intelligible.
• Uses three-word utterances.
• Labels up to five pictures.
• Answers questions.
25-30
• Uses plurals.
• Refers to self with pronoun.
• Frustrated if not understood.
• Replaces jargon with sentences.
• Vocalizes for all needs.
• States full name.
• Participates in storytelling.
31-36
• Recites familiar nursery rhymes.
• Emergence of five-word sentences.
• Relates experiences with short sentences.
• Asks "W" questions: "what," "where," "why," "when".
• Expressive vocabulary 800+.
37-42
• Expressive vocabulary 1000+.
• Turn-taking in conversations beyond a few turns.
• Verbs, "go", "do" are used meaningfully.
• Multi phrase sentences begin to emerge.
43-48
• Initiates singing of familiar songs and nursery rhymes.
• Uses words for feelings (happy, sad, etc.)
• Uses prepositions: "over," "under," "above," "below."
• Verbs such as "be" and "do"
49-54
• Expressive vocabulary 1500+.
• Enjoys playing with words and word sounds.
• Speaks in long sentences.
• Verb and adjectives used in sentences.
56-60
• Expressive vocabulary 2000+.
• Sustains a topic in conversation.
• Possessives are used. "That's mine." "Here's yours."
• Conversation much like adults.
1
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Usually by 1.5 to 2 years of age the child begins by babbling. This is normal. He/she
then starts putting words together and is talking before three. He then picks up around 6 new words a day and can use over 6,000 words by the age of six or seven. If you child has begun babbling and then looses speech by between 1.5 and 2 years, take heed as he/she could be developing the symptoms of autism. This sounds scary but unfortunately there is an increasing number of kids showing the condition. ============================================================