Milestones
From birth to three months, your child should . . .
- Startle or cry at loud noises
- Stop moving and seem to listen to speech or sound
- Awaken at a loud sound
From three to six months your child should . . .
- Look toward a sound or speaker
- Smile when spoken to
- Recognize mother’s voice
- Enjoy rattles and other toys that make sounds
From six to nine months your child should . . .
- Respond to his or her name
- Babble and make lots of different sounds
- Respond to “no”
From nine to 12 months your child should . . .
- Turn to or look when name is called
- Listen to people talking
- Respond to simple commands—“give me,” “come here”
- Understand “bye-bye”
- Be able to tell where sound is coming from
From 12 to 18 months your child should . . .
- Point to objects or familiar people by name
- Imitate simple sounds or words
- Follow simple spoken directions
- Say two to three words by age one and eight to 10 words by 18 months
From one-and-a-half years your child should . . .
- Hear you call from another room
- Hear and understand conversation easily—does not often ask you to repeat
- Hear television or music at the same loudness level as everyone else
- Hear quiet speech
- Have normal voice qualities
- Produces frequent two word phrases with noun plus verb and adjective plus noun
- Demonstrates understanding of basic categories i.e. toys, food, clothes
- Vocabulary should include 200 to 300 words
Two to three years
- Understands differences in meaning ("go-stop,” "in-out," "big-little," "up-down")
- Follows two requests ("get the book and put it on the table")
- Spoken vocabulary should be at least 150 words
- Begins to use simple two word sentences
- Most speech should be understandable to adults who are not with the child daily
- Toddlers also should be able to sit and listen to read-aloud picture books
Three to four years
- Hears you when you call from another room
- Hears television or radio at the same loudness level as other family members
- Answers simple who, what, where and why questions
- Spoken language should be used constantly to express wants, reflect emotions, convey information and ask questions
- A preschooler should understand nearly all that is said
Four to five years
- Pays attention to a short story and answers simple questions about it
- Hears and understands most of what is said at home and in school
- Vocabulary grows from 1000 to 2000 words
- Uses complex and meaningful sentences
- All speech sounds should be clear and understandable
If you have concerns about your child’s speech/language development or you suspect a hearing problem you should speak with your child’s physician about evaluation for speech/language delay and hearing loss. UPMC Hamot has audiologists and speech pathologists with extensive experience and training in assessing children. For information or to schedule an appointment call 814-877-2537.
