Hello hello and welcome back to the 9th episode of The Speech Parent Podcast! I’m so glad you’re here. Last week we started a series for the parents of little ones and we answered the question – ‘What is Considered a Late Talker?’ But THIS week we are talking allll about speech milestones. Specifically doing a quick run down of Speech Milestones By Age. If you’re wondering what your child should be able to do for their age, in regard to communication skills, then this episode is for you!
Before we jump in I just want to remind you that if your child is not talking yet or not talking as much as they should be – I understand what you’re going through! It can be so hard. We went through the same thing with my son, and now that I’m (mostly) on the other side of that, I want to share what helped him get from nonverbal and then minimally speaking to verbal and having conversations.
So if this is something you would be interested in please join my 5 Day Late Talker Challenge. It’s free, delivered via email, and it only takes 5 days to give you massive results. Each day I will send an email with 1 easy-to-implement strategy that you can incorporate into your busy lives. Join the challenge by going to thespeechparent.com/latetalkerchallenge!
Speech Milestones by Age
And for those of you that aren’t sure if your child is delayed or not, let’s go over the communication milestones for ages birth through 5 years. I got this information straight from the American Speech Language Hearing Association. It’s like our main SLP or speech language pathology association that certifies therapists and acts like a governing body. They compiled this list for us to use and it comes straight from research. So I’m not just making these up, they’re the real deal! And if you want a visual copy of this information you can head on over to thespeechparent.com/milestones to get the PDF that links to all of this information from ASHA.
Alright so let’s get started with the first year of your baby’s life! Feel free to skip ahead if this isn’t the information you need.
Here’s the Birth – 3 months range. So basically this is what we want your child to be able to do by the end of that range, so by 3 months:
Source: American Speech Language Hearing Association
Birth to 3 Months
- Alerts to sound.
- Quiets or smiles when you talk.
- Makes sounds back and forth with you.
- Makes sounds that differ depending on whether they are happy or upset.
- Coos, makes sounds like ooooo, aahh, and mmmmm.
- Recognizes loved ones and some common objects.
- Turns or looks toward voices or people talking.
4 to 6 Months
- Giggles and laughs.
- Responds to facial expressions.
- Looks at objects of interest and follows objects with their eyes.
- Reacts to toys that make sounds, like those with bells or music.
- Vocalizes during play or with objects in mouth.
- Vocalizes different vowel sounds—sometimes combined with a consonant—like uuuuuummm, aaaaaaagoo, or daaaaaaaaaa.
- Blows “raspberries”
7 to 9 Months
- Looks at you when you call their name.
- Stops for a moment when you say, “No.”
- Babbles long strings of sounds, like mamamama, upup, or babababa.
- Looks for loved ones when upset.
- Raises arms to be picked up.
- Recognizes the names of some people and objects.
- Pushes away unwanted objects.
10 to 12 Months
- By age 10 months, reaches for objects.
- Points, waves, and shows or gives objects.
- Imitates and initiates gestures for engaging in social interactions and playing games, like blowing kisses or playing peek-a-boo.
- Tries to copy sounds that you make.
- Enjoys dancing.
- Responds to simple words and phrases like “Go bye-bye” and “Look at Mommy.”
- Says one or two words—like mama, dada, hi, and bye
pause the speech milestones by age for a second
I’ll pause here for a second to share that this is the range my little one is in right now! My daughter is 10 months so for reference, she doesn’t have all of these skills yet but she is actively acquiring them. She does have the 7-9 month range met, so I know she’s on track. So if your child is in the middle of a range, I recommend that you take those milestones as like “this is what we’re working towards right now” and then listen back to the range before and make sure they’ve mastered all of those things.
Okay from now on we won’t see quite as much of a jump in skills as we go through the speech milestones by age so our next range is
13 to 18 Months
- Looks around when asked “where” questions—like “Where’s your blanket?”
- Follows directions—like “Give me the ball,” “Hug the teddy bear,” “Come here,” or “Show me your nose.”
- Points to make requests, to comment, or to get information.
- Shakes head for “no” and nods head for “yes.”
- Understands and uses words for common objects, some actions, and people in their lives.
- Identifies one or more body parts.
- Uses gestures when excited, like clapping or giving a high-five, or when being silly, like sticking out their tongue or making funny faces.
- Uses a combination of long strings of sounds, syllables, and real words with speech-like inflection
19 to 24 Months
- Uses and understands at least 50 different words for food, toys, animals, and body parts. Speech may not always be clear—like du for “shoe” or dah for “dog.”
- Puts two or more words together—like more water or go outside.
- Follows two-step directions—like “Get the spoon, and put it on the table.”
- Uses words like me, mine, and you.
- Uses words to ask for help.
- Uses possessives, like Daddy’s sock
2 to 3 Years
- Uses word combinations often but may occasionally repeat some words or phrases, like baby – baby – baby sit down or I want – I want juice.
- Tries to get your attention by saying, Look at me!
- Says their name when asked.
- Uses some plural words like birds or toys.
- Uses –ing verbs like eating or running. Adds –ed to the end of words to talk about past actions, like looked or played.
- Gives reasons for things and events, like saying that they need a coat when it’s cold outside.
- Asks why and how.
- Answers questions like “What do you do when you are sleepy?” or “Which one can you wear?”
- Correctly produces p, b, m, h, w, d, and n in words.
- Correctly produces most vowels in words.
- Speech is becoming clearer but may not be understandable to unfamiliar listeners or to people who do not know your child
3 to 4 Years
- Compares things, with words like bigger or shorter.
- Tells you a story from a book or a video.
- Understands and uses more location words, like inside, on, and under.
- Uses words like a or the when talking, like a book or the dog.
- Pretends to read alone or with others.
- Recognizes signs and logos like STOP.
- Pretends to write or spell and can write some letters.
- Correctly produces t, k, g, f, y, and –ing in words.
- Says all the syllables in a word.
- Says the sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of words.
- By age 4 years, your child talks smoothly. Does not repeat sounds, words, or phrases most of the time.
- By age 4 years, your child speaks so that people can understand most of what they say. Child may make mistakes on sounds that are later to develop—like l, j, r, sh, ch, s, v, z, and th.
- By age 4 years, your child says all sounds in a consonant cluster containing two or more consonants in a row—like the tw in tweet or the –nd in sand. May not produce all sounds correctly—for example, spway for “spray.
4 to 5 Years
- Produces grammatically correct sentences. Sentences are longer and more complex.
- Includes (1) main characters, settings, and words like and to connect information and (2) ideas to tell stories.
- Uses at least one irregular plural form, like feet or men.
- Understands and uses location words, like behind, beside, and between.
- Uses more words for time—like yesterday and tomorrow—correctly.
- Follows simple directions and rules to play games.
- Locates the front of a book and its title.
- Recognizes and names 10 or more letters and can usually write their own name.
- Imitates reading and writing from left to right.
- Blends word parts, like cup + cake = cupcake. Identifies some rhyming words, like cat and hat.
- Produces most consonants correctly, and speech is understandable in conversation
and those are the speech milestones by age!
And those are all the speech milestones by age! Whew! Now I know that was basically a word vomit with lots of information, so if you want a digital (or print it and make it physical) copy of all of this information, just use this link: thespeechparent.com/milestones
If you’re reading these speech milestones by age and starting to stress or get depressed about your child being behind, I get it. I knew the milestones and as my son wasn’t reaching them it was hard not to spiral. But there is hope! Speech therapy exists, strategies exist to help them, and I know millions of stories of kids who have made huge leaps of progress. Sometimes it takes awhile, but more often than not I’ve seen that growth given lots of intervention by parents and therapists! Do not lose hope!
One of the best things you can do is get into speech therapy as early as possible. If your kid isn’t meeting these milestones, then I highly encourage you get a speech therapy evaluation! Even if your pediatrician doesn’t think so or everyone is saying “they’ll catch up” because yeah, maybe they will on their own. Or maybe they need a little more support and delaying that support will just put them further behind. So better safe than sorry, go get that evaluation!
Using Speech Milestones by Age to Get an Evaluation
If you want a free one you can look into testing with your local school system if your child is 3 or older – just contact your local public school and ask about the process. If your child is under 3, then contact your state’s early intervention program to find out more. You can Google the information or to make it easy for you I made a list of each state with the program name and phone number. I’ll link it in the description or show notes, but it’s thespeechparent.com/state Just find your state in the list and contact them to find out about a free speech therapy evaluation for your little one!
I hope this episode on Speech Milestones by Age has been informative and helpful for you. Like I said, please do not get discouraged if your child is behind on meeting their milestones. If you want an easy place to get started supporting them then don’t forget to join my free 5 day Late Talker Challenge. Just go to thespeechparent.com/latetalkerchallenge and I’ll put the link in the description below.
Thanks for reading The Speech Parent blog! Come back next week to learn all about something that is going to really make your life easier as a parent by eliminating some frustrations and meltdowns when your kid isn’t able to communicate what they want. We’ll tackle that struggle and more in next week’s episode.
Please share this blog post on speech milestones by age with anyone in your life who you think may benefit. Thanks for being here, and I’ll see you next week. The best is yet to come!