Words, Sounds, and Milestones

Helpful Guide to Children's Speaking

Language and speech comes from the ability to hear. All sounds and words will be unique and occur at different times depending on the child, however most kids should be in the same general area when it comes to their language. Below are some milestones and guide words that a parent can use to keep track of their kid's language.

Birth - 5 Months

Makes general noises

Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds

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6 Months - 11 Months

Makes babbling noises

"no, no" "ba-ba-ba"

"ma, ma" "da, da"

Says first word(s)

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12 Months - 17 Months

Says 2-3 words for an object or person

Knows about 4-6 words

Attempts to imitate other words

Says more words each month

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18 Months - 23 Months

Can pronounce common foods

Animal noises: "moo" "oink" "quack"

Uses more pronouns

Vocabulary up to about 50 words

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2 Years - 3 Years

Speech becoming more accurate

Descriptive words

Uses question inflictions: "my toy?"

Pronouns being used often

3 - 4 word sentences

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3 Years - 4 Years

Can name colors

Most speech sounds are fluent except hard ones

like: "l, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th"

Repeats sentences

Expresses emotions and feelings

Verbs with endings "ing"

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4 Years - 5 Years

Answers "why" questions

Can understand hard questions

Describes actions

Uses adverbs like "behind" or "next to"

Past tense verbs: "ran" or "fell"

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5 Years

Understands rhyming

Can describe objects

Creates compound and complex sentences

Can carry out multiple directions

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References

Age-Appropriate Speech and Language Milestones (Stanford Medicine Children's Health)

Age-Appropriate Speech and Language Milestones (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)

Feel free to use this as guidance and a follow along!