| Hearing and Understanding |
Talking |
Birth–3 Months
- Startles at loud sounds.
- Quiets or smiles when you talk.
- Seems to recognize your voice. Quiets if crying.
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Birth–3 Months
- Makes cooing sounds.
- Cries change for different needs.
- Smiles at people.
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4–6 Months
- Moves her eyes in the direction of sounds.
- Responds to changes in your tone of voice.
- Notices toys that make sounds.
- Pays attention to music.
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4–6 Months
- Coos and babbles when playing alone or with you.
- Makes speech-like babbling sounds, like pa, ba, and mi.
- Giggles and laughs.
- Makes sounds when happy or upset.
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7 Months–1 Year
- Turns and looks in the direction of sounds.
- Looks when you point.
- Turns when you call her name.
- Understands words for common items and people—words like cup, truck, juice, and daddy.
- Starts to respond to simple words and phrases, like “No,” “Come here,” and “Want more?”
- Plays games with you, like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake.
- Listens to songs and stories for a short time.
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7 Months–1 Year
- Babbles long strings of sounds, like mimi upup babababa.
- Uses sounds and gestures to get and keep attention.
- Points to objects and shows them to others.
- Uses gestures like waving bye, reaching for “up,” and shaking his head no.
- Imitates different speech sounds.
- Says 1 or 2 words, like hi, dog, dada, mama or uh-oh. This will happen around his first birthday, but sounds may not be clear.
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1-2 Years
- Points to a few body parts when you ask.
- Follows 1-part directions, like “Roll the ball” or “Kiss the baby.”
- Responds to simple questions, like “Who’s that?” or “Where’s your shoe?”
- Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes.
- Points to pictures in a book when you name them.
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1-2 Years
- Uses a lot of new words.
- Uses p, b, m, h, and w in words.
- Starts to name pictures in books.
- Asks questions, like “What’s that?”, “Who’s that?”, and “Where’s kitty?”
- Puts 2 words together, like “more apple,” “no bed,” and “
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2-3 Years
- Understands opposites, like go–stop, big–little, and up–down.
- Follows 2-part directions, like “Get the spoon and put it on the table.”
- Understands new words quickly.
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2-3 Years
- Has a word for almost everything.
- Talks about things that are not in the room.
- Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n in words.
- Uses words like in, on, and under.
- Uses two- or three- words to talk about and ask for things.
- People who know your child can understand him.
- Asks “Why?”
- Puts 3 words together to talk about things. May repeat some words and sounds.
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3-4 Years
- Responds when you call from another room.
- Understands words for some colors, like red, blue, and green.
- Understands words for some shapes, like circle and square.
- Understands words for family, like brother, grandmother and aunt.
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3-4 Years
- Answers simple who, what, and where questions.
- Says rhyming words, like hat–cat.
- Uses pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they.
- Uses some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses.
- Most people understand what your child says.
- Asks when and how questions.
- Puts 4 words together. May make some mistakes, like “I goed to school.”
- Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.
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4-5 Years
- Understands words for order, like first, next and last.
- Understands words for time, like yesterday, today and tomorrow.
- Follows longer directions, like “Put your pajamas on, brush your teeth, and then pick out a book.”
- Follows classroom directions, like “Draw a circle on your paper around something you eat.”
- Hears and understands most of what she hears at home and in school.
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4-5 Years
- Says all speech sounds in words. May make mistakes on sounds that are harder to say, like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh and th.
- Responds to “What did you say?”
- Talks without repeating sounds or words most of the time.
- Names letters and numbers.
- Uses sentences that have more than 1 action word, like jump, play, and get. May make some mistakes, like “Zach gots 2 video games, but I got one.”
- Tells a short story.
- Keeps a conversation going.
- Talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place. Your child may use short sentences with younger children. He may talk louder outside than inside.
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