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. Hamot Medical Center has audiologists and speech pathologists with extensive experience and training in assessing children. For information or to schedule an appointment call (814) 877-2537.
