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0-5 Months
*Reacts to loud sounds
*Turns head toward a sound source
*Watches your face when you speak
*Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)
*Makes noise when talked to -
6 - 11 Months
*Understands "no-no"
*Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba" or "ma-ma-ma")
*Tries to communicate by actions or gestures
*Tries to repeat your sounds -
12 - 17 months
*Attends to a book or toy for about two minutes
*Follows simple directions accompanied by gestures
*Answers simple questions nonverbally
*Points to objects, pictures, and family members
*Says two to three words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)
*Tries to imitate simple words -
18 - 23 months
*Enjoys being read to
*Follows simple commands without gestures
*Points to simple body parts such as "nose"
*Understands simple verbs such as "eat," "sleep"
*Correctly pronounces most vowels and n, m, p, h, especially in the *beginning of syllables and short words. Also begins to use other speech sounds
*Says 8 to 10 words (pronunciation may still be unclear)
*Makes animal sounds such as "moo"
*Starting to combine words such as "more milk"
*Begins to use pronouns such as "mine" -
2 - 3 years
*Knows some spatial concepts such as "in," "on"
*Knows pronouns such as "you," "me," "her"
*Knows descriptive words such as "big," "happy"
*Says around 40 words at 24 months
*Strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said
*Answers simple questions
*Begins to use more pronouns such as "you," "I"
*Speaks in two to three word phrases
*Begins to use plurals such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs such as "jumped" -
3 - 4 years
*Groups objects such as foods, clothes, etc. Identifies colors
*Uses most speech sounds.
*Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words. *Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them.
*Enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities such as, "Is that an elephant on your head?"
*Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her
*Repeats sentences -
4 - 5 years
*Understands spatial concepts such as "behind," "next to"
*Understands complex questions
*Speech is understandable but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words such as "hippopotamus"
*Says about 200 - 300 different words
*Uses some irregular past tense verbs such as "ran," "fell"
*Describes how to do things such as painting a picture
*Defines words
*Lists items that belong in a category such as animals, vehicles, etc.
*Answers "why" questions -
5 years
*Understands more than 2,000 words
*Understands time sequences (what happened first, second, third, etc.)
*Carries out a series of three directions
*Understands rhyming
*Engages in conversation
*Sentences can be 8 or more words in length
*Uses compound and complex sentences
*Describes objects
*Uses imagination to create stories -
6-12 years
*Use language to predict and draw conclusions.
*Use long and complex sentences.
*Understand other points of view and show that they agree or disagree.
*Understand comparative words e.g. ‘it was earlier than yesterday’.
*Keep a conversation going by giving reasons and explaining choices.
*Start conversations with adults and children they don’t know.
*Understand and use passive sentences e.g. “the thief is chased by the policeman”.