Language development mini

Brianne Bowman: Typical Language Development Timeline

  • Birth-5 months

    Birth-5 months
    At this age, a typical child will:
    - Vocalize pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)
    - Make noise when talked to
  • 6-11 months

    6-11 months
    At this age a typical child will:
    - Babble (say "ba-ba-ba" or "ma-ma-ma")
    - Understand "no-no"
    - Try to communicate by actions or gestures
    - Try to repeat your sounds
  • 12-17 months

    12-17 months
    At this age a typical child will:
    - Follow simple instructions accompanied by gestures
    - Answer simple questions nonverbally
    - Point to objects, pictures, and family members
    - Say 2-3 words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)
    - Try to imitate simple words
  • 18-23 Months

    18-23 Months
    At this age a typical child will:
    - Follow simple commands without gestures
    - Point to simple body parts such as "nose"
    - Understand 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
    - Ask for common foods by name
    - Make animal sounds such as "moo"
    - Have a vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words
    - Begin to use pronouns such as "mine"
  • 2-3 Years

    2-3 Years
    At this age a typical child will:
    - Have a vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words
    - Know some spatial concepts such as "in, on"
    - Answer simple questions
    - Speak in 2 or 3 word phrases
    - Use question inflection to ask for something (e.g., "My ball?"
  • 3-4 Years

    3-4 Years
    At this age a typical child will:
    - Identify colors
    - Group objects such as foods, objects, etc.
    - Use verbs that end in "ing", such as "walking", "talking"
    - Repeat sentences
    - Have a vocabulary of approximately 900-1000 words (at the age 3)
  • 5 Years

    5 Years
    At this age a typical child will:
    - Understand time sequences
    - Understand rhyming
    - Be able to define common objects
    - Know their age
    - Use long sentences
    - Use imagination to create stories