Age of Child
|
Typical Language Development
|
6
Months |
Vocalization with intonation
Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes
Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones
Responds to his name
|
12 Months |
Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a fragment of a word)
- Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given
- Practices inflection
- Is aware of the social value of speech
|
18 Months |
- Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words
- Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns
- Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over)
- Much jargon with emotional content
- Is able to follow simple commands
|
24 Months
[2 years] |
- Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings
- Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on, under
- Combines words into a short sentence-largely noun-verb combinations (mean) length of sentences is given as 1.2 words
- Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be intelligible
Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words
- Rhythm and fluency often poor
- Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled
- Can use two pronouns correctly: I, me, you, although me and I are often confused
- My and mine are beginning to emerge
- Responds to such commands as “show me your eyes (nose, mouth, hair)”
|
36 Months
[3 years] |
- Use pronouns I, you, me correctly
- Is using some plurals and past tenses
- Knows at least three prepositions, usually in, on, under
- Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name
- Handles three word sentences easily
- Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words
- About 90% of what child says should be intelligible
- Verbs begin to predominate
- Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities
- Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason
- Able to reason out such questions as “what must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, cool, or thirsty?”
- Should be able to give his sex, name, age
- Should not be expected to answer all questions even though he understands what is expected
|
48 Months
[4 years] |
- Knows names of familiar animals
- Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their meaning when given commands
- Names common objects in picture books or magazines
- Knows one or more colors
- Can repeat 4 digits when they are given slowly
- Can usually repeat words of four syllables
- Demonstrates understanding of over and under
- Has most vowels and diphthongs and the consonants p, b, m, w, n well established
- Often indulges in make-believe
- Extensive verbalization as he carries out activities
- Understands such concepts as longer, larger, when a contrast is presented
- Readily follows simple commands even thought the stimulus objects are not in sight
- Much repetition of words, phrases, syllables, and even sounds
|
60 Months
[5 years] |
- Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs
- Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heave-light, etc
- Has number concepts of 4 or more
- Can count to ten
- Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems
- Should have all vowels and the consonants, m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n,ng,y (yellow)
- Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words
- Should be able to define common objects in terms of use (hat, shoe, chair)
- Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions
- Should know his age
- Should have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while
- Tomorrow, yesterday, today
- Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences
- Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct
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References: Child Development Institute, Parent Guide to Developmental Stages. http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/language_development.shtml. Retrieved March 19, 2012.