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Speech & Language Development Checklist

Parents and guardians may become concerned if they feel that their child is experiencing speech and language delays. There are certain milestones that children should reach in specific age brackets. Checking if your child has reached these milestones will help you decide if your child is suffering from speech and language delay and whether or not he needs further assistance.

  1. Birth to 5 Months

    • Monitor your child to see if he can hear sounds. Look to see if he turns his head toward the source of sounds. See if he watches your face when you speak to him, vocalizes his emotions (giggles or cries) or if he makes noises when being talked to.

    6 to 11 Months

    • Six- to 11-month-old children should understand "No." Your child should be babbling or making noises such as "Ma ma." She should be communicating through actions and gestures. Also, she will begin to repeat sounds.

    12 to 17 Months

    • Children in this age group should be focusing on toys or books for a few minutes at a time. Twelve- to 17-month-old children should be following simple directions accompanied by gestures and answering simple questions nonverbally. They should also be pointing to family members, objects or pictures and using two or three words to label a person or object. Also, your child will try to imitate simple words.

    18 to 23 Months

    • Children in this age bracket enjoy being read to. They can follow simple commands without gestures. Your child can also point to simple body parts such as her nose when asked. She will understand simple action verbs like "eat" and should be correctly pronouncing most vowels and the letters "n," "m," "p" and "h." Her vocabulary should consist of eight to 10 words and she should be asking for common foods by name.

    2 to 3 Years

    • Your child should understand about 50 words and say about 40 words. He should understand spatial concepts such as "on" or "up" in addition to descriptive words such as "big." Pronouns should be used. Speech is more accurate but your child will often fail to pronounce the end of words. He will start to answer simple questions, use two to three word phrases, start using inflection when asking questions and using plural and past tense language.

    3 to 4 Years

    • Three to 4 year olds can group objects, such as food and clothes, and identify colors. Most speech sounds are now used, but difficult letters like "l" and "r" can still sound distorted. Consonants are now used in the beginning, middle and end of words. She should be describing objects and expressing feelings and ideas while talking. Children in this age group can answer simple questions and repeat sentences.

    4 to 5 Years

    • Four to 5 year olds should understand more complicated spatial concepts such as "behind" and more complex questions. His speech should be understandable but he mispronounces difficult words such as "hippopotamus." He should understand and use 200 to 300 words, place words into categories, answer "why" questions and use past tense verbs.

    5 Years

    • Five year olds should understand more than 2000 words. They can understand time sequences and what to do when you give them a sequence of directions. Your child should understand rhymes and engage in conversation with family members and friends in her own age bracket. Sentences should consist of eight words or more, and she should be forming complex and compound sentences, describing events and using her imagination.

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