| Birth to 5 months |
- coos
- vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)
- makes noise when talked to
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| 6 to 11 months |
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| 12 to 17 months |
- answers simple questions nonverbally
- says two to three words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)
- tries to imitate simple words
- vocabulary of four to six words
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| 18 to 23 months |
- 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
- vocabulary of 50 words, pronunciation is often unclear
- asks for common foods by name
- makes animal sounds such as "moo"
- starting to combine words such as "more milk"
- begins to use pronouns such as "mine"
- uses two word phrases
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| 2 to 3 years |
- knows some spatial concepts such as "in," "on"
- knows pronouns such as "you," "me," "her"
- knows descriptive words such as "big," "happy"
- vocabulary of 250 to 900 words
- uses three-word sentences
- speech is becoming more accurate but may still leave off ending sounds - strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said
- answers simple questions
- begins to use more pronouns such as "you," "I"
- uses question inflection to ask for something such as "My ball?"
- begins to use plurals such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs such as "jumped"
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| 3 to 4 years |
- groups objects such as foods, clothes, etc.
- identifies colors
- uses most speech sounds but may distort some of the more difficult sounds such as l, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th - these sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8
- uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words - some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them
- strangers are able to understand much of what is said
- able to describe the use of objects such as "fork," "car," etc.
- has fun with language - 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/ her
- uses verbs that end in "-ing," such as "walking" and "talking"
- answers simple questions such as "What do you do when you are hungry?"
- repeats sentences
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| 4 to 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"
- vocabulary of about 1,500 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
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| 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 eight or more words in length
- uses compound and complex sentences
- describes objects
- uses imagination to create stories
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