By 6 months of age, your child should be able to:
• Vocalize with intonation
• Respond to voices by turning head
• Recognize friendly vs. angry tones of voice
• Begin to babble
• Produce a variety of different sounds
• Bring both hands together
• Grasps a rattle
• Work to get a toy out of reach
• Rake with fingers an object and pick it up
• Bear some weight on legs when held upright
• Sit without support
• Roll over one way
By 12 months of age, your child should be able to:
• Use one or more words with meaning
• Understand simple directions with cues
• Use 1-2 word questions ("where kitty?")
• Point to pictures in books when named
• Clap hands or wave
• Pick up a tiny object with any part of thumb and finger
• Drink from a cup independently
• Walk holding onto furniture
• Stand alone momentarily
• Bear some weight on legs when held upright
• Sit without support
By 18 months of age, your child should be able to:
• Demonstrate a vocabulary of 5-20 words; mostly nouns
• Use a lot of jargon with emotional content
• Follow simple commands
• Stack 3-4 blocks
• Place rings on a cone
• Turn single pages in a book
• Roll a ball
• Walk backwards
Speech Intelligibility (“understandability”) to an unfamiliar listener:
18 months – 25% intelligible
24 months – 50% intelligible
By 2 years of age, your child should be able to:
• Name familiar objects
• Combine 2 words, especially noun-verb combinations
• Have a vocabulary of 150-300 words
• Use simple pronouns, such as I, me, you, my, and mine
• Understand differences in meaning (stop vs. go, big vs. little)
• Follow 2 step directions (Get the toy and give it to me)
• Use words more frequently than gestures to communicate
• Build tower of 6 blocks
• Pretend to push a train made out of three blocks after watching an adult do it
• String 1-4 large beads
• One hand starts to be dominant
• Hold crayon with whole hand
• Imitate an adult making circular strokes or dots
• Copy horizontal and vertical lines
• Use spoon well
• Turn a doorknob
• Walk and run on full feet
• Pull toys with strings
• Climb on furniture and get back down
• One hand starts to be dominant
• Climb stairs holding on with two feet on each stair
• Assist in dressing
• Open doors
By 3 years of age, your child should be able to:
• Use some plurals and past tense
• Know at least three prepositions, such as in, on, under
• Knows simple body parts
• Use 3 word sentences
• Demonstrate a vocabulary of 900-1 000 words
• Understand most simple, concrete questions
• Relate experiences in a logical manner
• Answer reasoning questions, such as "What would you do if you were cold?"
• Give gender, name, age
• Snip with scissors
• Complete 5-6 piece puzzle
• Hold a crayon with three fingers
• Copy circles
• Draw a person with a head
• Use a fork and spoon properly
• Jump in place with both feet
• Kick a stationary ball
• Ride a tricycle
• Stand on one foot for 2 seconds
• Swing on a swing when in motion
• Alternate feet while going up stairs
• Put on some clothing
• Wash and dry hands
Speech Intelligibility to an unfamiliar listener:
• 80% intelligible
Sounds to be mastered by this age:
By 4 years of age, your child should be able to:
• Name objects in pictures
• Knows one or more colors
• Understand 'over' and 'under'
• Participate in make-believe
• Understand contrasting concepts, such as longer, large
• Follow commands without cues
• Answer questions about short stories
• Build tower with 10 blocks
• String small beads
• Hold writing utensils with three fingers
• Copy square
• Draw person with head, feet and body
• Dress and undress self independently
• Demonstrate clear dominance in right-handed children
• Hop on one foot 1-3 times
• Play catch with a large ball
• Have good control of a tricycle
Speech Intelligibility to an unfamiliar listener:
• 100% intelligible
Sounds to be mastered by this age:
By 5 years of age, your child should be able to:
• Use descriptive words and understand simple time concepts, such as morning, night, day, later
• Repeat sentences up to 9 words
• Define common objects in terms of use
• Follow three commands given without interruption
• Use long sentences, including some complex and compound sentences
• Demonstrate overall appropriate grammar
• Build tower of 12 blocks
• Build 3 steps out of 6 blocks
• Draw angled lines and triangles
• Draw person with head, body, legs and face
• Color inside lines
• Cut on straight line
• Hold a knife in dominant hand
• Button clothing
• Walk in a straight line
• Climb steps holding onto an object
• Hop on each foot 3 times
• Stand on one foot for 8-10 seconds
• Ride a bicycle with training wheels
• Swing by himself
• Bounce and catch a tennis ball
• Walk on tiptoes
Sounds to be mastered by this age:
By 6 years of age, your child should be able to:
• Stand on one foot with eyes closed for 3 seconds
• Walk on line in heel-toe fashion
• Skip
• Ride a bike without training wheels
• Jump rope
Sounds to be mastered by this age:
By 7 years of age, your child should be able to:
Sounds to be mastered by this age:
The above developmental milestones lists are compiled from the following sources: Murkoff,
H, .Eisenberg, A. ,and Hathaway, S. BSN. What to Expect The First Year. New York: Worman
Publishing, 2003 Wholefamily.com. Schapiro, Ziva OTR. 05 December 2006. 01 June 2007.
http://www.wholefamily.com/aboutyourkids/child/normal/physical_development.html Schraeder,
Heather M., MS, CCC-SLP. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. How Does Your
Child Hear and Talk? The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 01 June 2007.
School-Age Speech, Language & Literacy Milestones
By the end of Kindergarten:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
By the End of 1st Grade:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
By the end of 2nd Grade:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
By the end of 3rd Grade:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
By the end of 4th Grade:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
By the end of 5th Grade:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Information was found on the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2014.
Online Resources
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists
Florida Directory of Early Childhood Services
National Down Syndrome Society
National Center for Learning Disabilities
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