Language Development

0-6 months Cooing and babbling Continual awareness of sound (turns to noise) Uses eye gaze to indicate interest

7-12 Months First true words appear Same syllable is repeated Child demonstrates increased understanding of daily routines

12 months 3-5 words Recognizes name Understands simple instruactions Initiates familiar words, gestures, and sounds Child understands common objects and actions

18 months words Recognition of pictures of familiar persons, objects Early 2-word combinations of words Needs are requested verbally as “more, up” Child will point, gesture, follow simple commands imitate simple actions, hum or sing Distinguishes print form non print

24 months (2 years) Identifies familiar actions/activities in pictures Follows directions to put objects on, off, in Puts two words together Sentence length of up to three words Refer to self by name Labels pictures Start to use negative “not go” “s” is used for plurals Vocabulary is up to 300, may increase 2 words a day 6-7 minutes stay on activity

30 months (2 ½ years) Child has about 450 words Give their first name Uses past tense, plural and combines nouns and verbs Identify objects from a group by their function and parts (“which has wheels, which do we eat”) Verbs with “ing” endings Early concepts such as “big, little” are identified “no, not” and answer “where” questions Name at least one color Often talk during play Basic story or idea Use 3-4 word sentences Begins to understands “not” Vocab is up to 1000 Can identify items in a familiar group or category Tell their name and street

4 years Child will follow 2-3 step commands “who/why” questions 4-5 word sentences Understands and verbalizes spatial concepts more readily such as “on, under, next to…” Child will talk in the past tense correctly

5 years Child defines objects by their function Identifies spatial concepts such as “on, behind” Child uses 5-6 word sentences Child understands many opposites Use different tenses and many sentence types

6-7 years Child is developing phonological awareness skills and sound/word segmentation skills Understands time/space concepts such as “before/after, first/second/last”